Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA)
Our Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA), conducted through Trace Elements Lab (TEI), provides a comprehensive 3-month snapshot of your metabolic health using just a 1-inch scalp hair sample from the root near your scalp. This non-invasive test reveals critical information about heavy metal exposure and essential nutritional element levels that impact your energy levels, adrenal and thyroid function, digestion and absorption, nervous system response and stress coping capacity, mood stability, mental health, and more.
The HTMA can often help reveal toxins that are impairing your health, including unwanted contaminants in well water, copper pipes, long-term birth control use, smoking, industrial or occupational exposure to toxic metals, and more. This simple test assess levels of more than 30+ different elements, including essential minerals like calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, iron, trace elements like manganese, boron, heavy metals, and more.
Once you purchase the HTMA, we will mail you a test kit with clear instructions for cutting the hair sample. After collecting your hair sample, simply mail it to the lab using the included pre-paid envelope. When the results are ready, we will schedule a 1-hour consultation to review your results in detail and develop a personalized protocol to address any imbalances identified.
This test is an excellent starting point for optimizing your health and well-being. For chronic or complex concerns, I recommend pairing an HTMA with blood work, a DUTCH urine hormone test, a MycoTox urine test (if mold is suspected), and/or an OAT (organic acids) urine test.
Together, these give a more complete picture, as the HTMA reflects trends over time (~3 months), while blood, OAT, and DUTCH show what’s happening right now. To learn more about our comprehensive functional medicine lab testing & interpretation services beyond HTMA, click here.
It is recommended to retest within 3-5 months to monitor how the minerals move and adjust your protocol. This ensures that the recommended supplements do not cause further imbalance when taken long-term. To make it easier to stay consistent, we offer 2-test HTMA + 2 x 1-hour consultation packages for $499 (a savings for $78, cost for single test with 1-hour consultation $289). Please reach out via our contact form or log in to your Practice Better portal to purchase a single-test or double-test package.
Here are several examples of possible patterns that can occur on an HTMA:
