HTMA: Minerals That Are Imperative to Uncovering Autoimmune Issues

August 21 2023 Vennessa McConkey

HTMA: Minerals That Are Imperative to Uncovering Autoimmune Issues

If you are in the autoimmune community for any period of time, whether you have been diagnosed or have symptoms that match up, you know that the most common autoimmune diseases in the world right now are:

Addison disease
Celiac disease - sprue (gluten-sensitive enteropathy)
Dermatomyositis
Graves disease
Hashimoto thyroiditis

And the symptoms that line up with those diseases are:

fatigue (lack of energy or motivation)
lethargy (abnormal drowsiness or tiredness)
muscle weakness
low mood (mild depression) or irritability
loss of appetite and unintentional weight loss
the need to urinate frequently
weight gain
trouble tolerating cold
joint and muscle pain
constipation or diarrhea
dry skin or dry, thinning hair
heavy or irregular menstrual periods or fertility problems
slowed heart rate
Abdominal pain

I mean, how do you fix all these and how do you know which symptoms line up with what disease when they all share a lot of these????

WHAT IF.....

Fixing the balance between minerals in your body drastically improved, if not eliminated some or all of your symptoms?

Hair tissue mineral tests are a great place to start....they don't show disease states, but shows function very well, especially thyroid function and adrenal gland function. A hair test is often a far more sensitive test than serum or other hormone tests. This means it will detect subtle thyroid imbalances, and at times, much sooner than other assessments. The hair test also offers clues as to the cause.

Let's take thyroid for example....

To test a person’s thyroid function, most doctors normally assess serum hormone levels (T4, T3, TSH) and perhaps antibody tests or other tests. However, assessing serum hormone levels is inadequate because this does not tend to -address:

- How well the hormones pass from the blood into the cells. This depends on the integrity and permeability of the cell membranes. Slow oxidizers, for example, often have reduced cell permeability, while many fast oxidizers have excessive cell permeability. - How powerfully the hormones act on the cells, once they enter the cells. The mitochondria, for example, are our cellular energy factories and require many nutrients. If even one of these is deficient or if toxic metals are excessive, thyroid hormones may not be able to do their job of increasing the metabolic rate at the cellular level.

Calcium/Potassium (Ca/K) is the ratio that indicates thyroid function. It shows a cellular effect or cellular response to thyroid hormone. The higher the Ca/K ratio on a hair test, the slower the thyroid function – this means less T3 is getting into the thyroid gland. The thyroid (AND adrenals) are the major ways people’s bodies generate energy, so when the thyroid is sluggish, energy levels drop. And I know almost everyone reading this has experienced those energy drops!

Here’s How Ca and K Relate to Thyroid Function

The thyroid regulates calcium. A well-known effect of thyroid hormones is to reduce the calcium level in the blood, and eventually in the tissues. Other factors also influence the calcium level, but thyroid hormone activity is one of the most important ones. An elevated hair calcium level is associated with a sluggish thyroid cellular effect. A low hair calcium level is associated with an excessive thyroid cellular effect. For instance, classic symptoms of hyperthyroidism (fast thyroid function) include tetany or muscle spasms, muscle tightness and muscle cramps. These are due to a low serum calcium level.

Potassium may sensitize the tissues to thyroid hormone. A low hair potassium is associated with a diminished thyroid effect, while an elevated hair potassium may be associated with an excessive thyroid effect. Combining the calcium and potassium levels provides the rationale for using the calcium/potassium ratio as the main indicator of thyroid effect or thyroid response.

Causes For Thyroid Imbalances

Low available manganese, iodine and selenium. For example, selenium is required for two steps in thyroid hormone utilization. It is involved in the deiodination reaction in the thyroid and in the conversion of T4 to T3 in the tissues.
High levels of toxic metals, especially copper, mercury and the iodine antagonists. These mineral levels are assessed on a hair mineral analysis.
Stress. This upsets the autonomic nervous system, of which the thyroid is an important part.
Impaired cell permeability. This can inhibit the passage of thyroid hormones into the cells.
Pituitary imbalances. The pituitary gland produces thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). Most of the factors above can damage the pituitary gland as well as the thyroid gland.

So in this thyroid example, even though this ratio doesn't diagnose a person with a thyroid condition (which by the way, I NEVER diagnose because I believe we all have metabolic chaos going on in our body and we need to balance the systems in our body for true healing!), we can start at the bottom and start addressing the causes of the thyroid dysfunction (which always includes the adrenals) and balance out the minerals the thyroid NEEDS to function optimally.

Minerals are needed for hundreds of chemical reactions taking place every minute in your body. Without them, those processes are slower or stop altogether. Your body then struggles and has to use backup systems to keep things working. This is when symptoms, hormone and autoimmune problems begin. A hair tissue mineral analysis reveals which minerals are out-of-balance, which body systems are struggling, and give direction on how to start rebalancing the body.

How do we do the test?

It’s pretty easy.
This is a non-invasive test using a hair sample.

- First we send you a test kit and instructions (Can be via mail or email - a form, a couple envelopes and a video how to)
- Then you take your sample and mail it in.
- We receive and review your test results and incorporate it into your nutritional protocol.

Easy peesy!

If you feel like you have tried everything and the tests the doctor runs for your yearly physical don’t actually help, then this test is a perfect next step.

Find me on social media or use the form below and we can get started!

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