Fast Rate, Metals Up
Cadmium and nickel on a fast chart: metals raising the rate, or a rate releasing metals
Analytical Research Labs records that several toxic metals raise the sodium reading, and also that a faster rate eliminates metals faster. A fast chart with high metals carries both readings.
The pattern workbook Eileen reads charts against defines a fast rate driven by toxic metals: certain metals, including cadmium, nickel, aluminum, iron and manganese, build up in the body and cause a faster oxidation rate as a secondary effect of their presence.
The fast criteria are a calcium/potassium (Ca/K) ratio below 4 to 4.2 and a sodium/magnesium (Na/Mg) ratio above 4 to 4.17, spanning Analytical Research Labs (ARL) at 4 and 4.17 and Trace Elements, Inc. at 4.2 and 4 (2010 set).
ARL's Ratios document records that cadmium, mercury, copper, iron and nickel all elevate sodium, and at times aluminum and manganese, so adrenal function may actually be low while the Na/Mg ratio reads adequate. Its instruction is to look at every chart for the presence of these metals when evaluating the adrenal ratio.
ARL describes cadmium as aldosterone-like: it raises sodium, favors fast oxidation, lowers calcium and lowers copper. Cadmium displaces zinc in over 70 enzyme systems. Cadmium can raise the zinc reading. Copper elevates sodium and depresses potassium, and ARL records that the copper may be present even when the hair copper level is low or normal. Mercury raises sodium through sodium retention at the kidney. Nickel raises sodium and is stored mainly in the kidneys and lungs. Iron raises sodium and often rises together with aluminum.
Sodium is the numerator of Na/Mg, so every sodium-raising metal lifts the adrenal ratio. For cadmium, both ratios move toward the fast criteria: the raised sodium lifts Na/Mg, and cadmium's lowering of calcium, the numerator of Ca/K, lowers the thyroid ratio.
Copper runs differently on the thyroid ratio. Copper depresses potassium, the denominator of Ca/K, which raises Ca/K toward the slow side, while its sodium effect lifts Na/Mg toward the fast side. ARL's hidden-copper indicators include potassium below 4 mg% and calcium above about 80 mg%, the readings a high Ca/K is built from. The potassium ideal is 10 mg% at both labs.
ARL's children's document records a second relationship: the faster the oxidation rate, the more the body is able to eliminate toxic metals, so high toxic metal readings in a fast oxidizer can indicate that elimination is proceeding rapidly. Slow oxidizers also carry metals but cannot mobilize them, so the metals are often not revealed on the first or even the second hair analysis. ARL's Retests document states that higher toxic metals usually mean active elimination rather than a worsening of toxicity.
A fast chart with elevated metals therefore has two recorded readings: metals raising the sodium reading and with it the rate, or a fast rate releasing metals into the hair. The workbook pattern is the first; ARL's children's material describes the second. The previous test and the next one show which way the metals and the rate moved.
ARL's cadmium sequence describes a slow oxidizer with excess cadmium: the oxidation rate rises at the start of a program; cadmium then begins to be eliminated; its aldosterone-like sodium support is withdrawn; sodium drops and the rate slows. ARL records that this repeats until the cadmium is eliminated. Cadmium's half-life in the body is 17 to 30 years.
During the elimination ARL records an occasional transient rise in hair sodium from the kidney effect, and an Na/K ratio that may temporarily rise as cadmium stresses the kidneys on the way out. ARL's Retests document describes the general case: a chart whose toxic metals had temporarily balanced the oxidation rate can read very slow or very fast once those metals start leaving.
| Element | Trace Elements upper limit, ideal or ratio | Year noted |
|---|---|---|
| Cadmium | Below 0.04 mg%; zinc/cadmium (Zn/Cd) at least 500 to 1 | Zn/Cd the same in 1993 and 2010 |
| Mercury | Below 0.10 mg%; zinc/mercury at least 200 to 1; iron/mercury at least 22 to 1 | Iron/mercury 28 to 1 in 1993, 22 to 1 in 2010 |
| Nickel | Ideal 0.20 mg% | 2010 set |
| Iron | Ideal 2.2 mg% | 2.8 mg% in 1985-1993 |
| Copper | Ideal 2.5 mg%; zinc/copper (Zn/Cu) 8 to 1, the same at ARL | 2010 set |
Trace Elements judges each toxic metal against the nutrient that antagonizes it; the toxic ratios article covers those ratios in full.
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. Each mineral reading reflects roughly 2 to 3 months of hair growth. Where the laboratory literature describes a trend, that trend belongs to the mineral pattern rather than to any person reading about it.
On a fast chart, the cadmium, mercury, copper, iron and nickel lines come before the Na/Mg ratio, because each raises the sodium reading. Then the Zn/Cd ratio against 500 and the zinc level, and potassium against 10 mg% for the copper effect on Ca/K.
Last, the previous and next tests, 3 to 5 months apart, show whether the metals and the rate rose together, or the metals rose while the rate held.
ARL records that cadmium raises the sodium reading, which lifts Na/Mg, and lowers calcium, which lowers Ca/K, so both shifts run toward the fast criteria. Mercury, copper, iron and nickel also raise sodium; copper also depresses potassium, which raises Ca/K.
No. ARL records that a faster rate eliminates metals faster, so high readings in a fast oxidizer can indicate elimination in progress.
ARL records that sodium drops and the oxidation rate slows as cadmium's sodium support is withdrawn, repeating until the cadmium is eliminated.
Zinc/cadmium, with a Trace Elements minimum of 500 to 1.
A full hair tissue mineral analysis reports cadmium, mercury, copper, iron and nickel beside the Ca/K, Na/Mg and Zn/Cd ratios, which are the readings that separate a metal-raised rate from a fast rate releasing metals.
Published 2026-10-14 · Updated 2026-10-14
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. Wellness Shopping Online is operated by Nuco Enterprise Solutions LLC.
