Hair Analysis: What To Think About

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What To Think About

• Hair analysis has become more reliable and acceptable over the past 20 years. But there are still issues that raise legal and ethical questions about its use, including possible false positives and different results for people with different hair colors or ethnic backgrounds.
• The American Medical Association (AMA) is against the use of hair analysis to make recommendations about the need for medical treatment. The organization states that the use of hair analysis for this purpose is an unproven practice and may lead to health care fraud.
• Some natural health and homeopathic companies offer hair analysis by mail order. The reports are mailed to you along with recommendations for taking various vitamin and mineral supplements. Sometimes these same companies sell vitamin and mineral supplements.
• The significance of most of the findings from hair analysis is unclear. It is difficult to interpret a hair analysis for the presence of heavy metals without other testing. For most trace minerals, what really constitutes normal or significant deviations from normal is not known.
• Although hair analysis is being done more frequently to test for illegal drug use (such as the use of cocaine or marijuana), it is not widely available. Drug screening is more commonly done on blood or urine samples. For more information, see the medical test Toxicology Tests.

Last updated:	May 09, 2008
Author:	Jeannette Curtis
Reviewed By:	Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine, R. Steven Tharratt, MD, MPVM, FACP, FCCP - Pulmonology, Critical Care, Medical Toxicology
Editors:	Susan Van Houten, RN, BSN, MBA, Tracy Landauer