Thyroid activity has four stages in the Analytical Research Labs (ARL) model: the hormone is produced, released, absorbed into the cells and used inside the mitochondria to make energy, and a standard blood panel measures the first two. A hair tissue mineral screening at Spinal Fitness Health and Wellness Center, 214 E. Albany Ave, Building E101, Kennewick, WA 99336, reads the cellular end result of those stages through a calcium-to-potassium ratio, the reading behind a search for thyroid symptoms after a normal blood test in Kennewick.
Hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) is a tissue test: each reading is an average rate of mineral accumulation over roughly two to three months, and the chart is read as ratios rather than single levels. ARL and Trace Elements Inc. (TEI) both publish the calcium/potassium ratio as the thyroid ratio, graded as a trend in bands.
Why a blood panel and a tissue reading can disagree
T4, T3 and TSH report circulating hormone and the pituitary signal, the production and release stages. Absorption, the third stage, depends on cell-membrane permeability: in ARL’s four-stage account, calcium and magnesium held in a bio-unavailable form over-stabilize the membrane and slow hormone transport into the cell, with hair calcium above 50 mg% and magnesium above about 9 mg% given as the markers. Utilization, the fourth stage, is the conversion of T4 to T3 inside the mitochondria, where potassium sensitizes the cell to the hormone.
The ARL ratios document states the mismatch directly: the thyroid ratio “does not always correlate with blood thyroid tests because hair analysis is a tissue test,” and blood tests are often normal while the hair chart carries a reduced-thyroid trend. David Watts of TEI gives the sampling reason: serum levels fluctuate from moment to moment with diurnal rhythm and exercise, and serum minerals are maintained at the expense of tissue levels, reflecting extracellular activity only.
The ratio the labs call the thyroid ratio
The thyroid ratio is hair calcium divided by hair potassium. ARL sets the ideal at 4:1 and TEI at 4.2:1, so the working ideal is the 4 to 4.2 band, and the ideal levels behind it are calcium 40 mg% and potassium 10 mg% on ARL’s unwashed-hair scale. Paul Eck chose the pair for two mechanical reasons: thyroid hormone lowers tissue calcium, so an elevated hair calcium reads as a sluggish cellular thyroid effect, and potassium sensitizes tissue to the hormone, so a low hair potassium reads the same way. In the labs’ words the ratio measures the end result of the hormone’s activity on the cells, not the hormone level.
On the ARL trend table a ratio of 4 to 8 is a mild reduced-thyroid trend, 8 to 16 moderate, 16 to 32 sluggish and above 32 severe, with labeled energy loss from 10 to 25 percent in the first band to more than 75 percent in the last; below the ideal, 2 to 4 is a mild increased-thyroid trend, 1 to 2 moderate and under 1 excessive. The separate ARL thyroid paper reserves the word sluggish for a ratio above 16:1, so a reading in the 4 to 8 band is common.
What the screening involves at our Kennewick center
The sample is scalp hair, cut close to the scalp, about 250 milligrams, unwashed, and it goes to the lab from here; ARL’s ratios apply only to unwashed hair because laboratory washing lowers the water-soluble sodium and potassium erratically. Our HTMA lab testing article covers collection and turnaround. The returned chart is read as a whole, on the ARL system principle that single readings in isolation mislead: the thyroid ratio sits beside the adrenal ratio (sodium to magnesium, ideal 4.0 to 4.17), the calcium and potassium levels themselves, manganese, which ARL holds is needed to synthesize thyroxine from iodine and tyrosine, and the toxic metals, since lead interferes with calcium metabolism and mercury and copper lower thyroid activity. A hair test is not a thyroid test; the thyroid ratio is read inside the whole pattern.
Eileen Durfee reviews the report. Eileen holds a NBS (Nutritional Balancing Science) degree, earned through Dr. Larry Wilson’s program beginning in 2011, and has practiced independently since autumn 2017. She has worked with hair tissue mineral analysis since 2010.
The symptoms people bring in, as the labs list them
ARL’s ratios document lists the reduced-thyroid trend as a tendency to gain weight, cold hands and feet, lack of sweating, fatigue, dry skin and dry hair, and a tendency toward constipation; the increased-thyroid trend lists excessive sweating, hyperactivity and irritability, nervousness, oily hair and skin, and frequent bowel movements during stress. Copper complicates the list: in the ARL thyroid paper copper lowers potassium and thyroid activity while zinc raises both, and elevated tissue copper also stimulates the biogenic amines, producing sweating and other markers of an overactive gland, so one chart can carry both trends.
Broda Barnes’s waking-temperature check is recorded in the same paper: an oral or underarm reading taken on waking, before getting out of bed, with a temperature below 97.6 degrees Fahrenheit on several consecutive mornings read as a low-thyroid trend. Watts’ TEI pattern for the same trend adds calcium/phosphorus above 2.63, calcium/magnesium possibly above 7.1, sodium/magnesium below 4.0 and copper frequently above 2.5 mg%.
The scope of the screening
It screens mineral and toxic-metal patterns and is not a medical verdict. Watts states the method’s limits himself: a low hair level indicates a deficiency, a normal level does not rule one out, the reliable confirmation is the response to nutritional correction over time, ratios outweigh single levels, and the TEI observations are not from controlled studies. Nothing on a hair chart is a reason to start, stop or change a thyroid prescription; that decision sits with the prescribing provider, and Spinal Fitness is a wellness center.
Booking a screening
Screenings are by appointment. Call or text 509-670-9713 and ask for the hair analysis; the published price is $270 on both the website and the Google Business Profile. The center is at 214 East Albany Avenue, Building E101, in Kennewick, serving Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, West Richland, Benton City and Walla Walla. Lab testing in the Tri-Cities explains how this screening differs from the other tests offered here.
The center publishes its own counts for this address: 300 clients, more than 2,000 sessions completed, 15 or more years of experience, and more than ten therapies offered.
For the ratio arithmetic in full, the WellnessShoppingOnline article on the calcium/potassium ratio works through the numbers, and Eileen’s own account of the thermometer beside her bed covers the waking-temperature record.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Hair tissue mineral analysis is a screening for nutritional and toxic-element patterns; it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Spinal Fitness Health and Wellness Center is a wellness facility; please consult your own licensed provider regarding any medical question, and never change a prescribed medication on the basis of a screening.
