Hair-Mineral Analysis: More Speculation Than Science

by Johannah Cornblatt

The day after Beethoven died, Ferdinand Hiller, a 15-year-old German music student, clipped a large lock of the composer's wild hair to keep as a memento. Beethoven had died too young, after going deaf in his 20s, developing severe stomach problems, and shocking friends and neighbors with his eccentric habits (like standing naked in his apartment window). For years, scientists and historians puzzled over what might have caused all of those symptoms. Ultimately, it was the 585 strands of hair—a mix of brown, silver, and white—that helped scientists unlock some of the many mysteries surrounding Beethoven's poor health. A 2000 chemical analysis of the composer's hair revealed high concentrations of lead, strong evidence that lead poisoning caused Beethoven's lifelong illness and untimely death.

Beethoven's not the only famous figure whose hair strands have helped solve historical controversies. Postmortem analyses of hair locks also shed light on the deaths of Andrew Jackson and Napoleon. But how much can hair-mineral tests tell us about the health of the living? Proponents say it can be the key to unlocking the rest of your body's problems, while critics say it's junk science dressed up with fancy equipment.

Hair testing, like soil testing, involves atomic spectroscopy, the determination of elemental composition by its mass spectrum. In other words: labs burn the sample of hair (about 200 strands are recommended) in a machine, and each mineral gives off a color. Technicians then measure the amount of each color against some "normal" benchmark to determine if the client's mineral levels lie outside the healthy range. "Hair analysis is a mineral biopsy," says Dr. Larry Wilson, a nutrition consultant who has performed and interpreted thousands of these tests. "It tells you about minerals at the level of the cells." According to Wilson, testing the hair, a soft tissue, allows us to infer what is happening in other tissues of the body. Hair-mineral analyses are screening tests, which Wilson says can play a key role in both prevention and early detection of physical and mental disorders.

An increasing number of doctors and nutritionists are encouraging patients to chop off a lock of hair for this noninvasive and relatively cheap evaluation of their health. Proponents claim that the tests, which typically cost between $75 and $100 a pop, can reveal a host of internal health problems, including nutrient deficiencies, thyroid imbalances, and toxic metal poisoning. Wilson says clients can tell if they're getting enough protein or eating too many carbohydrates, and if a vegetarian diet is working for them.

And people have been eager to embrace the technology: A study sponsored by the American Medical Association found that nearly 300,000 Americans are spending almost $10 million collectively per year on these tests.

Don't take out your scissors just yet, though. The American Medical Association opposes chemical analyses of hair, calling the practice "unproven" and stressing its potential for health-care fraud. Dr. Michael Greenberg, the president of the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, says there are numerous scientific and medical problems with the tests. Those include a lack of consistency from lab to lab, external contamination of the hair—by everything from shampoo to pollution—that can skew results, and a lack of any proof that people should rely on the tests to make health decisions. "There is no evidence that you can determine somebody's health status by analyzing their hair," he says. Practitioners might prescribe the wrong vitamins or dietary supplements in response to supposed nutrient deficiencies or, worse, subject patients to strong medications to try to remove heavy metals from the body. Those treatments can be "very harmful," Greenberg says.

There are actually "very few" toxic metals that labs can accurately measure via hair, according to Dr. Thomas Clarkson, a professor emeritus of environmental medicine at the University of Rochester. Clarkson says that hair analyses might work for detecting the presence of lead and arsenic in the body, though he wouldn't recommend the tests to anyone trying to diagnose metal poisoning. The one exception is methyl mercury, the metal we ingest in fish. Clarkson conducted a study in 2007 that confirmed that hair is a useful indicator of levels of methyl mercury in the blood and brain. Once incorporated into the hair strand, the mercury levels remain stable, providing a "historical record" along the hair strand of a person's exposure to the toxic metal.

Although hair tests might reveal something about metal poisoning while you're still alive, most health officials would tell you not to waste your money. Dr. LuAnn White, a professor of toxicology at the Tulane School of Public Health, says there's better alternative. "Why wouldn't you just want to draw blood samples?" she says. "That's so easy to do, and you get reliable results."