Persistent Four Lows
Calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium below ideal on two tests in a row
The pattern workbook counts four lows on consecutive tests as a separate pattern, interprets it differently on a first test and a retest, and records that stress lengthens the time it takes to complete.
The pattern workbook Eileen reads charts against names four lows that continues on a retest as its own pattern. Four lows is calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium all below ideal. On an initial test, the workbook reads the persistent pattern as a poor-health trend; on a retest, it reads it as a pattern that needs more time to complete. It records that stress can lengthen the time needed to complete a four lows pattern.
Analytical Research Labs (ARL) gives the numeric definition from its level ideals: calcium below 40, magnesium below 6, sodium below 25 and potassium below 10 mg%. Trace Elements, Inc.'s ideals are calcium 60 mg% (since 2008), magnesium 6, sodium 24 and potassium 10 mg%. A calcium between 40 and 60 mg% therefore reads below the Trace Elements ideal and above ARL's, so whether a chart repeats four lows can depend on which calcium ideal it is read against.
ARL's All-Four-Low document (1987) names the pattern, alongside extreme copper toxicity, as one of the most difficult mineral patterns to devise a nutritional correction program for. It gives two reasons: an inability to adequately cope with stress, and tissue reservoirs depleted of calcium and magnesium for an extended period.
The same document states that "all-four-lows are exhausted fast oxidizers": people who were probably once fast oxidizers and whose adrenal activity fell under severe, prolonged stress, so that sodium and potassium dropped below normal. Normally a fall in sodium and potassium makes calcium and magnesium rise as a buffer against further stress. In four lows that buffering does not occur: calcium and magnesium stay below their ideals beside the low sodium and potassium. ARL records a fatigue trend that is worse at rest, and an allergy trend almost invariably.
ARL's material gives the time scales. Mild adrenal insufficiency corrects in a matter of months and long-standing cases in several years. ARL's burnout document gives one to five years for complete recovery. Its retest document gives at least a year or two of retesting to uncover deeper, hidden toxic metals, and several years for general wellness goals. A four lows pattern on two tests 3 to 5 months apart falls inside all of those spans.
ARL's All-Four-Low document adds two program observations: four lows cases can seldom handle a large supplement program, because extra products over-stimulate the adrenals, and the first effect of giving calcium, magnesium and zinc is sometimes a temporary increase in fatigue, usually followed by an increase in energy.
ARL's glossary names a reason a pattern can hold across tests: "Sometimes a person's psychological make-up will keep him in a mineral pattern, in spite of nutrient therapy." ARL calls this psychological override. The same glossary gives the layers of metabolism principle: on successive tests, different layers of metabolism are revealed, so it is not possible to understand a person's entire health condition from one hair test.
ARL's children's case history records that emotional difficulties at home can significantly slow progress in rebalancing body chemistry, which matches the workbook's note that stress lengthens the pattern.
ARL's Hair Analysis and the New Nutrition records that toxic metals often do not appear on a first chart, because there is insufficient adrenal activity to eliminate them. A repeat four lows chart is therefore read for metals that were absent on the first test. The workbook's poor eliminator reading applies too: it lists three lows and four lows among the causes of an extremely low toxic-metal reading, which indicates a sequestered metal rather than an absent one. The low toxic metal reading article covers that range.
ARL's children's document records a sequence under stress: fast oxidation with a sodium/potassium (Na/K) ratio of about 2.5; then fast oxidation with an Na/K below 2.5; then slow oxidation, where calcium and magnesium rise and sodium and potassium fall; then the four lows pattern. The Na/K ideal is 2.4 (Trace Elements) to 2.5 (ARL).
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.
All four macrominerals come first on both tests: calcium against 40 to 60 mg%, magnesium against 6, sodium against 24 to 25 and potassium against 10. Each level is compared with its own earlier value in mg%, so a repeat that is deeper is separated from a repeat that is shallower.
Next: the Na/K ratio against 2.4 to 2.5, and any toxic metal not seen on the earlier chart. The third test follows 3 to 5 months later.
The pattern workbook reads it as a poor-health trend on an initial test and as a pattern that needs more time on a retest, and records that stress lengthens it.
ARL names it one of the two most difficult patterns to correct, citing an inability to cope with stress and calcium and magnesium reserves depleted for an extended period.
Yes. ARL's calcium ideal is 40 mg% and Trace Elements' is 60 mg%, so a calcium between the two reads low on one lab's ideal and not the other.
ARL gives months for mild adrenal insufficiency, several years for long-standing cases, and one to five years for complete recovery from burnout.
Each hair tissue mineral analysis reports calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium with the Na/K ratio and the toxic metals, which are the readings that show whether four lows is deepening or easing.
Published 2026-10-23 · Updated 2026-10-23
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.
