I was astonished when I plugged my latest hair test numbers into the spreadsheet I use to analyze result. But I was more than surprised, I was overjoyed-and tears began to stream down my face. That’s because I’ve been working on normalizing my mineral balance for nearly 4 years and consistently falling into the most extreme desperate mineral profiles with names like ‘extreme burnout’ and ‘tunnel of death’. Have a look at 4 years of Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis here.
Here’s how I got started with mineral balancing – first, I suspected my illness revolved around mercury toxicity after a high mercury level showed up on a DDI whole blood elements test done in 2007. Regrettably, years went by before I did my first hair test in 2013 which confirmed the high mercury. But it also showed even higher copper levels, record-breaking high copper levels in fact. For some reason, however, I focused on the mercury and started doing low-dose chelation according to Dr. Cutler’s teachings. But, I failed to heed Dr. Cutler’s warning that copper toxicity must be addressed and resolved before attempting mercury chelation.
As a result, I lost a substantial degree of vitality and gave up on the mercury chelation. However, I had not completely ignored Dr. Cutler’s writings about copper toxicity — I did start using mineral balancing principles to fight my high copper while chelating mercury. And after quitting chelation, I kept going with my copper toxicity protocol which was based on Dr. Cutler’s advice and ideas from someone who went to the Pfeiffer Treatment Center for high copper. The basics of this protocol I followed are molybdenum, zinc, vitamin B6, B5, C, E and A.
From there, I began reading Dr. Lawrence Wilson’s copious posts about copper toxicity and eventually purchased his book, Nutritional Balancing And Hair Mineral Analysis. I also paid for nutritional balancing consultations with Dr. Rick Malter (read his book too) and Morley Robbins. I’m certain that none of ‘my’ experts would be happy about me doing my own nutritional balancing without the help of a practitioner, but I didn’t want to spend the money and I’ve always felt that no practitioner could or would invest the amount of time my complex situation demanded.
Later while I began studying Dr. Wilson’s writings and doing my own research, I added S-Acetyl Glutathione, taurine, manganese and NAC. The supplements I’ve mentioned are just the copper specific supplements that I took at one time or another. Some of them I no longer take after learning how to use Autonomic Response Testing (ART) to determine which supplements help and which don’t. I’m not going into details about the supplements because the purpose of this post is not to go into specifics – mostly I want to share my experience with nutritional balancing science with a broad overview.
In addition to the supplements, I also started daily sauna which is a cornerstone therapy for high copper as studies show copper comes out in a sauna more readily than any other metal.
To what do I attribute my recent dramatic results? This is my best guess in order of importance:
- sauna
- four years of steady work with supplements that antagonize copper and eating a low copper diet
- taking a copper supplement (mitosynergy’s) as per nutritional balancing analysis of my HTMAs which always indicated toxicity and deficiency of bioavailable copper
- recent tweaks to protocol reducing zinc and increasing calcium
- digestive enzymes which contain ox bile and / or HCL
- addition of vitamin 6,000 IU vitamin D several months prior
- periodic liver flushing
- homeopathic drainage remedies and manual lymphatic massage
My latest hair test results are spectacular, but I also have to tell you that I still feel like garbage because I don’t sleep well. So I’m looking at my hair test results as a leading indicator of good things to come.
While believing deeply in nutritional balancing science, I also felt that I could not follow the rules to the letter. I could not trust that mineral balancing alone would resolve my Lyme disease, bacterial, parasitic, fungal and viral infections. At least not on the timeline I wanted. So I’ve done a little of this and a little of that. I don’t know if I’ve done the right thing, but I do know I’ve learned an awful lot this way.
What does my current hair test show that is so exciting to me? First, it shows that my four primary minerals are in balance with the exception of potassium. In balance means they are similar to what a person with abundantly good health and vitality, like an athlete’s HTMA would look like. This is a very important distinction, because when your doctor sends you for a blood test, the results that you get back compare you with average people who may or may not have any number of diseases. Is that really useful?
Note, my high potassium level is most likely a detoxification of biounavailable potassium that my body was storing.
Second, I’m detoxing arsenic out of the blue. I say out of the blue because arsenic never appeared high on any prior hair test going back four years. And this is the premise of nutritional balancing, that when your body achieves balance or I should say through the process of achieving mineral balance, your body gains the strength and the resources it needs to do its own detoxification on its own timeline.
How’s my health?
- Exercise: I now do 10 repetitions of the Tibetan Rites every morning and jump rope and do mini trampoline for 60 seconds before getting in the sauna. It’s a small beginning but helps me feel a bit more normal and mentally fit.
- Weight: I no longer eat during the night, have a flat stomach and have lost the 25 pounds of blubber I carried for years.
- Skin: I could pass for 35 to 40 years old even though I’m about to turn 50.
- Sleep: my sleep is still atrocious. I suspect it is being disrupted by the homeopathic drainage remedies and for now it’s a trade-off I’m willing to live with.
- Migraines: have not had a full-blown migraine for five months since starting treatment with my homeopath. I still get some pressure around the eye when detoxing, but it is mild and doesn’t last more than 6 to 12 hours.
- Energy: poor. I’m sleep deprived!
If mineral balancing takes five years, what’s so special about it? Funny you ask – because this is what I really want to talk about. When I was so ill that I could not walk more than a couple blocks without resting, there was no MD who could say what was wrong with me and there was no blood test that didn’t pronounce me healthy. So what value does allopathic medicine have if it cannot explain why a person is so incapacitated as to be incapable of caring for himself much less working in an office?
But if you look at my hair tests from four years ago, you (or a nutritional balancing practitioner) would know instantly that I was in extreme burnout or the death pattern. That’s quite remarkable if you think about it. It’s predictive.
When I first got ill, I made the tragic mistake of taking mineral supplements without understanding my body’s needs and how it would react to the supplements I took. So, it’s slow but accurate. And no matter how bad things are, the one thing that makes everything okay is when I feel like I’m making progress. Maybe slow, but headed for a complete recovery one day.
That’s what I want you to think about – are you taking calcium, iron or copper without knowing your status? If you are, you may be making yourself much sicker as I did. Please consider getting an HTMA and consulting with a practitioner. Mineral balancing is not at all intuitive and its complex. I don’t recommend doing it on your own.
Have a look at the raw data from my most recent test:
By the way, nutritional balancing science is so good that it has been the subject of very sophisticated attacks from the allopathic medical/pharmaceutical community. These are clearly attacks that require funding and coordination from people in power but they remain easy to see through to anyone willing to spend the time to look at the details because they are junk science.