Calcium is structure — the mineral of bone, tone and stability. Magnesium is the regulator that keeps calcium in solution and in play. On a hair chart the two are read together as a ratio, and that ratio says more than either number alone: it describes whether the body's structural mineral is where it belongs, or drifting somewhere it does not.
At a glance: ideal Ca/Mg sits at 6.67–7 depending on the lab · the ratio is nicknamed the blood-sugar ratio · a high ratio often accompanies calcium coming out of solution · lead and cadmium can distort the pair · direction across retests matters more than one reading.
Trace Elements puts the ideal calcium/magnesium ratio at 7, with an acceptable range of roughly 3 to 11; Analytical Research Labs uses 6.67. In practice Eileen reads the range between the two labs rather than a single figure. The pair is reported in milligrams percent, and a hair sample reflects roughly the previous two to three months of growth.
When calcium rises far out of proportion to magnesium, the excess is usually not going to bone. Calcium that has lost its regulation precipitates into soft tissue, and in its larger form this becomes the calcium shell pattern — covered in detail in calcium shell on a hair analysis, which this article deliberately does not repeat. The nickname “blood-sugar ratio” comes from the same literature: markedly high or low Ca/Mg readings tend to travel with blood-sugar-related patterns, in trend language, because both minerals sit in the machinery of energy regulation.
A low ratio — magnesium high relative to calcium — is less common and often transitional. It can accompany a period of rapid mineral movement, deliberate heavy magnesium supplementation, or calcium being spent faster than it is replaced. As with the high side, one reading opens a question; the retest answers it.
Two toxic metals, lead and cadmium, displace calcium in tissue and can distort this ratio in either direction. This is one of several places where a normal-looking macro-mineral hides a metal problem — the protection-ratio arithmetic for that situation is its own subject (covered in this series' toxic-ratios article). It is also why practitioners read the whole chart, not a single celebrated ratio.
The instinct on seeing “high calcium” is satisfaction, and on seeing “low magnesium” it is to supplement magnesium's partner harder. But a distorted Ca/Mg is a regulation problem more often than a supply problem, and regulation is about the supporting cast — adrenal-supporting minerals, magnesium status, and removing whatever is displacing calcium. The hair tissue mineral analysis test is how the pattern is established in the first place, and successive tests are how you know the approach is working.
Practitioner Eileen Durfee, NBS (Nutritional Balancing Science), NASM-CPT — wellness educator, inventor with 10 U.S. and 6 international patents, author, and Nationally Certified Spinal Fitness Specialist
I began hair analysis in 2010 under ARNP Julie Walker in Kennewick, trained with Analytical Research Labs' materials — I listened to every cassette Dr. Paul Eck recorded — and signed with Dr. Larry Wilson in August 2011, practising independently since autumn 2017.
Ca/Mg is the ratio I most often see people misread on their own reports. They see calcium far above the reference and read strength; the chart is usually describing the opposite — structure leaving solution. The correction I offer is always the same: stop reading the number, read the direction across two or three tests. Direction is where the story is.
Questions about your own report are welcome — that is what the text support is for, and our Facebook group is free to join.
Make that decision with whoever oversees your programme, chart in hand. High tissue calcium changes what supplementation means, but the right move depends on the whole pattern, not one ratio.
No. Serum calcium is tightly defended and usually normal even when tissue calcium drifts. The two tests answer different questions, which is why they can disagree without contradiction.
Programmes in this tradition dose magnesium by chart and pair it with the rest of the programme rather than treating form as the main event. The selection logic belongs to the practitioner reading the whole test.
Retesting every three to five months is the standard cadence — long enough for tissue to turn over, short enough to steer by.
Published 2026-08-23 · Last updated 2026-08-23
By Eileen Durfee — hair analysis practitioner since 2010
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Hair tissue mineral analysis is a screening tool for nutritional and toxic element status, and describes trends rather than diagnoses. Your healthcare provider can help you fit any programme into a plan that suits you.
Structure is also mechanical
Minerals are one side of holding yourself up; alignment is the other. A simple at-home posture self-check is described on EileenDurfee.com, and the equipment side lives at CreatrixSolutions.com.
