IdeaLabs Service - Mineral Analysis (hair and/or (toe)nail)

yerrag

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I think my calcium is high due to the high aluminum. I get more than 2g per day from diet. My vitamin D levels are high, and PTH is on the lower end of the range.

My iron was in range in the nail test, although it can always be lower. I have tested iron saturation multiple times in the last two or 3 years and it was always below 30%.
Sorry, your iron looks good, as I was looking at the iron/copper ratio but the high ratio was due to copper being low.

And it's not just calcium being high, but magnesium and potassium as well.

All these are electrolyte cations. I wonder why sodium isn't high as well. Maybe it's because the body conserves sodium? And wastes potassium, magnesium, and calcium over sodium, as in the case with excreting salts in urine, particularly when excreting out alkalinity from from a body ecf with excess alkalinity, and even when the body is too acidic where the intracellular hydronium (H+) ion interchanges with these alkalinic cations in blood in order to increase the alkalinity of blood, but leaving the blood with high potassium but lacking in hydronic ions.

This results in the kidneys being unable to produce ammonium NH4+ from ammonia and hydronium to form ammonium salts to excrete acidity thru urine. In place of ammonium, what is excreted are potassium or magnesium or calcium salts (which are much less effective in lowering ecf acidity as ammonium salts). E.g. potassium chloride less acidic than ammonium chloride

So the body finds ways to excrete these acidic anions (lactates, chlorides, sulfates, ketoacetates) other than thru urine ( being that it's not enough) and they end up being excreted in other organs of elimination (skin, intestines, lungs (if possible)) and failing to adequately excrete them it turns to excretion thru hair follicles and thru the nails.

I'm just theorizing and speculating here.

I wonder what is the state of your acid base balance. Do you have high serum potassium? Do you have a high heart rate that you could mistake for high metabolism but instead it is the heart muscle having to pump harder because it isn't efficient due to a low calcium ion gradient between the intracellular and extracellular, that arises from high acidity I'm the ecf?
 

tastyfood

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Understood, but.. to clarify, @tastyfood and I both used nails for our sample but have different reference ranges. A couple minerals vary by decimal points but sodium for example is significantly different. I'm wondering which is the correct reference range for nails?

Edit: In reference to your sample report in the original post, it appears my reference ranges are correct. Might be something to consider if you were chasing those metrics – most notably, copper @tastyfood ;)

Great catch!

Does my report contain typos of does something else explain it?
 

tastyfood

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Sorry, your iron looks good, as I was looking at the iron/copper ratio but the high ratio was due to copper being low.

And it's not just calcium being high, but magnesium and potassium as well.

All these are electrolyte cations. I wonder why sodium isn't high as well. Maybe it's because the body conserves sodium? And wastes potassium, magnesium, and calcium over sodium, as in the case with excreting salts in urine, particularly when excreting out alkalinity from from a body ecf with excess alkalinity, and even when the body is too acidic where the intracellular hydronium (H+) ion interchanges with these alkalinic cations in blood in order to increase the alkalinity of blood, but leaving the blood with high potassium but lacking in hydronic ions.

This results in the kidneys being unable to produce ammonium NH4+ from ammonia and hydronium to form ammonium salts to excrete acidity thru urine. In place of ammonium, what is excreted are potassium or magnesium or calcium salts (which are much less effective in lowering ecf acidity as ammonium salts). E.g. potassium chloride less acidic than ammonium chloride

So the body finds ways to excrete these acidic anions (lactates, chlorides, sulfates, ketoacetates) other than thru urine ( being that it's not enough) and they end up being excreted in other organs of elimination (skin, intestines, lungs (if possible)) and failing to adequately excrete them it turns to excretion thru hair follicles and thru the nails.

I'm just theorizing and speculating here.

I wonder what is the state of your acid base balance. Do you have high serum potassium? Do you have a high heart rate that you could mistake for high metabolism but instead it is the heart muscle having to pump harder because it isn't efficient due to a low calcium ion gradient between the intracellular and extracellular, that arises from high acidity I'm the ecf?

Thanks for theorizing and helping me understand the results. Really appreciate it.

I have a history of hypothyroidism which I think can cause me not to retain magnesium well. My lab work is that of a euthyroid or even hyperthyroid person, so this shouldn't really be happening to me anymore. I started taking 5 to 10 g of baking soda daily to see if that balances things out a bit.

I'm not too worried about the minerals because they look ok for the most part, and there is a lot of homeostasis going on. What worries me is the exposure to heavy metals, aluminum in my case. I have the feeling that the rest of the results I'll never be able to get an accurate picture for unless the aluminum isn't there. For example, every time I test for pituitary hormones including prolactin and ACTH, they are high. My ACTH was 99 once. If aluminum accumulates in the brain, that'd explain why my pituitary hormones are out of whack despite doing everything to calm the pituitary.

I've never check serum potassium, I think. My heart rate is ok, high enough in a "Peaty" way, but not in hyperthyroid territory.
 
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haidut

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Understood, but.. to clarify, @tastyfood and I both used nails for our sample but have different reference ranges. A couple minerals vary by decimal points but sodium for example is significantly different. I'm wondering which is the correct reference range for nails?

Edit: In reference to your sample report in the original post, it appears my reference ranges are correct. Might be something to consider if you were chasing those metrics – most notably, copper @tastyfood ;)

My apologies, there was a typo in the earlier reports. The ranges listed in the report for tastyfood are the correct ones. I believe those 3 elements are the only ones that had typos in the ranges, but if you find more please let me know.
Apologies again for the confusion.
 

Smitty

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My apologies, there was a typo in the earlier reports. The ranges listed in the report for tastyfood are the correct ones. I believe those 3 elements are the only ones that had typos in the ranges, but if you find more please let me know.
Apologies again for the confusion.
Thanks for clarifying! And pardon the redundancy, but this means the ranges listed in your sample report in the OP are incorrect? Everything else seems to align.
 

Smitty

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I have gotten my results back, some surprises. Would appreciate anyone's thoughts/experiences.

High Potassium is concerning given how high it is (5 times the upper range). I consume homegrown vegetables a few times a week which fertilizer was used in growing them. This might add even more potassium to them? But such a high level to me seems to indicate another issue.

In general, what could potentially cause very high potassium?

Given how high calcium actually indicates dietary calcium deficiency, would the Calcium/Potassium ratio actually be very much out of range. Anyone know of the significance of the Ca/P ratio, cant seem to find any information about it.
I also eat lots of dairy so a calcium dietary deficiency is be a surprise. Would potassium displacing calcium be something that could happen?

Very low copper is not surprising to me as I have started to get gray hairs. However I would have thought this would be in conjunction with high iron, which is not the case. Anyone with any experience with this?

Very low selenium, unsure why this is the case. I eat homegrown vegetables and from what I have read selenium is quite high in the soil here.

High antimony, probably caused by exposure to fire retardants

High mercury, now this is surprising as I rarely eat fish or seafood in general. No fillings. At a loss at what could have potentially caused this.

Anyone have any insight into elevated Bismuth, Rubidium and Strontium levels. Struggling to find anything online about these?
Unsure if you're following this post or not, but I figured I'd let you know that your copper is actually in range. There's a typo in the reference range which is supposed to be 0.42-1.7. Regarding your potassium, do you have chronic stress or have any sort of intolerance to carbohydrate consumption? There's some interesting articles I've found here and here that might be worth a read to you. I'm going to try pyrucet and see if it fixes my lack of energy, brain fog, and coldness post consumption of a higher carb meal.
 

Lejeboca

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So this means my copper levels are actually above the range, shocker.
+1 for the same shocker. But now my Na is high. Oops

I'm going to try pyrucet and see if it fixes my lack of energy, brain fog, and coldness post consumption of a higher carb meal.
Just stumbled on the thread about benefits of eugenol for brain fog/Al neurotoxicity : Eugenol: Helps Reduce Loss Of Dopamine / Protects From Aluminum / Neuro-protective & Anti-stress

Independently, I use cloves daily (for dental issues). My Al is highish (4.5) and incidentally, I do not have brain fog. Might it be eugenol from cloves helping?
 
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haidut

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Thanks for clarifying! And pardon the redundancy, but this means the ranges listed in your sample report in the OP are incorrect? Everything else seems to align.

It is only 3 elements that are affected - Na, K, and Cu and it is only their lower bounds that had typos in the decimal point. Actually, top limit of Na also had a small drop. Everything else is correct and the typos don't affect the reported ratios in the top right side of the report since those are based on the absolute values of the elements detected, not on their ranges.
 
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haidut

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This is what I interpreted. Yes.

Only the lower end of the ranges for Na, K, and Cu has a typo in the decimal point, and the upper limit for Na dropped a bit. All other ranges are correct, including the ratios reported in the top right corner, as those depend on the actual values of element detected in the sample and not their ranges.
 

Smitty

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tastyfood

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I've been making some milk with powdered clove (crushed in a mortar). Clove looks promising for its high eugenol content.
 

Lejeboca

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I do indeed supplement with a substantial quantity of D3, around 10k daily in the form of drops - dissolved in MCT oil. I do weigh around 100kg so I don't consider this amount excessive.

If you are taking it orally, then it might be too much/problem with respect to increased intestinal absorption of toxic metals (e.g., Pb and Al). I've just now posted in the following post in a different thread on RPF not to clog up here. Also @tastyfood and @Smitty .

Is Vitamin D Supplementation Even Necessary


EDIT: P.S. I've stopped my supplementation with D3 for now, until the next test at least. Will report if there are any changes. [Since it is spring-summer now, I am trying to get enough on my skin only.]
 
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iPeat

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For some reason I wasn't receiving notifications from this thread. I asked Peat this a few weeks ago:

Me: "Hello, Dr. Peat. Do you have any ideas on how someone with high levels of Beryllium in their body could get rid of it? All I can find are scientific articles discussing the use of pharmaceutical chelators and corticosteroids."

Dr. Peat: "The chelators in orange juice and grape juice seem to lack the toxic effects of some of the industrial chelators."

My report came back with multiple heavy metals way above range, but Beryllium was the highest so that's why I asked about it.
 

TheSir

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@haidut What kind of equipment is required to perform hair mineral analysis and could a regular consumer ever hope to afford them?
 
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haidut

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@haidut What kind of equipment is required to perform hair mineral analysis and could a regular consumer ever hope to afford them?

It is a machine that can do this process below.

They are not cheap, so I don't think a single person can afford to do it at home, and not only because of cost but because of the technical knowledge required to run it. Most people who use such machines are chemists who know how to process a sample with various chemicals in order to make it suitable for ICP-MS analysis. I think the training to use the machine lasts couple of months and assumes solid knowledge of chemistry.
 

TheSir

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It is a machine that can do this process below.

They are not cheap, so I don't think a single person can afford to do it at home, and not only because of cost but because of the technical knowledge required to run it. Most people who use such machines are chemists who know how to process a sample with various chemicals in order to make it suitable for ICP-MS analysis. I think the training to use the machine lasts couple of months and assumes solid knowledge of chemistry.
"The typical price of a new ICP mass spec costs in the range of $50,000 - $500,000, whereas a used ICP-MS ranges in price from $15,000 - $150,000".

Ah, that's a little too steep. Thanks for the reply.
 
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haidut

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"The typical price of a new ICP mass spec costs in the range of $50,000 - $500,000, whereas a used ICP-MS ranges in price from $15,000 - $150,000".

Ah, that's a little too steep. Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, needless to say we don't own one either but are renting it by the hour from an organization when they are not using it.
 

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