Reading the macro-minerals
All four electrolytes below where they should be
It is one of the more serious shapes a report can take, and there is a recognised pattern that comes before it.
A four lows pattern is calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium all reading lower than ideal — the four major electrolytes together.
Combined with a low Na/K ratio, it is characterised as a chronic stress pattern.
For reference, the ideals those four are judged against are calcium 60 mg%, magnesium 6, sodium 24 and potassium 10 on the Trace Elements set.
There is a recognised step before it, and it is defined precisely:
Three lows occurs when three of the four major electrolytes are below their ideal values and one of them is above.
It is described as indicating some degree of adrenal exhaustion, and as a person moving toward a four lows pattern. The characterisation offered is that the body is malnourished and usually quite toxic — either carrying many toxic metals, or too many nutrient minerals in a toxic form.
Three lows is noted as most common in adults, and less common though still possible in children.
The interesting part of three lows is the mineral that is high. Three below and one above is not simply "nearly four lows" — the raised one is doing something, and which one it is changes the reading.
This is the same principle that runs through the whole report: the shape of the set carries the meaning, not the individual figures. Four numbers below a line is a different statement from any one of them being low.
This is the most important thing on the page, and it is easy to miss because the pattern looks identical either way.
On an initial test, four lows indicates collapse or exhaustion. On a retest, the same pattern can be a healing reaction — unless the person is not following their program.
Two opposite readings from one shape, and what separates them is not the page in front of you. It is whether there was a page before it.
That is why a four lows result on a first test is a starting point rather than a conclusion, and why reacting hard to one report is the wrong instinct. The second test is what assigns the meaning.
The pattern is placed specifically: four lows is described as an exhaustion stage of stress, or as a slow oxidation rate followed by an alarm reaction.
That second phrasing is the one that explains the healing-reaction reading. An alarm reaction arriving after a slow phase is movement, and movement in a system that had gone quiet looks, on paper, like the levels dropping.
The trends recorded alongside it are fatigue, stress, instability and low mood, with the pattern attributed to toxicity, nutrient depletion, trauma or other stress. These are trends the mineral pattern points toward, written the way the labs write them — not conditions, and not statements about any individual.
A four lows pattern is not a diagnosis and does not name a condition. A hair tissue mineral analysis is a screening test for mineral patterns.
What the pattern gives is a recognisable shape with a recognised precursor, which makes it useful to watch across tests rather than to react to on one page. Anything medical belongs with your own licensed provider.
When I see three lows I pay attention to which mineral is the high one, because that is the part people skip past on the way to the three that are low.
And I read it as a direction rather than a destination. The pattern is described as somebody moving toward four lows, and movement is the thing a second test can actually show me.
Calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium all reading below their ideal values. Combined with a low Na/K ratio it is characterised as a chronic stress pattern.
Three of the four major electrolytes below their ideals with one above. It indicates some degree of adrenal exhaustion and a move toward a four lows pattern.
No. It is a pattern on a screening test. It does not name a condition, and anything medical belongs with your own licensed provider.
A full hair tissue mineral analysis reports all four macro-minerals with the ratios between them, which is what makes a pattern like this visible at all.
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.
