werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner) (08/27/85)
Commercial hair analysis is commonly used by certain practitioners of 'natural' healing to diagnose of variety of ailments. It's true medical uses are in fact limited to certain heavy metal overdoses (lead, selenium, arsenic) It is also limited by the fact that it is more likely to tell about the patient's shampoo than the patient's health. And since the hair takes a long time to grow, it is far inferior to a blood test for assesing status. In a study appearing in the August 23 1985 JAMA, Stephen Barrett, MD, sent hair samples from two healthy teenagers to 13 commercial hair analysis laboratories. To summarize: none reported back the same results. Excuse, the numbers were the same, however, the levels set by each lab were not standardized. What one lab called low, another called a toxic overdose, etc. There were other discprepancies. One lab called Selenium a vital nutrient, another called it a toxic mineral. One lab, while finding no single mineral level high, reported abnormally high total toxins (total of what I do not know). One pattern was clear. All but one lab made claims that the report labeled 'immodest.' I'll label it deceitful and fraudulent. One report said the sample demonstrated a "excessive tendency to neuromuscular disorder." One report listed 27 abnormalities, including depression, goiter, gout, uremia, heart disease headaches, and craving for sugar and alcohol. Wow. Half of the labs recommended supplements, most bizarre mixtures of vitamins, enzymes, nonessential food substances and whatnot. The average number was 6, the range from 1 to 11. (This would explain why a lot of referrals to these places comes from Vitamin salesmen.) None of the conditions predicted by the labs existed in the patients whose hair was tested. These were two healthy teenage girls. No two labs agreed completely anyway. The report concluded that hair analysis as described is UNSCIENTIFIC, ECONOMICALLY WASTEFUL, and PROBABLY ILLEGAL, and they recommended an FTC injunction against it (which it recently did). (TJS may call the last part 'discrimination.' At $40-70 per useless hair analysis, I called it consumer protection ! ) -- Craig Werner !philabs!aecom!werner "The world is just a straight man for you sometimes"