Reading a low number
Sometimes the reassuring number is the one to look at twice
Hair reports what leaves the body. A metal that is being held rather than released can read low for the least reassuring reason.
This is the idea that makes the whole thing make sense. A hair tissue mineral analysis reports what has been deposited into growing hair — which is to say, in part, what the body has been moving out.
So a low figure has two possible readings. Either there is little of it present, or there is plenty present and little of it is being released.
Those are opposite situations producing the same number on the page.
In the pattern system Eileen works from, a poor eliminator pattern occurs when certain mineral levels fall into a poor or very poor eliminator range. The minerals it applies to:
The description offered for why it happens is unusually human: the pattern is associated with handling, retracing or processing an old trauma or imbalance, and is described as "akin to putting on your armor" to handle a situation or event.
Read plainly, that says the body has reasons for holding on, and the reading reflects the holding rather than the absence.
The interpretive system states the consequence flatly, and it is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing: the mineral is sequestered and cannot easily be eliminated, therefore it is present in toxic amounts. The very low level does not indicate the person lacks that mineral — it is the opposite.
The recorded causes are worth knowing because they are all readings elsewhere on the same report:
Written as trends, the way the labs write them - a direction the mineral pattern points, not a condition anyone has and not something a screening test establishes.
What makes the list useful is that none of it requires a second opinion to check. Every item is visible on the same page, so a poor eliminator reading can be weighed against whether the rest of the report agrees with it.
A report where every toxic line sits comfortably low can mean exactly what it appears to mean. It can also mean elimination is poor across the board.
The way the two are told apart is by looking at everything else — the nutrient minerals, the ratios, and what happens on a later test. A metal that appears on a retest that was not visible before has usually not just arrived; it has started moving.
That is why a rising toxic figure is not automatically bad news, and a falling one is not automatically good.
None of this is a diagnosis. A hair tissue mineral analysis is a screening test for nutritional and toxic-element patterns; it does not establish cause, and it does not measure what is in blood today.
What it can do is show a pattern over two to three months of growth and show whether that pattern is changing. Anything medical belongs with your own licensed provider.
I have learned not to congratulate anyone on a set of low toxic numbers until I have looked at the rest of the report. On its own it tells me almost nothing.
What I actually want is a second test. Patterns that move are informative; a single quiet page is not. If everything is low and the person feels unwell, the low numbers are usually the thing worth explaining, not the thing to be pleased about.
Not on its own. Hair reports in part what is being eliminated, so a low figure can mean little is present or that little is being released. The rest of the report and a later test are how the two are distinguished.
Lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, aluminum, nickel, iron, copper and manganese.
Not necessarily. A metal appearing on a later test has often started moving rather than newly arrived. It is read as a change in the pattern, and it is a conversation for the practitioner reading it.
Patterns that move over time carry more information than one page. The kit includes the laboratory collection protocol so two readings are genuinely comparable.
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.
