METABOLIC TYPING

By Lawrence Wilson, MD

© June 2008, The Center For Development

Assessing a person’s metabolic type is an amazingly helpful method of improving success in correcting body chemistry. This article outlines the reasons why it is a basic measurement that we use in our nutritional and metabolic assessment of every client. Before we begin, however, let us examine why there are metabolic types in the first place.

CAUSES OF AUTONOMIC IMBALANCE

The metabolic type is a concept that has been known for literally thousands of years. It is basic to the human being, in other words. It was practiced by early Chinese and Taoist physicians, who called the two basic metabolic types yin and yang.

It was used by early Ayurvedic physicians in India, also thousands of years ago. More recently, relatively, Hippocrates and other Greek and Roman physicians identified what they called body types or morphogenic types with names like phlegmatic, melancholic, ruddy, adrenal types, thyroid types and many other names. With this introduction, let us examine some of the causes of the metabolic type.

Mental and physical makeup The deepest cause of this is the differences between our temperaments and makeup. Some are more physical, while others are more emotional or mental or spiritual beings. This, alone, causes differences in our glandular function and body shapes, for example.

Diet. Some are forced to live on meats and fat, such as the Eskimo people. Others, living in tropical areas, must eat fruit and sugary foods that grow in these areas. Over generations, body types emerge that are better suited to one area or another.

Another cause is what we might call development. Some are more developed mentally, while others stay rather undeveloped in this area and are stuck, one might say, at a physial or emotional level of development.

Age. We find that all of us begin life as fast oxidizers or more yang. This is why babies need certain foods and not others, for example. It is not just that milk is what their mothers produce. It is that milk balances their chemistry, while it is not the perfect food for many adults.

Diseases. Another cause for metabolic types are the diseases of mankind. Some diseases slow the metabolic rate, while others irritate the tissues such as infections and some toxic metals. These lead one to a faster metabolism, for example, at least for a while.

Autonomic Dominance. This is a behavioral and mental reason for the types. The autonomic balance is critical for health. See our article for more information titled How To Maintain A Healthy Nervous System.

Autonomic dominance is the tendency of the person to either overuse the sympathetic nervous system or to conserve their energy. In many cases, this is a personality trait. However, it may be influenced by genetic and congenital imbalances, toxic metals and early life traumas. Daily diet and life style usually play a lesser role and are more a result than a cause of one’s autonomic dominant type.

Some clincians, notably Dr. William Kelley and his protégé, William Wolcott, differentiate between the oxidation type and antonomic type. However, Dr. Paul Eck and I do not distinguish which is more important for a patient, the metabolic state or one’s autonomic dominance.

Both can be important and both may be related to biochemical or emotional imbalances. Both need to be addressed for best results. We can address both with the properly performed hair mineral analysis, although at times I like Dr. Kelley’s method even better, but not too often.

Climate And Other Factors. A final reason for the metabolic types has to do with the climate and other earth forces. Some soils are magnetic or radioactive and this may influence the people that live in these areas. Other soils and areas are colder, hotter, wetter, drier and so forth. There are other factors at times, such as one’s mood, even, but there are among the most important determinants of the metabolic types.

MODERN BIOCHEMICAL TYPES

We have already mentioned the ancient metabolic typing systems such as yin and yang, still used in acupuncture, jin shin jyutsu and macrobiotics, for example. Now let us discuss some of the more modern Western biochemical typing systems used for metabolic assessment. These include:

1. Fast and slow oxidizers were first proposed by Dr. George Watson, author of Nutrition and Your Mind. He divided people into fast and slow oxidizers based on their response to odor testing. He later correlated this with blood pH and CO2 levels. The blood of fast oxidizers tended to be slightly more acidic.

Dr. Watson theorized that the types were based on one’s relative ability to handle carbohydrates in the glycolysis cycle and fats in the krebs cycle. He also identified another metabolic type he called sub-oxidizers.

The reader will find the slow and fast oxidizer concept is close to the ancient oriental concept of yin and yang. For much more about this critical concept, read our article on this site entitled Yin and Yang.

2. Sympathetic and parasympathetic were researched extensively by Melvin Page, DDS, author of Degeneration-Regeneration. He used the calcium/phosphorus ratio in the blood along with body measurements for his assessment.

His system had many similarities with the oxidation type concept above, but he approached the subject differently and used very low dose hormone extracts to balance his patients. He had excellent success with his method, though the assessment was very cumbersome as he had to measure the thickness of the limbs of the patient. It was also a very incomplete system, as we will see.

3. Alarm, resistance and exhaustion are the stages of stress according to Dr. Hans Selye, MD. His revolutionary stress theory of disease has yet to be appreciated by most medical researchers and practitioners.

Dr. Selye carefully identified the characteristics of animals that were continuously exposed to shocks and found that the animals all passed through three stages of stress before they died. He believed, based on this, that all organisms respond to stress in predetermined ways. This theory is a gigantic breakthrough that helps explain many diseases. However, he was not successful in popularizing it because measuring the stages is not that easy.

4. Anabolic and catabolic metabolic types were proposed by Dr. Emmanuel Revicci, MD. He was a rather amazing physician who did excellent cancer research in New York City during the twentieth century and just died recently.

Dr. Revicci used selenium and certain fatty acids to cure cancer and evolved a complex theory concerning whether a person’s metabolism tended to be overactive or anabolic or underactive or catabolic.

5. Blood types. This is a much-vaunted concept that bases everything on one’s genetic blood types. According to Dr. James D’adamo, ND, author of Eat right For Your Type, one’s blood type will dictate the best diet and other lifestyle choices. While some doctors still use this idea, I have found it of limited usefulness.

One part of the theory that holds up well in my experience, however, is that those with blood type O have the most difficulty maintaining their health on a vegetarian diet.

Unlike all the biochemical concepts above, this one is genetially-based, which means one cannot change it. This is good in some ways, and is similar to the modern genetic research that claims we are “stuck” with our genes. However, my experience is that we can change our metabolic type or stage of stress. So this is a slightly different concept in this regard as well.

SYNTHESIS OF THESE CONCEPTS AND MORE

Dr. Paul C. Eck, a mineral researcher who lived from about 1928 to 1996, studied all the modern and some of the ancient systems mentioned above. He then attempted to synthesize them and was quite successful.

Fast Oxidation is an Alarm Stage of Stress. For example, he asserted that an alarm stage of stress (the fight-or-flight response) is a sympathetic state. It also tends to correspond to a fast oxidizer. This is not too hard to understand. All are characterized by excessive activity of the thyroid and adrenal glands and a hyper-alert state of the nervous system.

Slower Oxidation and Resistance Stage of Stress. As stress continues, the thyroid and adrenal glands begin to “burn out” and one goes into the resistance stage of stress. The oxidation rate begins to slow and the body begins to move from a sympathetic to an unhealthy parasympathetic state. The latter occurs not because one chooses it, but because the sympathetic system becomes depleted of nutrients and can no longer function correctly.

Slow Oxidation and Exhaustion Stage of Stress. Continued stress results in an exhaustion stage of stress. This corresponds to a very slow oxidizer and an unhealthy parasympathetic state. Thyroid and adrenal activity are low. Symptoms may include fatigue, allergies, low blood sugar, weight gain and many others.

This is the basic correlation of these concepts. Dr. Eck used hair mineral analysis for his assessment of metabolic type. He tried to find ways to correlate a patient’s symptoms and the metabolic typing concepts with the readings on the hair mineral test.

After much experimentation, he found that certain mineral ratios were more reliable as the indicator for the oxidation type and stage of stress. It was a much better way to do it than simply using mineral levels, for example. I will now discuss these basic correlations on a hair mineral analysis.

HAIR TISSUE MINERAL ANALYSIS

To assess oxidation rate, Dr. Eck made use of the ratios of calcium to potassium and sodium to magnesium. For accurate mineral readings, the hair must not be washed at the laboratory. Only two commercial laboratories in the United States do not wash the hair, Analytical Research Labs and Trace Elements, Inc.

The Calcium/Potassium Ratio. Dr. Eck found that a high calcium level in relation to potassium is associated with a slower oxidation rate. Thyroid activity lowers calcium. Potassium also sensitizes the tissues to thyroid hormone. Also, calcium stabilizes cell membranes and decreases cell permeability.

A high calcium is associated with sluggish thyroid activity and reduced cell permeability which also decreases oxidation and cellular respiration. Note that diagnoses of hyperthyroidism are possible in this instance and occur quite commonly. They occur because the body may respond to reduced cell permeability and low cellular thyroid activity by secreting more thyroid hormones.

Thus blood tests and some symptoms will indicate hyperthyroidism. However, it is not the same as a primary hyperthyroidism, which may have different causes. Mercury or copper toxicity in the pituitary can also cause a secondary hyperthyroidism in slow oxidizers.

Dr. Eck settled on a ratio of 4:1 as the ideal calcium/potassium ratio. While this is somewhat arbitrary, I still use this number as it works well in most cases. In some people, it is probably a little higher and in some a little lower. However, it is close enough that it works fine.

The Sodium/Magnesium Ratio. The sodium/magnesium ratio is more indicative of adrenal glandular activity. The adrenal hormone aldosterone causes sodium retention in the kidneys. Magnesium, it turns out, also has much to do with adrenal activity. Magnesium loss, which turns out to cause a high reading in the hair, is often associated with sluggish adrenal glandular activity.

An elevated hair sodium in relation to magnesium is associated with excessive adrenal activity.

Dr. Eck settled on an ideal ratios of 4.17:1 for the sodium/magnesium ratio.

To summarize the way the oxidation metabolic types are calculated:

* Slow Oxidation is defined as a calcium/potassium ratio greater than 4 and a sodium/magnesium ratio less than 4.17.

* Fast Oxidation is defined as a calcium/potassium ratio less than 4 and a sodium/magnesium ratio greater than 4.17.

* Mixed Oxidation. If one ratio indicates fast and the other slow, the pattern is called mixed oxidation. This is an unstable and temporary state that will resolve to either fast or slow in a number of months.

Mixed oxidizers he would call fast-mixed if the ratio that was fast was relatively further away from the ideal than the ratio that was slow. In other words, let us imagine that the calcium/potassium ratio indicates fast oxidation because the ratio is 1:1. This is about 1/4 of the ideal.

Now let us say the other ratio, the sodium/magnesium ratio, is 2:1. This is only about 1/2 of the ideal value. In other words, it is closer to the ideal. Therefore, this person would be labeled a fast mixed oxidizer because the ratio that is fast is more extreme. Said differently, the balance of the two ratios is tending more to the fast than it is to the slow oxidation rate.

* Sub-Oxidizers. Dr. George Watson identified another type he called a sub-oxidizer. Dr, Eck correlated this to another hair analysis pattern that is called four low electrolytes. Discussion of this pattern is beyond the scope of this article but is found in a separate article, Four Low Electrolytes.

SUB-TYPES - AUTONOMIC DOMINANCE

Autonomic dominance refers to which branch of the autonomic system one uses most of the time. This is often a personality issue. Most people are sympathetic dominant. When it is mild, one is forward-looking, optimistic, active and energetic. Symptoms of excessive sympathetic dominance include compulsiveness, running around excessively, overworking, excessive thinking, fearfulness, anxiety, worry or anger. One may talk, think and work fast.

Sympathetic dominant individuals do not spend enough time in a parasympathetic state to rebuild the body, so it eventually becomes depleted of nutrients or “burns out”. A hair sodium/potassium ratio greater than about 4 indicates sympathetic dominance. Greater than 8 is extreme. Today even young children are burned out due to stress and poor diets.

Healthy parasympathetic dominant individuals are rare. They love to relax, do not react to stress and may rest all day, not because they are tired but because they are content. They live in the present moment and are at peace within. A healthy parasympathetic dominant loves eating, has a great appetite and great digestion because the parasympathetic system activates digestion. They are rare due to the stress of modern living. Also, toxic metals and chemicals in the food, air and water disturb the proper functioning of the autonomic nervous system.

Unhealthy parasympathetic dominance. This is far more common due to emotionally or chemically-caused imbalances. In fact, this is just a person who has exhausted the sympathetic nervous system to such an extent that the body flips into a parasympathetic state by default. In other words, since the two nervous systems are in a balance at all times, if the sympathetic system is depleted enough, the balance shifts to parasympathetic even if the person does not desire it.

These people have often given up fighting for anything and just “holding on” or giving up. They may advocate peace, but they are not at peace. They may sit around or they may be active, but are in a give-up mode. Their hair analyses reveal slow oxidation, a sodium/potassium ratio less than about 1.5. If the pattern has gone on for a while or is quite extreme, they may have a four-low-electrolyte pattern (calcium less than 40, magnesium less than 6, sodium less than 25 and potassium less than 10). This is a very chronic state of body chemistry, previously referred to as a sub-oxidizer. It is discussed more in other articles on this website.

Autonomic dominance and autonomic state may be different. Many patients are sympathetic dominant, but the body is in a parasympathetic state. Another way to express this condition is that the body is exhausted (parasympathetic) but the mind is still fighting or flighting (sympathetic dominance).

We sometimes call this common situation a burned out sympathetic dominant. It is indicated on a hair analysis by a slow oxidation rate (usually a very low sodium and potassium ratio) with a very low potassium level between 1-4 mg% or 10-40 parts per million.

HEART RATE VARIABILITY AND ACUPUNCTURE

Some physicians use heart rate variability to assess autonomic activity. The most common pattern it reveals is deficient parasympathetic. This corresponds to the slow oxidizer (parasympathetic) and the deficient parasympathetic indicates this person is not in a healthy parasympathetic state. It is really just a state of sympathetic nervous system exhaustion.

Acupuncture diagnosis also corresponds to these types. The author was able to compare hair analysis and acupuncture pulse and tongue diagnosis. Fast oxidizers or those in a sympathetic state tend to be more yang in acupuncture terminology.

Slow oxidizers, those in a parasympathetic state, tend to be more yin. Other correlations between traditional Chinese acupuncture assessment and hair mineral analysis would make an excellent research project. One that I noticed is yang rising, associated with four high electrolytes on a hair mineral analysis. Yin deficiency is often correlated with slow oxidation or a four low electrolyte pattern.

WHY IMPROVE THE METABOLIC BALANCE?

This is a fair question. Many practitioners don’t want to bother with metabolic typing and just correct body chemistry based on their symptoms, blood tests, x-rays, diagnostic label or other methods.

However, without question, I have found that metabolic typing is useful for at least 10 reasons that make it practically the centerpiece of my approach. Here are the main reasons:

1. It is helpful to pigeonhole people as to their general set of symptoms, signs and even illnesses. In other words, fast oxidizers are often anxious, nervous, irritable and have tight muscles or even muscle cramps. They are prone to diarrhea, hyperactivity, and certain illnesses such as high blood pressure and often diabetes.

This is incredibly useful so the practitioner understands that 10 or more symptoms are all related to a fast or slow or mixed oxidation rate. Otherwise one seeks to correct each symptom separately, when in fact all will improve as the oxidation rate is balanced.

2. Balancing the electrolytes greatly improves the person’s energy efficiency. This is another enormous benefit. It is often more important for correction than the first one. Energy is the common denominator of health, as anyone will find out if he or she tries this system of nutritional balancing. Correcting the energy level by correcting the oxidation rate has often a dramatic effect on one’s energy. This alone is worth the entire calculation of the oxidation rate.

3. Thyroid and Adrenal Insights. These glands are so important and so out of balance today that the information gained about their functioning that can come from the two ratios we oxidation rate ratios is fantastic all by itself. Correlated with other factors on the hair analysis, they often give an accurate and fast glimpse of the person’s overall state of health and the cause for literally tens of symptoms.

4. Psychological Insights. This is another huge benefit of understanding the truth about the oxidation states and the stages of stress. It can help a practitioner and patient understand a dozen or more “psychological dysfunctions”, mental or emotional symptoms and much more. Energy, once again, plays a huge role in our attitudes and behaviors in many cases. Galndular function also has much to do with mental and emotional disorders. This is all revealed using this type of analysis of the hair patterns.

5. Recommending A Diet. Dr. Watson’s concepts and those of other researchers can be used successfully to help balance the oxidation rate with food and dietary principles. For example, fast oxidizers, who are often babies, need fats and oil in their diet in greater amounts. This is important and the lack of these today in children’s food is a cause of obesity, diabetes and even hyperactivity and many other problems of children. Parents are simply afraid to give their children fatty foods such as eggs for fear of cholesterol or other reasons. This is a shame and can be remedied when we see the oxidation patterns clearly o a hair mineral analysis without guessing if you are correct.

6. Recommending Nutritional Supplements. This is another fantastic benefit of metabolic typing. In fact, it is a primary one that could be discussed in a separate article. Here suffice it to say that Dr. Watson, Selye, Eck and others figured out which nutrients speed up the oxidiaton rate and which slow it down. By properly combining the nutrients, formulas have been designed that are powerful to balance and correct the oxidation rate.

Otherwise, nutritional supplement recommendations are too often hit or miss guesswork. They can easily unbalance the ratios, even if they appear correct using muscle testing, Vega or other electrodermal diagnostic machines and other methods. This is not to say these methods are useless, but they are not clear ways to suggest nutrients to balance the metabolic balance.

7. Reducing Stress. Balancing the oxidation rate greatly reduces stress on the body. This is often apparent in the correction of stress-related symptoms such as fears, anxiety and others.

8. Assisting Toxic Metal Elimination. This is another powerful benefit of metabolic typing and correction by nutritional balancing science. Many times patients work with us who have used all the other methods of eliminating toxic metals. These include chelation, oral chelating agents, clay baths, foot baths and other methods.

Yet their hair test reveal toxic metals. However, when they balance the oxidation rate, their rate of elimination of the metals dramatically improves. This, in fact, is the main reason we do not need IV chelation. We have this method that is, indeed, often faster, safer and more powerful.

9. Eliminating Toxic Chemicals. Modern medicine offers very little in the way of methods of eliminate the hundreds of perhaps thousands of toxic chemicals that surround us everywhere today, especially in developed nations.

We are able to eliminate toxic chemicals quite easily, however, thanks to two methods. The first and most critical is metabolic typing and nutritional balancing science. As we balance the oxidation rate, the chemicals, along with the metals, become far easier to eliminate. Energy improves, eliminative organ function improves and the body is able to begin eliminating the chemicals quite easily in many cases.

The other method we are now using is the near infrared sauna. This is discussed in other articles. It is also used to help balance the metabolic type.

10. Prediction And Prevention. If we know the oxidation rate, we can predict and then prevent many hundreds of physical and emotional health conditions.

This is only logical if we understand the consequences of too much fight-or-flight activity, for example. We know it is basically catabolic. That is, it is the emergency system that should be used only when needed. When it is used more often, it tends to weaken digestion, elimination, immune response and more.

In this manner, we can know what symptoms will arise, often years before they show up on other tests or present with symptoms. We can head off the symptoms easily because this is extremely early detection.

We can detect the biochemical patterns that lead to disease, which is far better than early detection of the illness itself. I will give an example of high calcium on a hair mineral analysis.

Elevated hair tissue calcium often means that calcium is being lost into the hair and accumulating there. This may not show up yet on an x-ray and it will definitely not be revealed on a standard blood test. However, if it continues the consequences are clear. They include arthritis as the calcium deposits in the joints, arteriosclerosis as it deposits in the arteries and other vessels and osteoporosis due to calcium loss eventually from the bones. This is the power of noting the metabolic type.

11. Guiding other recommendations. I routinely use the oxidation type and oxidation rate to make lifestyle and therapy recommendations such as for sauna therapy, massage, tai chi, yoga, and even medical therapies. It is most useful to prevent side effects of these therapies and to assure the safety and efficacy of the recommendations. Se our articles on lifestyle for more information about this large topic.

12. Reducing or eliminating altogether latent ailments. Latent illnesses are ones that show no indicators at this time, even on the hair mineral analysis. However, they are growing inside and someday will cause a heart attack, cancer, diabetes or any of a hundred other conditions.

Sadly, most people have several of these, even as young as in their childhood. The incidence is growing as more children are born toxic and depleted due to their mother’s levels of toxins and nutritional deficiency.

The key here is the improvement in the energy-producing mechanism of the body. When the oxidation rate is balanced properly, the body automatically begins to correct even genetically-programmed imbalances to its best ability. This simply will not happen with a very ;unbalanced oxidation rate, especially a sluggish oxidation rate.

I know of no other therapy that does this routinely and easily. One cannot just look for latent conditions, because they are too subtle to detect at their early stage. However, they are present and may include a small amount of a parasite, for example, or a nutritional weakness of the pancreas, as another example.

So without requiring expensive and questionable diagnostic or screening procedures, the nutritional balancing program with the hair analysis will correct these conditions. This is one reason why progress is slow in some individuals. It can be depressing because the patient does not seem to make much progress for a while.

However, what is often occurring is that latent conditions are being corrected. This will then avoid a far more costly ailment later in life, even 20 to 50 years later. It is a very important, hidden reason for determining the oxidation rate and type and correcting it immediately.

This is also the reason I do the hair analysis first, not correct the hormones or the posture or some other approach beforehand.

13. “Spiritual Development”. What I mean by this is very precise. People may say that any effort to improve one’s mind or energy level or something else like this is spiritual development. However, this is not quite so.

Spiritual development as I refer to it has specifically to do with the previous issue regarding getting rid of latent problems, both physical and emotional. This will allow a person to achieve his or her highest potential. It is, in fact, the crowning achievement in any healing program!

In addition, there is much more to the development I am referring to. It absolutely requires balancing the body in delicate ways. This and only this permits the greatest development of the subtle bodies of the human being.

This, by the way, is why we do not use many herbs and other products that others recommend. These simply are too imprecise in their action to balance the chemistry. The topic of spiritual development is the subject of other several articles on this website such as Spiritual Development.

IMPROVING THE METABOLIC BALANCE

Healing requires a healthy parasympathetic state. This is a state of regeneration, nurturing and nourishing the body. It is a relaxed state that allows the immune system, digestion and the eliminative organs to function optimally.

Inhibiting an overactive sympathetic nervous system. This is a critical step for correcting the metabolic rate. I begin the process by supporting two parasympathetic activities, digestion and sleep. If these are not attended to, most people will not get well. There are many natural products and strategies to help correct digestive difficulties and insomnia.

Digestion. Improving digestion involves the diet, eating habits, and often supplying digestive enzymes for a while. It may also involve restoring normal flora, ending constipation or diarrhea, cleaning and restoring the colon and eliminating reactive foods.

Sleep. Strategies for improving sleep include the use of sedative nutrients such as calcium, magnesium and zinc, improving sleep habits, lowering excessive copper and other toxic metals that interfere with sleep, improving the sleep environment and other remedies if needed.

Colon cleansing. Another method to inhibit the sympathetic nervous system is the coffee enema or colonic irrigation. These activate parasympathetic organs.

Saunas. Another very powerful method is sauna therapy. Heating the body shuts down normal heat production, an important sympathetic activity.

Relaxation. Meditation, relaxation, yoga and tai chi are other methods that inhibit the sympathetic nervous system. Changing one’s attitudes away from fear, guilt, worry and anger toward love and peace in all situations also powerfully inhibits sympathetic nervous system responses. Deciding at a deep level that the world is basically friendly, not threatening, helps immensely to calm down an overactive sympathetic nervous system.

Biochemical, Dietary and Other Corrections. In some patients, biochemical imbalances are primary, while in others emotional and even spiritual issues must be addressed and can be primary factors. However, for best results biochemical, structural, energetic and emotional/spiritual issues all need to be addressed.

AUTONOMIC STATE AND THE CA/P RATIO

The following is more of a philosophical concept. We do not use it clinically for various reasons. However, it is quite interesting.

Phosphorus is fiery and explosive. Phosphorus must be stored under water. Exposed to the air, it spontaneously catches fire. TNT contains phosphorus. Phosphors make televisions and computer monitors light up. Phosphorus is the key element in ATP, adenosine triphosphate, the high energy molecule that provides energy for our bodies.

Dr. Paul Eck found that either high or low phosphorus on a hair analysis indicates impaired protein synthesis. All proteins contain phosphorus. Elevated hair phosphorus, especially in relation to calcium, is an indicator of a sympathetic state. This is catabolic, associated with excessive protein breakdown.

In an exhaustion stage of stress, the body becomes parasympathetic because the sympathetic system is depleted. Digestion, absorption and utilization of protein are impaired due to zinc deficiency, copper toxicity, improper gut flora and other problems. This produces a low hair phosphorus, especially in relation to calcium. This is more serious than an elevated hair phosphorus. The ideal phosphorus level is 14-17 mg%.

Calcium is cold, hard and static. It is the key ingredient in concrete. Calcium gives rigidity to our bones and teeth. Where phosphorus is energy in motion, calcium is structure.

Dr. Hans Selye, founder of the stress theory of disease, discovered that sympathetic nervous activation lowers tissue calcium and magnesium levels. This puts the body is a hyperalert state, increases blood pressure by constricting the arteries and enhances nervous system reactivity. This prepares the body for fighting or running.

The opposite occurs in the exhaustion stage of stress. The sympathetic system is depleted. Thyroid and adrenal activity diminish and tissue calcium begins to rise. It can become very elevated in a hair sample, indicating an unhealthy parasympathetic state. The ideal hair calcium level is about 40 mg%. The ideal ratio of hair calcium to phosphorus is therefore 2.5:1.

Though we do not use this clinically, from Dr. Eck’s research we can say:

* A sympathetic state is indicated by a calcium/phosphorus ratio less than 2.5.

* A parasympathetic state is indicated by a calcium/phosphorus ratio greater than 2.5.

* A sympathetic state will usually correlate with fast oxidation.

* A parasympathetic state will usually correlate with slow oxidation.

* A sympathetic state generally correlates with Dr. Selye’s alarm stage of stress.

* A parasympathetic state generally correlates with an exhaustion stage of stress.

* Resistance stage of stress is an in between stage. It is associated with mild slow oxidation and a balanced calcium/phosphorus ratio on a hair mineral analysis.

This may seem complex, but is actually quite intuitive. Calcium is hard and static. More of it in the tissues is associated with sluggish glandular activity, a parasympathetic state and an exhaustion stage of stress. (Elevated tissue calcium does not mean the body has too much calcium. Rather it means calcium is depositing in the soft tissues).

In contrast, less calcium means a more energetic and flexible body. This is far more characteristic of fast oxidizers or Dr. Selye’s alarm stage of stress.

References

1) Eck, P., Interview in the Health View Newsletter, #27-29, 1979.

2) Page, M., Degeneration - Regeneration, 1949, 1980.

3) Selye, H., The Stress of Life, 1956.

4) Watson, G., Nutrition and your Mind, 1972 and Personality Strength and Psychochemical Energy, 1979.

5) Wilson, L., Nutritional Balancing and Hair Mineral Analysis, 1998 and Healing Ourselves, 2002.

Adapted from the Eck Institute Bulletin

Vol 19 Sept. 2003 Number 9

Home * Hair Analysis * Saunas * Books * Articles
Detoxification Protocols * Courses * About Dr. Wilson