Three-Test Direction
One ratio on three charts: the direction of calcium against magnesium
The pattern workbook reads a Ca/Mg ratio that worsens or improves across three successive tests as a direction. ARL's bands set what counts as worse or better, and ARL's retest documents record what moves the ratio between tests.
The pattern workbook Eileen reads charts against defines a progressive worsening or improvement of the calcium/magnesium (Ca/Mg) ratio across three successive tests. A ratio that worsens across three tests is read as a lifestyle factor that has not been dealt with and now carries more weight. A ratio that slowly improves is read as a lifestyle imbalance being handled.
Three tests at a 3 to 5 month interval span about 6 to 10 months from the first sample to the third. The ideal is 6.67 at Analytical Research Labs (ARL) and 7 at Trace Elements, Inc. (2010), so it publishes as 6.67 to 7. ARL's figure is its level ideals divided: calcium 40 mg% over magnesium 6 mg%.
ARL calls Ca/Mg the blood-sugar ratio. Calcium is required for the release of insulin from the pancreas, magnesium inhibits insulin secretion, and magnesium keeps calcium in solution. Trace Elements reads the ratio the same way from its side: a high Ca/Mg indicates increased insulin secretion and a low Ca/Mg reduced insulin secretion. Its insulin threshold moved over time, from above 12 in 1988 to above 13 to 14 in 1993 and 2004, and above 30 in severe cases.
| Ca/Mg | ARL trend |
|---|---|
| Above 12 | Diabetes trend |
| 10 to 12 | Hypoglycemia trend |
| 6.67 to 10 | Good |
| 6.67 | Ideal |
| 3.3 to 6.67 | Good |
| 3 to 3.3 | Hypoglycemia trend |
| Below 3 | Diabetes trend |
ARL's Fatigue document lists a Ca/Mg below 3.3 or above 10 among its six hair indicators of fatigue, as carbohydrate intolerance. Trace Elements' acceptable range is 3 to 11 (2010), and ARL's range in the pattern report Eileen issues is 4.5 to 8.5.
Direction is read as distance from the ideal on either side, because both ends of the ratio carry the same blood-sugar trends. A move from 12 to 9 is an improvement, and so is a move from 2.5 to 4. A move from 5 to 2 is a worsening even though the number fell.
ARL's Hair Analysis and the New Nutrition records a 35-year-old man tested seven times over 18 months. His Ca/Mg moved from 14 to 9.9 and then to the ideal. His sodium/potassium (Na/K) ratio, under 1 at the start, eventually showed no inversion for the first time. Between tests he went through repeated releases of lead, mercury, cadmium, copper and nickel, and his oxidation type moved from slow to fast to slow to mixed.
In that record the Ca/Mg improved in sequence while the oxidation type changed three times. ARL's glossary gives the principle: on successive tests, different layers of metabolism are revealed, so one test cannot show the whole picture.
ARL lists the causes of an imbalanced Ca/Mg when diet is not the explanation. Hidden carbohydrate: added sugar, cornstarch, barley malt, flour and fructose in packaged foods, starchy vegetables, fruit juices, and alcoholic and soft drinks. Stress: cortisol raises blood sugar and reduces sugar tolerance, and cortisol releases calcium from bone, raising tissue calcium. A secondary effect of the Na/K ratio, which ARL also calls a blood-sugar ratio. Zinc, taurine and vitamin B6 deficiency, all synergistic with magnesium. Lead and cadmium, which displace calcium from bone.
ARL's correction order: where both Ca/Mg and Na/K are low, a double inversion, the Na/K is corrected first. As it improves, the Ca/Mg often improves too, and the two ratios may alternate in their improvement over a period of months. An alternation of that kind spans more than two tests.
Three effects move Ca/Mg on a retest without any change in diet. First, calcium or magnesium loss raises that level temporarily (ARL). Second, tissue breakdown releases magnesium, an intracellular mineral, and lowers the ratio: in an ARL case history the Ca/Mg fell from 13.2 to 1.8 on a four-month retest while magnesium rose from 5 to 31 mg%. Third, the pattern workbook records that a body eliminating bio-unavailable calcium through the hair produces a falsely elevated Ca/Mg on a retest.
ARL adds that cortisone therapy lowers calcium and raises both sodium and potassium, which moves the Ca/Mg and the oxidation rate together.
A hair tissue mineral analysis is a screening test for nutritional and toxic-element patterns. It reports mineral levels in milligrams percent (mg%) and the ratios between them, and it measures soft tissue rather than blood. Each reading averages roughly 2 to 3 months of hair growth, and samples are analyzed unwashed, because washing removes over 90% of the sodium and potassium in hair (Trace Elements). Where the laboratory literature describes a trend, that trend belongs to the mineral pattern rather than to any person reading about it.
The three Ca/Mg values come first, each measured as its distance from 6.67 to 7, then whether that distance shrank or grew from the first test to the third. Each value is also placed in its ARL band.
Next: the Na/K ratio on the same three tests against 2.4 to 2.5, because the two ratios can alternate, and the magnesium level, because a magnesium rise from tissue breakdown lowers the ratio.
The pattern workbook reads it as a lifestyle factor that has not been dealt with. A ratio that slowly improves over three tests is read as a lifestyle imbalance being handled.
Only if it moves toward 6.67 to 7. A ratio falling from 12 to 9 moves toward the ideal; a ratio falling from 5 to 2 moves away from it.
Tissue breakdown releases magnesium and lowers the ratio, and elimination of bio-unavailable calcium can raise it, without any change in diet.
ARL records that the Ca/Mg and Na/K ratios may alternate in their improvement over months, so a direction is set across successive tests.
Each hair tissue mineral analysis reports calcium, magnesium and the Ca/Mg ratio, so a series of retests shows the direction the ratio is moving.
Published 2026-10-18 · Updated 2026-10-18
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. This article is for educational purposes only. Wellness Shopping Online is operated by Nuco Enterprise Solutions LLC.
