My old HTMA results. Anybody knows how to read this?

[Motif]

Would be great if you could help me!
first of all my symptoms:
histamine into which leads to seborrhoic eczema, dermatitis , hair loss.

-running thoughts/ bad concentration

-chronic tight neck/ shoulders / back for 20 years

-myopic

Blood tests always showed pretty low zinc copper and ceruloplasmin.

if somebody could give me advices on diets, supplements etc would be awesome!

 

[Motif]

@mmb82
@Fisherman94

you guys maybe ?

 

[Motif]

Any experiences with htma ?
what’s your opinion on it ?

 

[mmb82]

Sorry about not posting sooner. I don't log in often.

Were you taking any supplements 3 - 6 months before this test? What does your diet look like?

Notes:
- You have high calcium levels, low boron levels, and normal magnesium levels (on the lower end). My guess is that you likely have some issues with calcium metabolism. This is likely part of the cause of your chronic muscle tightness in your neck, back, and shoulders.
- You have low molybdenum and low sulfur. Molybdenum is important in the body’s metabolism of sulfur and in the transport of iron, and copper. You likely have a molybdenum deficiency. If you choose to supplement, do not go overboard with this mineral. For sulfur, you can try eating more sulfur-rich foods like eggs, garlic, onions, and cruciferous veggies and see how it makes you feel.
- Your zinc levels are super high. If your blood levels of zinc are low, it's because it's all coming out through your hair. I don't know why you would not be retaining zinc, but my guess is you were supplementing zinc?
- Your selenium is also very high. I am assuming you were supplementing selenium? If you take too much selenium, you can lower your thyroid function.

 

[Motif]

Sorry about not posting sooner. I don't log in often.

Were you taking any supplements 3 - 6 months before this test? What does your diet look like?

Notes:
- You have high calcium levels, low boron levels, and normal magnesium levels (on the lower end). My guess is that you likely have some issues with calcium metabolism. This is likely part of the cause of your chronic muscle tightness in your neck, back, and shoulders.
- You have low molybdenum and low sulfur. Molybdenum is important in the body’s metabolism of sulfur and in the transport of iron, and copper. You likely have a molybdenum deficiency. If you choose to supplement, do not go overboard with this mineral. For sulfur, you can try eating more sulfur-rich foods like eggs, garlic, onions, and cruciferous veggies and see how it makes you feel.
- Your zinc levels are super high. If your blood levels of zinc are low, it's because it's all coming out through your hair. I don't know why you would not be retaining zinc, but my guess is you were supplementing zinc?
- Your selenium is also very high. I am assuming you were supplementing selenium? If you take too much selenium, you can lower your thyroid function.

Glad you answered, thanks!

i can’t remember what supplements I took, but zinc is for sure. But yeah, even after taking zinc for months- I stopped taking it one week before blood tests and it comes back as low again.

i don’t think I took selenium. But I took a lot of experimental stuff back then.


do you have other diet advices? Ditch dairy then, because of calcium? Can getting not enough potassium cause high calcium?

should I do blood tests of some nutrients to get a better picture?

Btw, here another thread . Maybe you can help. It still didn’t improve since then.

My symptoms got so much worse since adding Liver, Oysters and Cacao! What could I do?

I added liver two times a week for two weeks, cacao everyday, some oysters and then my scalp issues got so unbelievable bad like not I years. I stopped all that days ago, but no improvement at all. was the copper too much? Blood tests always show low zinc , copper and Ceruloplasmin. What could...

raypeatforum.com

 

[mmb82]

Again, it would be helpful to know what you are currently eating.

I always had high calcium levels. I got my first HTMA in 2013 and my calcium was way off the charts. I did not retest after 2014 until 2018, which was after years of doing my interpretation of Peating. Things that I think made my issue worse was taking eggshell calcium early on in my Peat days, drinking at least 2 cups of milk daily, eating cheeses, taking supplemental vitamin D, eating liver, eating a lot of carotenoids even though they were "Peaty", like the carrot salad, papaya, mango, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, etc.

I have since resolved a lot my calcium-related issues after about 1.5 - 2 years of (I hate to say it) eating a low vitamin A diet, despite that I avoided dairy for about a year before going low vitamin A, i.e. I don't think just not eating dairy will solve your issue. Other things that I think were key for me was stopping all oral and topical vitamin D, upping my magnesium intake (mostly topically), taking high doses of vitamin K2 for about a year, drinking chanca piedra, supplementing boron, and working on general liver health.

Similar to you, I now also have low zinc, low copper, and low ceruloplasmin. This happened to me around the same time my calcium issues got better (about 1.5 years of low vitamin A). I think getting rid of the excess vitamin A in my liver drained my zinc. My copper went with it. I am currently experimenting with taking a higher dose of zinc to see if it will bring up my zinc levels and take my copper back up with it.

Useful blood tests are zinc, copper, and ceruloplasmin, but you already got those. An iron panel can be useful, but if you don't suspect iron issues, it is likely not worth the cost. Other than that, useful blood tests, in my opinion, would not really be for testing minerals, but other things like PTH, prolactin, liver enzymes, etc.

In general, I am hesitant to provide specific recommendations. If you have the money, I would go work with someone who does HTMA to help you out, not asking me since I am not trained in any of this. I have been working with Dr. Smith since 2018 and he can guide you on what blood tests to get, what doses of what minerals to take, and dietary changes you can implement. If you want to go at it alone, a starting point would probably be to look at what you are deficient in (molybdenum and boron) and experiment with supplementation there. However, you should retest in about 6 months after starting any supplements to make sure you are dosing properly. You can also try some of the things that helped me, which I outlined above.

 

[Motif]

Again, it would be helpful to know what you are currently eating.

I always had high calcium levels. I got my first HTMA in 2013 and my calcium was way off the charts. I did not retest after 2014 until 2018, which was after years of doing my interpretation of Peating. Things that I think made my issue worse was taking eggshell calcium early on in my Peat days, drinking at least 2 cups of milk daily, eating cheeses, taking supplemental vitamin D, eating liver, eating a lot of carotenoids even though they were "Peaty", like the carrot salad, papaya, mango, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, etc.

I have since resolved a lot my calcium-related issues after about 1.5 - 2 years of (I hate to say it) eating a low vitamin A diet, despite that I avoided dairy for about a year before going low vitamin A, i.e. I don't think just not eating dairy will solve your issue. Other things that I think were key for me was stopping all oral and topical vitamin D, upping my magnesium intake (mostly topically), taking high doses of vitamin K2 for about a year, drinking chanca piedra, supplementing boron, and working on general liver health.

Similar to you, I now also have low zinc, low copper, and low ceruloplasmin. This happened to me around the same time my calcium issues got better (about 1.5 years of low vitamin A). I think getting rid of the excess vitamin A in my liver drained my zinc. My copper went with it. I am currently experimenting with taking a higher dose of zinc to see if it will bring up my zinc levels and take my copper back up with it.

Useful blood tests are zinc, copper, and ceruloplasmin, but you already got those. An iron panel can be useful, but if you don't suspect iron issues, it is likely not worth the cost. Other than that, useful blood tests, in my opinion, would not really be for testing minerals, but other things like PTH, prolactin, liver enzymes, etc.

In general, I am hesitant to provide specific recommendations. If you have the money, I would go work with someone who does HTMA to help you out, not asking me since I am not trained in any of this. I have been working with Dr. Smith since 2018 and he can guide you on what blood tests to get, what doses of what minerals to take, and dietary changes you can implement. If you want to go at it alone, a starting point would probably be to look at what you are deficient in (molybdenum and boron) and experiment with supplementation there. However, you should retest in about 6 months after starting any supplements to make sure you are dosing properly. You can also try some of the things that helped me, which I outlined above.

very interesting, thanks!
i will look for somebody who is an expert on this.

what I would be very interested in is what you’re diet right now is looking with no dairy ?
how much protein and calories do you get per day ?
would be great if you could list up what you’re doing eating usual

 

[Mito]

Mineral and Vitamin Relationships Guide - Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis - Hair Test Experts

There are key mineral to mineral and vitamin to mineral relationships that impact each other and normal body functions. Minerals must be in proper balance to maintain optimum functions in the body.

www.htmaexperts.com

 

[mmb82]

Why are you obsessed with having dairy in your diet as a source of protein? Do you not eat meat?

I am a 31 year old 5'2" female weighing about 100 pounds. According to cronometer, I eat ~2100 calories and ~80g of protein daily (on average). I exercise daily, doing a combination of kettlebells and powerlifting throughout the week.

I will not share details about what I eat in a day only because I have asked you what you eat and you have yet to inform me. You seem to ignore that in my last two posts. Obviously you eat dairy, but that gives me very limited information about your diet.

 

[Motif]

Sorry for ignoring, but i don’t have a real diet rühr now. Before my symptoms even got worse I was eating 200 g cottage cheese, 200 g apple sauce , about one liter apple juice , 1 L milk, meet like chicken and pork mostly. Eggs, rice, mozzarella , vegetables like broccoli , carrots , cauliflower etc and when I then started to add liver 2 times a week , cacao everyday and some oysters for a few days my symptoms got so bad.

i think I was overdoing copper with not enough zinc and vitamin c.
I have histamine issues and it’s Hard to find out what to eat

and i always struggled with eating a lot. I somehow can eat mashy stuff better but not when it’s too dry and drinking calories is more for me

@mmb82

 

[mmb82]

Meat causes issues for you though? Have you tried collagen powder or gelatin? Potatoes are a good source of protein as well, apparently, according to Peat.

In general, I start out my day with easily digested food. I don't eat anything until at least two hours after waking up. I stick to water, herbal tea, coconut water, fruit juice, and coffee (with 2 Tsbp of honey) for the first 2-3 hours (or longer) of being awake. My first solid food of the day is fruit (examples are kiwi, bananas, apples, dates, pomegranate, strawberries, cherries).

For "lunch", I'll have some fat, typically 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup of shredded coconut or macadamia nuts. Sometimes I have an ounce of 100% cocoa instead. When I get home from work, I have a coffee with collagen powder and 1-2 tbsp of MCT oil. This is before I exercise, so it is extra calories that digest quickly, i.e. it provides energy for my training without interfering with exercise.

After I exercise, I eat dinner, which is typically starch. I usually go with rice (a mix of white rice with either brown or wild rice), some onion, and 8 oz of mushrooms. I use rice vinegar or tamari to give more flavor and twice a week I add about 2 tbsp of natto to my rice. If I don't do rice, then it is usually oatmeal.

I don't really eat meat during the week. If I eat meat, it is usually because I got invited somewhere for lunch or dinner on the weekend or ordered a steak at a restaurant. I usually stick to beef, but don't mind lean chicken once in a while. Other foods I eat less often (probably once a week), but still include in my diet are cauliflower, potatoes, lentils, sauerkraut, radishes, cucumber, pickles, and molasses. Even less often (every couple months maybe), I'll have egg whites, beans, popcorn, or root vegetables like parsnip, turnip, rutabaga, or celery root.

As you can see, I don't get loads of protein. Most of it (20g/day) probably comes from collagen powder. I also don't get a ton of fat...I probably average about 45 g of fat each day. I feel best getting most of my calories from carbohydrates. My macros are probably 20% fat, 10% protein, and 70% carbs.

 

[Motif]

Thanks, that’s interesting. 70 % carbs. I will try to experiment with the macros a bit. I will give this kind of diet a try and watch how i feel on it.
The way I was eating before was just not it

 

[qwazy]

Just so that you are aware; hair mineral analysis rarely detects heavy metal problems. People with heavy metal problems are often poor detoxifiers which leads to low heavy metal results in the hair. They need a provocation test, best with DMPS (ignore Cutler).

Histamine, seborrheic eczema, dermatitis , hair loss, running thoughts/bad concentration sounds like candida to me. Stool tests are rarely picking this one up. Get a urine arabitol test and possibly a good stool test to see what else is there.

How is your stomach acid/digestion?

 

[Motif]

How is your stomach acid/digestion?

Not that good.

 

[mmb82]

If your stomach acid is low, sticking to mostly easily digested foods should make your life easier as you heal your digestion.

If you suspect candida like qwazy suggested you might have, you can search the forum for more information. Some of the posts mention doing a salt water flush or using castor oil + turpentine to clean out the small intestine and colon. If you have yeast, it will show up in your stool after either of these. If you have SIBO, you will feel much better for a couple of days after clearing yourself out.

Neither is a long term solution, however. If you have low stomach acid and other issues, the yeast and/or SIBO will keep coming back until you correct the underlying problem.