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 Dr. Lee is the founder and owner of Regrowth LLC, a company based in Los Angeles and dedicated to the treatment of hair loss. He has been developing innovative products and treating hair loss sufferers for the past 16 years. Dr. Lee is the creator of the Xandrox line of hair loss treatments.
Important Note: Due a busy schedule, Dr. Lee cannot answer any new questions at this time; however, he will be providing high quality answers to questions he receives from his own practice exclusively to Morphollica.com regularly
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2004-05-18
Hair analysis by hair clinics
There are clinics that routinely perform a ‘hair analysis’ on their customers. How valuable are these tests?
In most cases, they’re worthless. It would be a very rare case indeed when a ‘hair analysis’ was necessary to diagnose the cause of hair loss. Here are three short articles in regards to the practice of obtaining a ‘hair analysis’:
(1.) TIME: 15 January 01 Each year a quarter of a million Americans shell out up to $70 a pop for a hair analysis, but a report shows that the test-which is supposed to diagnose nutritional problems-is, at best, unreliable. Six popular labs were asked to test hair samples, all from the same head, for 30 minerals and metals, including selenium, aluminum and lead. Result? Reported concentrations for the same hair differed wildly from lab to lab, often varying 10-fold. If that's not enough to make your hair curl, most of the labs also sell supplements to remedy the ills they purportedly find.
(2.) Hair Analysis Debunked: Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld A study reported 15 years ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association found no scientific basis for using hair analysis to determine nutritional needs. Still proponents continue to offer it to patients. A new study, in the same journal, reports similar findings. Hair samples from the same people were sent to six labs specializing in this technique. Results varied widely, and recommendations often were completely contradictory. For example, one lab said a patient was a 'fast metabolizer' and should avoid vitamin A. Another said the same individual was a 'slow metabolizer' and suggested vitamin A supplements. So, if advised to have a hair analysis to define your nutritional status, I suggest you use the $30-$70 instead for a new shirt or take your spouse to dinner.
(3.) FDA Consumer Report Although nutrition does play a role in hair loss and in the overall health of your hair, only extreme nutritional deficiencies or excesses will cause hair loss. For instance, people with anorexia and bulimia may temporarily lose hair. So will others suffering from malnutrition. "It's pretty rare in the United States," says Bertolino. "If someone was on a real strange, restrictive diet, it could happen to them." Megadoses of some vitamins--particularly A and E--and an iron deficiency may lead to hair loss. People who claim they can determine which vitamins are lacking in your diet by analyzing your hair, however, are not speaking from a scientifically sound basis. The test used with this type of hair analysis--atomic absorption spectrophotometry--is a legitimate analytical chemistry method; however, used on hair, the results of this test do not correlate with nutritional status, says Shupack. "Because of the sociological importance of hair, a lot of people try to cash in on it," he says. "Hair analysis is all witchcraft as far as I'm concerned."
There are, however, a few legitimate hair tests for substances such as arsenic and lead.
Richard Lee, M.D.
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