A forensic test of ~35 minerals and toxic metals stored in hair — a stable three-month record of how your body uses, stores, and excretes nutrients. The same analytical technology used in environmental forensics.
Hair is a metabolically active tissue. As it grows it locks in a record of the minerals circulating in your body. ARL Laboratories vaporises a small sample in a mass spectrometer — counting individual atoms — to produce a parts-per-million readout of ~35 elements. The pattern tells us what your tissues have absorbed, held onto, and excreted over the last three months.
Blood tests show what's circulating right now. Hair shows what's been tucked into tissue. They answer different questions — and tissue patterns are often where the real story is.
HTMA rests on three independent foundations — biology, methodology, interpretation. Each has decades of literature behind it.
Unlike blood (tightly homeostatically regulated), hair stores a moving average of mineral activity. Minerals deposited into the keratin matrix don't migrate back out — the hair you cut today is a faithful record of the last 90+ days.
Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry — the same tech used to analyse soil, water, and pharmaceuticals at parts-per-billion. ARL has refined its HTMA methodology since 1974 across over a million samples, with standardised washing, calibration, and QC on every batch.
The most clinically useful information isn't the absolute level of any one mineral — it's the ratio between key pairs. Calcium-to-magnesium tells one story; sodium-to-potassium another; zinc-to-copper another. Decades of practice have refined which ratios matter most.
Every report includes the same standardised panel — full picture every time.
Each element is measured against an established reference range. The interpretive value comes from how they sit relative to one another — not from any single high or low result.
Toxic metals are reported regardless of detection — a "below limit" result is itself useful.
Hair grows ~1cm/month. We test the ~3cm closest to the scalp — capturing the previous three months of active mineral deposition.
A single calcium reading tells you little. The relationship between calcium and magnesium tells you a lot. Four ratios that drive most clinical decisions:
Elevated Ca:Mg is the most common pattern in clients reporting "tired but wired", poor sleep onset, and stress-driven sugar cravings. Magnesium burns through faster under sustained stress, leaving calcium relatively dominant in tissue.
Na:K patterns may reflect adrenal output and cellular energy trends. A low ratio is sometimes seen alongside fatigue, low motivation, and reduced resilience. Trends in this ratio can be slow to shift but often respond well to nutritional support. These are nutritional patterns, not diagnostic findings — symptoms that persist should be reviewed by your GP.
Zinc and copper compete biologically. A copper-dominant pattern is sometimes seen alongside hormonal imbalance signals, postnatal mood changes, and skin/hair concerns. Supporting this ratio nutritionally is one of the more reliable areas where HTMA-guided guidance shows trends over time.
Ca:P patterns may be associated with metabolic-rate trends. A higher ratio is sometimes seen alongside cold intolerance, weight stickiness, and morning sluggishness; a lower ratio sometimes alongside anxiety, sweating, and weight-loss difficulty. These are nutritional pattern observations, not diagnoses of thyroid or metabolic disease — your GP is the right person to investigate any clinical concern.
Here's what HTMA does not do — clearly stated, up front.
If any of the above is a deal-breaker, that's useful information — HTMA may not be the right test. We'd rather you not order than order under a misunderstanding.
Two short primers from Gary Moller. Quick reads, no email required.
Most clients start with HTMA Baseline + Progress Analysis — two tests, full practitioner support, the strongest signal we offer. The HTMA Baseline Analysis is the single-test entry point.