Blood tests and tissue mineral analyses both have their individual benefits and weaknesses. In general, blood tests give you the short-term picture. Tissue mineral analyses give you the long-range view. Together, you get a complete perspective of the body metabolism.

Blood tests are capable of giving the long-term picture on some body components, such as hormones, cholesterol levels and so on. But in general, blood tests are better as a gauge of short-term (acute) stress. Blood tests give you the up-to-the-minute assessment of body chemistry.

Blood tests are not as good as indicators (in general) for measuring long-term body stress. That is because blood is a transportation medium. It is the “highway system” of the body. The components of your blood must remain fairly stable at all times or you would die. Acidity, alkalinity, levels of certain nutrients, etc., all must remain within fairly tight limits. This equilibrium, or balance, is incredibly important to your health.

Blood patterns for many minerals can show hardly any deviation even though the person is in so much stress that he is dying. In fact, there are cases where people have died even though the blood test didn’t show anything wrong. The doctors were dumbfounded.

Here is where tissue mineral analyses (hair tests) come in. Hair tests are more accurate indicators of the overall long-term metabolic patterns. They are especially good for determining the actual mineral patterns in the body tissues.

Blood tests are too easily influenced by short-term events in your life.

A blood test can be too easily influenced by events that happened only hours or even minutes before. In time, like overnight, the blood would regain its long-term stability. But over short periods, it can be volatile.

For example, if you ate several candy bars or had a sugary breakfast, your blood sugar would rise. If you took a blood test shortly afterward, it might indicate high blood sugar or even diabetes. Can you see the problem?

We realize that people who take blood sugar tests are told not to eat any sweets or any other food so many hours before the test. That’s not the point. The point is that the blood is capable of such big fluctuations over such a short time.

Blood tests and tissue mineral analyses. How they compare.

Another quick example: If someone insulted you and got you upset, your blood chemistry, in some ways, could change within seconds. A test taken at this time would not be completely accurate.

By contrast, your hair is more stable. It takes several weeks to change the basic mineral pattern of your hair. Short-term variations like what you had for breakfast or what kind of day you had do not affect the tissue mineral analysis. Hair analysis testing is more accurate than blood serum analysis for picking up overall metabolic trends.

Two examples of problems a blood test could miss that a tissue mineral analysis would catch.

First example: Your blood test shows adequate levels of calcium. Does this mean your calcium metabolism is good? Not necessarily. It could be that your body is robbing calcium from your bones and teeth to support a major organ. A tissue mineral analysis would show the actual mineral status of your tissues. A blood test could miss it.

Second example: After a person ingests lead, a poisonous metal, the lead levels in the blood stay high for about 30 days. Then the lead disappears. Is it gone? Is the person out of danger? No. The answer is that the lead has now been removed from the blood. It is being stored in the tissues and would show up on a hair test – not a blood test*

If we were to test blood for all the minerals that we do in tissue mineral analysis, the cost would be prohibitive. The cost would be hundreds of dollars, maybe more.

Blood tests and tissue mineral analyses complement each other. Ideally, the tests should be used in conjunction with one another as each test gives information the other cannot provide.

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*Lead will show up in blood tests if it has been less than 34 days since the lead was ingested. If the person is getting lead on a continual basis, like a child eating paint chips, or a person breathing polluted city air, then the blood will, of course, detect the problem.

from Energy: How it affects your emotions, your level of achievement, and your entire personal well-being. An interview with Dr. Paul Eck by Colin and Loren Chatsworth. Reprinted by permission.