Watts, Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, 1990
From 800 to 1,000 mg without a response to 400 mg, in Watts' illustration
David Watts of Trace Elements recorded that a calcium dose doubled or tripled can bring relief that relapses on reduction, with the requirement rising over time. In his illustration, adjusting calcium's synergists and antagonists could bring the requirement down to 400 mg.
David L. Watts of Trace Elements, Inc. used the term "nutritional roulette" for single-nutrient megadosing in "Nutrient Interrelationships: Minerals, Vitamins, Endocrines," published in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, First Quarter 1990, Volume 5, Number 1, with 60 references. His argument is that a very large dose of one mineral or vitamin is a pharmacological act rather than a nutritional one: it interferes with the utilization of another nutrient and becomes an antivitamin or an antimineral.
The paper's opening premise is that a mineral cannot be affected without affecting at least two other minerals, each of which then affects two others. Its closing position is that absolute mineral deficiencies are rare today while relative deficiency states are common.
Watts' worked example is a patient with calcium-deficiency symptoms who did not respond to 800 to 1,000 mg of calcium per day. The usual next step is to double or triple the dose. He recorded that symptoms may improve at the higher dose, that reducing it brings an almost immediate return of symptoms, and that the dosage requirement usually increases with time rather than decreasing.
The alternative he gives is to change calcium's synergists and antagonists instead of the calcium: add vitamin D, magnesium or copper, and reduce vitamin E, vitamin A, potassium, and foods high in phytic and oxalic acid. On that basis, he recorded, the patient may respond to only 400 mg of calcium per day, less than half of the dose that had failed.
The second example in the 1990 paper runs through vitamins E, A and D. Excessive vitamin E produces signs similar to a vitamin A deficiency. Supplementing vitamin A then counteracts the vitamin E, and eventually produces a vitamin D deficiency, because vitamins A and D are mutually antagonistic. Watts' correction is to reduce the vitamin E intake.
Excess vitamin D increases calcium absorption and lowers magnesium and potassium retention. Excess vitamin A increases calcium loss. Excess vitamin C produces a copper deficiency, and because copper is needed to use iron, iron then accumulates in storage tissue. Watts associates excess vitamin C with marginal copper status with a bone-density trend and a reduced immune-response trend.
Watts sorts mineral interactions into four types. Absorptive antagonism: high calcium intake depresses intestinal zinc absorption, and excess zinc depresses copper absorption. Metabolic antagonism: displacement between zinc and copper, cadmium and zinc, iron and copper, and calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. Deficiency permitting toxicity: small cadmium intakes accumulate when zinc is marginal, and lead accumulates when calcium or iron is insufficient.
The fourth type is an excess producing a deficiency that permits a third excess: excess zinc lowers copper, which lets iron build up in storage tissue, and manganese interferes with magnesium, which lets sodium and potassium accumulate. A doubled dose of one nutrient acts through this fourth type: the nutrient's antagonists fall, and the minerals those antagonists were holding in check rise.
Watts' zinc paper (Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, 1988) records a case of 300 mg of zinc per day taken for about two years. The hair test then read zinc at 12 mg%, below the 20 mg% ideal, and copper at 0.5 mg%, against a 2.5 mg% ideal. The zinc/copper (Zn/Cu) ratio was 24 to 1, three times the ideal of 8 to 1 that both labs publish, so zinc read high relative to copper while its absolute level read low.
The same paper records that prolonged excess zinc produces deficiencies of chromium, copper, iron and manganese. On the Analytical Research Labs (ARL) trend table, a Zn/Cu above 16 is a severe copper deficiency or copper biounavailability trend.
Watts separates an absolute deficiency, in which a mineral reads frankly low, from a relative deficiency, in which it reads within range but low against an antagonist, such as a normal zinc with a low Zn/Cu or a low zinc/cadmium (Zn/Cd) ratio. For a relative deficiency the requirement may be several times the minimum daily requirement, and the symptoms of the same deficiency can differ or invert by type. He closes with R. K. Chandra's point that overnutrition as well as undernutrition alters immune responsiveness, especially in trace mineral nutrition, where too much of an element can be as detrimental as too little.
For that reason the hair-test literature reads ratios before levels. Watts wrote that mineral ratio determinations are of greater importance than individual levels alone. Paul Eck at ARL stated the same rule from the practice side: "I rarely give a mineral to raise that same mineral." ARL records that its supplement counts are calculated and titratable, set by the oxidation rate and the ratios on the chart.
| Nutrient not responding | Synergists Watts lists to add | Antagonists Watts lists to reduce |
|---|---|---|
| Calcium at 800 to 1,000 mg per day | Vitamin D, magnesium, copper | Vitamin E, vitamin A, potassium, phytate and oxalate foods |
| Vitamin A signs from excess vitamin E | None listed | Vitamin E |
| Copper low against zinc after 300 mg zinc per day | Copper | Zinc |
Each row is read from the same hair chart: the calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc levels, and the calcium/magnesium (Ca/Mg) and Zn/Cu ratios. The Ca/Mg ideal is 6.67 (ARL) to 7 (Trace Elements, 2010), and the calcium/phosphorus (Ca/P) ideal is 2.5 (ARL) to 2.6 (Trace Elements, 2010).
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.
When a supplement has not produced a change, the ratios around that mineral come before its level: for calcium, the Ca/Mg ratio against 6.67 to 7 and the Ca/P ratio against 2.5 to 2.6; for zinc, the Zn/Cu ratio against 8.
Next come the antagonists on the same chart, then the next test 3 to 5 months later, since each reading averages about 2 to 3 months of hair growth.
Watts recorded that doubling or tripling a calcium dose may bring relief that relapses when the dose is reduced, with the requirement rising over time. In his illustration, with the synergists and antagonists adjusted, the patient may respond to only 400 mg per day.
Watts' term, in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine in 1990, for single-nutrient megadosing, in which a large dose of one nutrient interferes with the use of another.
Watts listed vitamin D, magnesium and copper as calcium synergists, and vitamin E, vitamin A, potassium, and foods high in phytic and oxalic acid as calcium antagonists.
As a level within range that reads low against its antagonist, such as a normal zinc with a low Zn/Cu or Zn/Cd ratio.
A full hair tissue mineral analysis reports each mineral beside its synergists and antagonists, including the Ca/Mg, Ca/P and Zn/Cu ratios Watts read before changing a dose.
Published 2026-10-12 · Updated 2026-10-12
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.
