Emily came to us three years ago struggling with severe fatigue. She was crippled by myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disorder. One of her most difficult symptoms was fatigue. She was also trying to get pregnant and was concerned about how long it was taking.

The three most common complaints I hear in my office are: "I am tired," "I’m struggling with brain fog and fatigue," or "I’m struggling with weight gain."

After 10 years of practice and 20 years of studying integrative medicine, I've concluded that the single factor that will make or break an individual’s metabolism, energy levels, and cognitive function is minerals.

Why?

In our office, we began testing hair mineral levels over two years ago and haven't looked back. We started to see new patterns in the hair that we didn't see in the blood. We were able to safely use higher doses of minerals in patients, achieving better and better results.

Emily was one of the first patients whose hair we tested for minerals. Her first test was fairly unremarkable to the untrained eye. Several minerals were low, and she had no significant elevations in heavy metals.

But her results were far from unremarkable. Over a period of 18 months, she went from being infertile, fatigued, and frequently hospitalized with myasthenia gravis to being symptom-free, full of energy, and pregnant.

How?

Her second test showed a 40-fold increase in aluminum, a three-fold increase in mercury, and a five-fold increase in copper. This indicated that her body was mobilizing and eliminating these metals from her cells, where they had been trapped. Emily gave birth to her first child this past Fourth of July.

I've seen the right minerals banish fatigue, brain fog, unwanted pounds, and more—all within a matter of weeks.

How is this possible?

Minerals are the "spark plugs of life," according to Henry Schroeder, MD/PhD, one of the great pioneers of mineral biology. When your body performs tasks, such as transforming a glucose molecule into smaller molecules to create energy, it does so with the help of enzymes. Most enzymes require minerals to function. Imagine the enzyme is like a power tool, and the mineral is the drill bit or saw blade. The power tool is useless without the right mineral.

Alzheimer's disease, autism, allergies, autoimmunity, cardiovascular disease, and more have all been linked to mineral deficiencies and, moreover, heavy metal toxicity. Heavy metals like aluminum, arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium all compete with minerals for the active sites in enzymes. They prevent enzymes from working while damaging your cellular machinery by producing harmful free radicals.

This is why hair tissue mineral analysis has become our standard for measuring minerals in the body. Most practitioners do not understand hair tissue mineral analysis, which is why you may have never heard of it or may have heard that it isn't that useful.

Far from it. Once you understand how to interpret the levels of minerals and metals in the hair, a comprehensive treatment plan can be developed for optimizing mineral levels in the body and maximizing the excretion of toxic heavy metals.

This is why we offer hair tissue mineral analysis at my medical practice, sometimes as often as quarterly, to our patients. We rely on this test to guide our supplement recommendations, with profound results.

Emily is just one example of how mineral analysis is changing lives. We test hair minerals in every patient, largely because of cases like Emily’s.

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