How I Use HTMA in My Practice (And Why It Might Be the Missing Link Between Stress, Trauma, and Healing)

If you’ve ever felt like you’ve “tried everything” — diets, supplements, protocols — but your symptoms keep coming back, you’re not alone. Most of us in the “chronic symptoms” boat can relate. We do it all, see all the right people, follow all the right protocols… and yet, at the end of the day, we’re still battling fatigue, flare-ups, sensitivities, or pain.

One reason healing feels so elusive is that we’re often treating symptoms at the tip of the iceberg without asking what’s happening underneath. We freeze our leftovers and avoid healthy foods because of histamine intolerance. We invest in expensive filtration systems to manage mold and dust. We take adrenal protocols, adaptogens, and bottle after bottle of supplements in the name of “stress reduction” or adrenal support.

And yet — the stress creeps back. The histamine intolerance remains. The environmental allergies never truly settle. Exhaustion blooms.

This is where we have to ask: Why is my immune system mounting enormous attacks (and giving me symptoms) when other people are just fine? What is different about my terrain — my inner ecology — that makes me so reactive while others aren’t?

One of the most powerful tools I found to help us answer these questions is Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA), interpreted through a lens informed by the nervous system.

This kind of analysis doesn’t just tell you what minerals you’re “low” in (how many practitioners may use it to point at potential deficiencies with long lists of supplements to remedy). Rather, we can use mineral metabolism to healp “read the story” of how your body has been adapting to stress — both physical and emotional. It shows the fingerprints of your nervous system, your metabolism, and even your trauma history. And when we understand that story, we can finally create treatment plans that don’t just chase symptoms, but restore balance in a way that’s authentic to your metabolism, nervous system, and emotional body.

What Exactly Is HTMA?

HTMA is a simple lab test that measures the mineral content of your hair. Because hair grows slowly, it captures a 2–3 month record of what’s happening inside your body — like a long-exposure photograph of your metabolism and stress response.

Here’s the key: it’s not about assuming that the amount of minerals in your hair equals the amount in your body. For example, if calcium is high on the test, that doesn’t mean you’ve been eating too much calcium. Instead, it usually means your body is pushing calcium out as a way of protecting itself — often in people who feel exhausted, flat, or low in mood. It’s actually incredible how much mineral patterns line up with symptoms within the emotional body!

On the other hand, someone with very high sodium and potassium isn’t “overdosing” on salt and bananas. More often, it reflects a nervous system locked in sympathetic overdrive — stressed to the max, burning through minerals just to keep going. This person may feel totally wired, anxious, or deal with ruminating thoughts non-stop.

This is why HTMA is so unique. It doesn’t just show minerals; it shows how your body is using and spending them. That makes it a powerful window into:

• The emotional body: We can observe patterns of minerals used in stress, relaxation, guarding off, feeling “buzzed” or anxiety-ridden, exhausted, and more. You will often be amazed when the mineral trend lines up perfectly with your symptoms, and here we can start to understand how we can support your body from the inside out in its shifting process.

• The metabolic body: HTMA is particularly effective at capturing a snapshot of how your body is utilizing or storing energy. It may suddenly make sense when you realize you’re stuck in a bit of a “shutdown” mode and can’t seem to muster much energy to do anything.

• The detoxification body: Through specific patterns in toxic elements, we can start to notice both exposures as well as your detox capabilities. For example, if you don’t see any toxic minerals on the test it doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have any, but more likely that your body detox processes have been shunted to the side and it’s storing toxins rather than naturally (as it should) eliminating them. Conversely, we can sometimes identify a significant exposure (one that may be contributing to your nervous system alarm) and sleuth it out. Many of us need of support here, but that can only come after we calm the emotional body so that we feel safe enough for the nervous system to enter parasympathetic (when we detox).

• Key ratios between specific minerals act like dashboards for stress responses, thyroid function, blood sugar regulation, and nervous system balance. When we look at the ratios we can start to put together a picture of how your body is functioning day to day, and meet it where it’s at.

Why Minerals Matter So Much

Minerals are the “spark plugs” of your body. They power everything: enzyme reactions, hormones, neurotransmitters, detox pathways — even how you process emotions.

Why not do blood tests? Simple, because blood tests often miss mineral imbalances because your body will keep blood levels “normal” at all costs, even if it means stealing from your bones or tissues. So your blood can look fine while you feel miserable.

Hair tells the hidden story. Over time, minerals and metals deposited in hair reveal what’s being lost, stored, or imbalanced. And when minerals are off, the ripple effects are enormous. For example, some things we can see via levels in your hair would be:

• Low magnesium → anxiety, muscle tension, insomnia

• Low potassium → fatigue, depression, poor stress resilience

• High copper → PMS, migraines, mood swings

• Low zinc → poor immunity, skin issues, gut problems

But as I mentioned above, on a HTMA mineral patterns don’t just reflect nutrition. They reflect how your nervous system has been coping with life.

HTMA and Stress: The Psychoneuroimmunology Connection

This is where HTMA gets really fascinating — and where the research on stress and health (psychoneuroimmunology, or PNI) becomes essential.

From important published papers on psychoneuroimmunology (UCLA Stress Lab; Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2023), here’s what science confirms:

• Chronic stress changes the brain and immune system. When we live in survival mode, stress hormones alter inflammation, digestion, pain perception, and energy regulation.

• Stress leaves biochemical fingerprints. Elevated cortisol and adrenaline shift how we use minerals, burn through magnesium, and deplete potassium.

• The immune system and nervous system are inseparable. Trauma and chronic stress dysregulate both, creating the “perfect storm” behind persistent illness and chronic symptoms.

HTMA reflects these changes in black and white. For example:

• A fast oxidation pattern (high sodium and potassium) = fight-or-flight dominance or someone stuck in a stress state (think anxiety patterns, ruminating thoughts and worry, irritable or low patience, etc)

• A slow oxidation pattern (high calcium and magnesium) = freeze/collapse dominance. (think someone in shut down mode, unmotivated, feeling low or unworthy)

• A calcium shell = a protective wall, often seen in people who’ve experienced emotional overwhelm or long-term stress.

• A low sodium/potassium ratio = burnout, immune dysfunction, and susceptibility to chronic illness.

HTMA makes the invisible visible. It bridges the gap between what trauma researchers know and what your body is actually showing.

The other thing is that once we are locked into a mineral pattern, it can be challenging to get through it without the right tools. In fact, many of us will feel our mineral pattern is simply “our personality,” something fixed and rigid. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. By supporting the emotional body with tools specific to your mineral pattern, as well at the physical body with nutrients and lifestyle support that are, again, specific to your mineral pattern, we can start to balance the body and bring relief.

What Treatment Looks Like Through the HTMA Lens

This is where people often ask: “Okay, but how does this help me feel better?”

The way we deal with HTMA at Healing Foundation Lab isn’t about hammering deficiencies with supplements. Because, again, mineral patterns on an HTMA are not about the exact amount of minerals in your body; it’s about how your body is using minerals. To course correct, we need to restore balance at every level — nutritional, metabolic, nervous system, and even emotional.

To change course we need to support the body on the emotional level and well as the digestive, nutritional, detoxification, and metablic level. And we can formulate a pretty cool plan with the information we glean!

Example: “Lea” — The Doing a Lot Mom who was irritated and overwhelmed, yet seeking balance

When we examined Lea’s Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA), we discovered a nervous system that was running full speed — in survival mode. In this case, her pattern of low calcium, magnesium, sodium/potassium, and zinc/copper showed a body that couldn’t “turn off”. The HPA axis is constantly signaling (danger? Yes! Alert!), but it was running out of reserves. There wasn’t a mineral “shell” to buffer incoming stress, so she felt everything — emotionally and physically, from herself and others — at full volume. This is what we often see in trauma physiology: a system that’s over-responsive, inflamed, and unable to return to calm once the stressor is gone.

This is why Lea would be drained to the max after the kids went down. She couldn’t figure it out … her days weren’t physically hard, but she felt like she ran a marathon every day. The HTMA results lined up perfectly with what she was feeling.

Using this data, we created a very specific plan. We supported her basic stress response (the minerals demanded when under acute stress) with mineral hydration (sea salt, trace minerals, gentle vitamin C, or coconut water), restored magnesium for nervous-system calm, and corrected zinc-copper ratios to reduce inflammatory and hormonal stress. Nutrition shifts toward mineral-rich, blood-sugar-steady foods — soups, proteins, broths, colorful produce — to stabilize the system (rather than picking at her kids’ leftovers on the go). Instead of quick fixes or restrictive detoxes, we use these mineral patterns to guide small, measurable interventions that directly improve energy, sleep, digestion, and stress tolerance.

Because the minerals mirror the nervous system, we also integrate regulation tools alongside the nutrition plan. A low Na/K ratio tells us that the “fight-flight” chemistry is overactive, so we pair the supplement plan with tools to “biohack” the body to get out of that drive when it’s rearing up: stopping ruminating and anxious thoughts in their tracks, slow breathing and grounding practices when feeling flighty, building muscle to ground the body, and learning to potter (the art of doing tasks slwly and deliberately rather than rushing around). Her boundaries were incredibly porous, so she learned daily visualizations that helped rebuild them. She practiced and rehearsed mentally how to manage a toddler with tantrums and feel balanced through it all, or a family member with big emotions coming over, without knocking Lea emotionally sideways at the same time.

Over time, we saw both lab trends and real-life outcomes shift: energy steadies, emotions flatten less, recovery time shortens, and the sense of being “wired but tired” begins to fade. In fact, within 2 months Lea started to feel JOY in her life again. Over the following months, her digestion improved, her energy became more consistent, and her husband noticed that she laughed more freely. Lea herself described it best: “I feel like my entire world has changed, although nothing in my world has changed.”

What HTMA Is (and Isn’t)

• It is: a tool to see how your body has been adapting to stress, a guide for nutrition/lifestyle support, a map for nervous system healing.

• It is not: a diagnostic tool, a replacement for medical care, or a one-size-fits-all supplement plan.

Frequently Asked Questions About HTMA

1. Is HTMA accurate?
Yes. Hair is a stable tissue that reflects long-term mineral patterns, unlike blood which fluctuates daily. HTMA has been used in clinical research and practice for decades. What matters most is interpretation — looking at ratios and patterns, not just individual numbers.

2. How is it different from blood tests?
Blood is homeostatic — your body keeps it within a narrow range at all costs. That’s why blood can look “normal” even when you’re depleted. HTMA shows how your body is actually adapting, compensating, or burning through minerals over time.

3. Can I do HTMA if I dye my hair?
Yes. Ideally we use clean, untreated hair from the first 1.5 inches closest to your scalp. If hair is dyed, we may collect from a less processed area (like nape). The lab also washes samples to remove external contamination.

4. Does HTMA test for food sensitivities?
No. HTMA doesn’t tell you what foods you’re intolerant to. It tells you how stress, metabolism, and toxic elements are impacting your system, which often explains why food sensitivities are happening.

5. How often do you retest?
Every 3–4 months. Minerals shift gradually, and retesting allows us to see how your body is responding to treatment and adjust support accordingly.

6. Will I just get a supplement list?
No. In my practice, HTMA is never used alone. We integrate diet, lifestyle, nervous system tools, and metaphysical reframes — because minerals won’t rebalance sustainably if the stress patterns underneath stay the same.

7. Can HTMA diagnose disease?
No. It’s not a diagnostic tool. It’s a functional, supportive tool that helps us understand stress patterns and nutritional imbalances. Think of it as a roadmap for healing — not a medical label.

8. How long before I feel better?
It depends on your starting place. Some people feel changes within weeks (deeper sleep, calmer mood, better digestion). For others, especially with long-term depletion, it takes months. The goal isn’t a quick fix — it’s sustainable healing.

The Bottom Line

HTMA isn’t about chasing deficiencies. It’s about listening to the story your body has been trying to tell — through chemistry, through stress patterns, through resilience and depletion.

Paired with the science of psychoneuroimmunology, it offers a new way to understand why healing stalls, and how to gently shift back into balance.

Because when you restore minerals, regulate your nervous system, and honor the deeper story — your body finally feels safe enough to heal.