The inverse shape
The same two ratios, pointing the other way
Where one shape dips in the middle, this one rises. The criteria are numeric and unusually clean.
The hill has the tidiest definition of any pattern in the set:
Ca/Mg ratio less than 4.5, and Na/K ratio above 4.5.
Both conditions, together. It is the geometric inverse of the bowl — where the bowl has a high Ca/Mg against a low Na/K, the hill has a low Ca/Mg against a high Na/K, and the plotted line rises in the middle instead of dipping.
Something unusual is recorded about this one, and it is worth stating plainly: there are no specific symptoms associated with the hill pattern.
The workbook goes further — a person often is not aware of the pattern at all. It is classed among the favorable patterns, and where it appears it may accompany a subtle improvement rather than an obvious one.
The honest qualifier belongs here too: physical or other symptoms may still be present when this pattern appears. A favorable shape on one part of the report does not overrule the rest of it.
As with the bowl, the movement and the state are named separately.
Hilling occurs when a person moves toward the hill on a retest — a lower Ca/Mg ratio and a higher Na/K ratio than before. Again both, and again the direction matters more than the absolute figures.
A persistent hill is the same criteria — Ca/Mg under 4.5, Na/K above 4.5 — present on two or more successive reports. One test shows a shape. Two shows it is holding.
This two-test rule runs through the whole pattern system. A single report is a snapshot; the pattern is what survives the retest.
Because the bowl and the hill are built from the same two ratios, a report can only be one of them, and the boundary is numeric rather than a matter of interpretation.
That makes the pair genuinely useful. Two numbers you can read off the page settle which shape you are looking at, and the shape frames everything else — the oxidation rate, the macromineral levels, and whether a compensated reading is masking movement underneath.
A hair tissue mineral analysis is a screening test for nutritional and toxic-element patterns. It does not diagnose, it does not establish a cause, and it does not measure what is circulating in blood today. Where the laboratory literature describes a trend, that trend belongs to the mineral pattern rather than to any person reading about it. Anything medical belongs with your own licensed provider.
I like the hill because it is one of the few places on the report where the criteria leave no room to argue. Under 4.5 and over 4.5. You either have it or you do not.
What I will not do is read one favorable shape as a verdict on the whole report. I have seen a clean hill sitting above macrominerals that were nowhere near where they should be. The shape was real and so was everything under it.
A calcium/magnesium ratio less than 4.5 together with a sodium/potassium ratio above 4.5.
Geometrically yes. Both are built from the same two ratios; the bowl has a high Ca/Mg against a low Na/K and the hill has the reverse.
None specific are associated with it, and a person often is not aware of it. Other symptoms may still be present, because one favorable shape does not describe the whole report.
The same criteria present on two or more successive lab reports.
A full hair tissue mineral analysis reports both ratios, so which shape a report carries is something you can read rather than infer.
Published 2026-08-30 · Updated 2026-08-30
By Eileen Durfee — Practitioner, NBS (Nutritional Balancing Science), NASM-CPT; wellness educator, inventor and author.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Hair tissue mineral analysis is a screening test and is not diagnostic; anything medical belongs with your own licensed provider. Wellness Shopping Online is operated by Nuco Enterprise Solutions LLC.
