Deep Four Lows
All four macrominerals below ideal, with sodium further down than potassium
The pattern workbook defines deep four lows as the four lows pattern combined with a low sodium/potassium ratio, and classes it as a chronic stress pattern. Inside four lows, a low ratio means sodium has fallen further than potassium.
The pattern workbook Eileen reads charts against defines deep four lows as a four lows pattern, with calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium all below ideal, combined with a low sodium/potassium (Na/K) ratio. It classes the combination as a chronic stress pattern. Analytical Research Labs (ARL) sets the four lows cutoffs at calcium below 40, magnesium below 6, sodium below 25 and potassium below 10 mg%, and calls an Na/K below 2.5 an inversion. Trace Elements, Inc. places the Na/K ideal at 2.4, so the ratio cutoff publishes as 2.4 to 2.5.
ARL's All-Four-Low document itself uses 2.3 as its inversion line, while ARL's other documents use 2.5. The workbook keeps a deeper pattern separate: four lows with an Na/K below 1.
Four lows sets every level below its ideal, but it does not fix the ratio between sodium and potassium. A sodium of 20 mg% with potassium at 5 mg% is four lows with an Na/K of 4. Sodium at 10 mg% against potassium at 8 mg% gives 1.25. An Na/K below 2.5 on ARL's ideals means sodium sits further below its 25 mg% ideal, in proportion, than potassium sits below its 10 mg% ideal.
ARL pairs sodium with aldosterone and potassium with cortisol and cortisone, so the ratio reads the balance between those adrenal cortical hormones.
ARL's Adrenal Insufficiency document lists five hair indicators: sodium below 25 mg%, potassium below 10 mg%, an Na/K below 2.5, a sodium/magnesium (Na/Mg) ratio below 4.17, and a calcium/potassium (Ca/K) ratio above 10. ARL reads them as a count: the more present, the greater the evidence. Deep four lows meets the first three, sodium below 25 mg%, potassium below 10 mg% and Na/K below 2.5, by its own definition. The remaining two depend on magnesium and calcium: the Na/Mg against 4 to 4.17, and the Ca/K against 10.
ARL's Stress Document reads an Na/K below 2.5 as the resistance stage, in fast or slow oxidation, and places exhaustion at a very slow oxidation rate or an Na/K below 2.0; a continuing drop in the ratio indicates a profound exhaustion. ARL's All-Four-Low document describes four lows as exhausted fast oxidation, in which calcium and magnesium did not rise to buffer the fall in sodium and potassium.
Trace Elements' 2020 metabolic-type paper describes Fast Type 3 with a low Na/K, a low Na/Mg and a low Ca/K as a chronic resistance stage or the beginning of the exhaustion stage, and Fast Type 4 as the burnout pattern in which both adrenal and thyroid activity are reduced. The workbook counts four lows as a sympathetic dominance pattern, and reads low potassium with an Na/K under 2.5 as sympathetic dominance on low reserves; deep four lows meets both readings. The sympathetic dominance article covers the criteria, including the Ca/Mg over 9.5 that reinforces it.
ARL's allergy document lists three hair patterns, and deep four lows carries two of them by definition: an Na/K below 2.5, which ARL calls the burnout pattern, and the four lows pattern, which allergies "usually accompany". The third is sodium below 6 mg% with potassium below 4 mg%. ARL's All-Four-Low document records an allergy trend almost invariably in four lows, particularly with a concurrent high copper or a sodium/potassium inversion.
Of the six hair indicators of fatigue in ARL's Fatigue document, deep four lows meets two by definition: an Na/K below 2.5, at which fatigue is always present to some degree, and the four-low-electrolyte pattern. ARL records a fatigue trend in four lows that is worse at rest.
ARL lists its hidden copper indicators as copper below 1.0 to 1.1 mg%, potassium below 3 to 4 mg%, calcium above 80 mg%, a Ca/K above 30 and an Na/K below 2. In deep four lows, the potassium and Na/K indicators can both be present, so the copper level is read even when it sits inside its range. The Zn/Cu ratio, ideal 8 at both labs, reads copper against zinc on the same chart.
| Reading | Deep four lows | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium | Below 40, 6, 25 and 10 mg% (ARL ideals) | ARL; pattern workbook |
| Na/K | Below 2.4 to 2.5 | Pattern workbook; ARL; Trace Elements |
| ARL adrenal indicators | Three of five met by definition | ARL, Adrenal Insufficiency |
| ARL allergy patterns | Two of three met by definition | ARL, Allergy |
| ARL fatigue indicators | Two of six met by definition | ARL, Fatigue (1993) |
| Na/K below 2 | Hidden copper indicator | ARL |
Each row is a trend on the mineral pattern. The four lows article covers the base pattern.
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 four levels come first: calcium against 40 to 60 mg%, magnesium against 6, sodium against 24 to 25 and potassium against 10. Then the Na/K against 2.4 to 2.5, with each of the two levels measured as a share of its own ideal to show which has fallen further.
Next: Na/Mg (ideal 4 to 4.17) and Ca/K (indicator line 10), which complete ARL's adrenal count, then copper and the Zn/Cu ratio against 8.
The four lows pattern, with calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium all below ideal, combined with a sodium/potassium ratio below 2.4 to 2.5.
Yes. Sodium and potassium can both be low while the ratio between them reads near or above 2.5. A low ratio means sodium has fallen further than potassium.
Three of five by definition: sodium below 25 mg%, potassium below 10 mg% and an Na/K below 2.5.
ARL lists an Na/K below 2 and potassium below 3 to 4 mg% among its hidden copper indicators, and both can be present in deep four lows.
A full hair tissue mineral analysis reports calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium with the Na/K, Na/Mg, Ca/K and Zn/Cu ratios, which together separate deep four lows from the base pattern.
Published 2026-10-24 · Updated 2026-10-24
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.
