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Introduction
to vitamin and mineral tests for healthy hair growth
Vitamins and minerals are components of food that are needed for
growth, reproduction, and maintaining good general health. Vitamins
are required in the diet in only tiny amounts, in contrast to fats,
carbohydrates and proteins. However, not receiving sufficient quantities
of a certain vitamin or mineral can be devastating, resulting in
deficiency diseases such as scurvy, pellagra, rickets, and osteoprosis.
Conversely, consuming too much of some vitamins or minerals can
be toxic to a person's system. Vitamin and mineral tests are used
to assess the level of these nutrients in an individual's blood
so that doctors can more accurately diagnose deficiency diseases
or overdoses and devise an effective therapy in response.
Vitamins and minerals are important for healthy hair growth, but,
with the possible exception of iron, a deficiency in vitamins or
minerals resulting in hair loss is fairly rare with the average
North American or Western European diet. Vegans and others living
on a restricted diet are more at risk of a deficiency in one or
more vitamins or minerals if they fail to plan their diets and ensure
intake of all the relevant nutrients. Some vitamins, such as vitamin
B12, are almost exclusively found in meat and dairy products, so
in the absence of meat intake an individual must compensate either
by eating vitamin B12 rich plant foods or by taking supplements.
One small study comparing vegetarians to omnivores suggested vegetarians
have significantly lower levels of essential antioxidant trace elements,
like Zinc, Copper, and especially Selenium, in their blood.
In recent years testing of vitamin and mineral deficiencies has
become more and more popular, driven in part by the availability
of testing services accessible through the Internet. Unfortunately
most of these testing services rely on a hair or saliva sample.
Hair and saliva can be tested for vitamin and mineral content, but
the results are not very accurate. Nutrients in hair can be oxidized
by exposure to sunlight or may interact with chemicals in shampoo
or pollution in the air. Over time the nutrient content of hair
changes as a result of these chemical reactions. Saliva is a somewhat
better sample source for testing, but here too nutrient content
can vary over a short space of time depending on food and liquid
intake. You should also be aware that the hair and saliva testing
labs usually have a commercial incentive to find "deficiencies"
in your sample. They cannot sell you supplements if you have no
deficiencies.
The best sample source for testing a nutrient deficiency is a blood
plasma or serum sample. This of course requires blood to be taken
with a needle inserted into a vein in your arm and that usually
involves a trip to the doctors adding expense, time, and complexity
to obtaining an analysis. In the future that may change as the size
of the blood sample required for testing gets smaller as blood analysis
machines get better. In the not too distant future a pin prick of
blood may be enough for a comprehensive blood test to be conducted.
For now, the advantage of having a blood test done through your
doctor is that you can be sure the analysis will be carried out
by a reputable laboratory and there is no commercial incentive to
find deficiencies for which your doctor can sell you unneeded supplements.
With all this in mind, you may still want to have a vitamin and
mineral test done to determine any potential deficiencies. In terms
of healthy hair growth, the most important vitamins and minerals
are:
- Iron (and the blood iron carrier ferritin)
- Zinc
- Copper
- Selenium
- Biotin (vitamin H)
- Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)
- Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)
Other vitamins and minerals like silica are also useful, but they
are secondary to the primary nutrients above.
In short, it is pretty unlikely you have a vitamin or mineral deficiency,
but the email I get suggests many people still believe that vitamin
and mineral supplements can significantly help hair growth. On that
basis, here are some reference range charts should you get a blood
test done.
The
vitamin and mineral test method
The vitamins that are most commonly measured by doctors are folate,
vitamin B12, vitamin K, vitamin D, and vitamin A. For minerals the
most common ones to be tested are iron and zinc. You will be unlikely
to get a more comprehensive test as some vitmain tests are quite
complex and expensive to do. Typically, the minimum test includes
examination of vitamin B12, folate, iron, and ferritin. That may
not sound like much, but this basic test covers 99% of hair loss
induced by nutrient deficiency or excess (too much of a vitamin
or mineral can be as bad for hair growth as too little).
Each vitamin and most minerals are present in blood in extremely
small concentrations. Blood also contains a great number of chemicals
and molecules, and many of these tend to interfere with vitamin
and mineral tests. For this reason, a procedure that separates the
vitamin or mineral from contaminating substances is usually performed
prior to conducting the actual test. Most laboratories use high
pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), also called high performance
liquid chromatography, as this purification step. In HPLC, the sample
is pumped at high pressure through a tube lined with an absorbent
material, to which the different molecules stick with different
affinity. Following separation or purification by HPLC, the vitamin
or mineral is detected by a color reaction or fluorescence reaction.
In these reactions, the amount of color or fluorescence that is
formed is proportional to the amount of vitamin or mineral in the
sample, allowing the amount of nutirent present in the original
sample to be calculated. In the case of some nutrients, the purified
factor of interest is reacted with a special chemical (reagent)
prior to detection.
Alternatively, levels of some vitamins may be measured indirectly
by a biological test that mimics the actual function of the vitamin
in the body. Riboflavin status is often measured by a test where
the rate a certain enzyme converts one molecule into another indicates
how much of the vitamin is present in a person's blood. Vitamin
K is often measured by a test that measures how long it takes for
a spontaneous blood clot to form in a prepared sample. Vitamin K
is involved in making enzyems that promote blood clotting. The more
vitamin K the faster blood clots. Vitamin E status is often measured
by placing the red blood cells in a test tube, adding hydrogen peroxide,
and the assessing the resulting breakdown of the red blood cells.
When a vitamin E deficiency exists, the red blood cells have a greater
tendency to break apart.
Standard
blood test ranges for vitamins
Note; only the basic adult ranges are listed here. The values for
children can be significantly different. Normal ranges will be slightly
different in different laboratories as there is no calibration of
the tests between different labs. The values refer to blood plasma
and serum samples (values are about the same whether sample is plasma
or serum), values for hair or saliva analysis will be different.
| Vitamin |
Life stage |
Blood test range value |
| |
|
|
| Folate (folic acid) (nanograms per milliliter
or nano-moles per liter) |
Adult Normal |
3.1 – 17.5 ng/ml
(7.0 – 39.7 nmol/L) |
| |
Adult Borderline deficient |
2.2 – 3.0 ng/ml
(5.0 – 6.8 nmol/L) |
| |
Adult Deficient |
< 2.2 ng/ml
(< 5.0 nmol/L) |
| |
Adult Excessive |
> 17.5 ng/ml
(> 39.7 nmol/L) |
|
Riboflavin (vitamin B2) (nano-moles per liter)
|
Adult |
6.2 – 39 nmol/L |
| Thiamin (nano-moles per liter) |
Adult |
9 – 44 nmol/L |
| Vitamin A (micrograms per liter) |
Adult Normal |
28 – 94 µg/dL |
| |
Adult Excessive |
> 95 µg/dL |
| Vitamn B6 (pyridoxine) (nanograms per milliliter)
|
Adult male |
7-52 ng/mL |
| |
Adult female |
2-26 ng/mL |
| Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin) (picograms per milliliter
or pico-moles per liter) |
Adult Normal |
250 – 950 pg/ml
(> 184 pmol/L) |
| |
Adult Borderline |
125 – 250 pg/ml
(92 – 184 pmol/L) |
| |
Adult Deficient |
< 125 pg/ml
(< 92 pmol/L) |
| Vitamin C (asorbic acid) (milligrams per deciliter
or micro-moles per liter) |
Adult |
0.4 – 1.5 mg/dL
28-84 micromol/L
|
| 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (Vitamin D) (nanograms per
milliliter or nano-moles per liter) |
Adult |
10 – 45 ng/ml
(20 – 106 nmol/L) |
| 1 25-Dihydroxyvitamin D (picograms per milliliter
or pico-moles per liter) |
Adult |
18 – 62 pg/ml
(43.2 – 148 pmol/L) |
| Vitamin E (micro-moles per liter) |
Adult deficient
|
< 11.6 µmol/l |
| |
Adult low |
11.6-16.2 µmol/l |
| |
Adult acceptable |
> 16.2 µmol/l |
| |
Adult optimal |
> 30 µmol/l |
| Vitamin K (picograms per milliliter) |
Adult |
80 – 1160 pg/mL |
| Other |
Life stage |
Blood test range value |
| |
|
|
| Protein total (grams per deciliter) |
Adult |
6.0 – 8.0 g/dL |
| Fatty acids free (milli-moles per
liter) |
Adult |
0.17 – 0.95 mmol/L |
Standard
blood test ranges for minerals
Note; only the basic adult ranges are listed here. The values for
children can be significantly different. Normal ranges will be slightly
different in different laboratories as there is no calibration of
the tests between different labs. The values refer to blood plasma
or serum samples, values for hair or saliva analysis will be different.
| Mineral |
Life stage |
Blood test range value |
| |
|
|
| Calcium (milligrams per deciliter or milli-moles
per liter) |
Adult (normally slightly higher in children) |
8.5 – 10.5 mg/dL
(2.1 – 2.6 mmol/L) |
| Copper (micrograms per deciliter or micro-moles
per liter) |
Adult |
70 – 150 µg/dL
1.65 +/- 8.6 µmol/L |
| Iron (micrograms per decliter or micro-moles per
liter) |
Adult female (slightly higher in males than females) |
30 – 160 µg/dL
(5.4 – 28.7 µmol/L) |
| Magnesium (milli-moles per liter) |
Adult |
(0.7 – 1.0 mmol/L) |
| Manganese (nano-moles per liter) |
Adult |
14.3 +/- 11.4 nmol/L |
| Phosphorus - inorganic (milligrams per deciliter
or milli-moles per liter) |
Adult |
2.7 – 4.5 mg/dL
(0.84 – 1.45 mmol/L) |
| Potassium (milli-moles per liter) |
Adult |
(3.4 – 4.9 mmol/L) |
| Selenium (micro-moles per liter) |
Adult |
0.45 – 1.15 µmol/L |
| Sodium (milli-moles per liter) |
Adult |
135 – 145 mmol/L |
| Zinc (micro-moles per liter) |
Adult |
70 – 102 µmol/L |
Vitamins
and mineral tests references
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