Is Hair Analysis Junk Science?

[HazuraJane]

Company that takes a section of mane and tests it for heavy metals, minerals, etc.
Because the hair shows levels over time, it's meant to be more comprehensive than a blood test, which shows where the animal is with levels at that moment in time.
Trying to decide if hair analysis is junk science or has merit.

 

[shortstuff99]

They use it for long term drug testing in humans so I'm going to say it isn't junk science.

 

[Henry02]

I’ve had it done previously and it helped my horse, by chance or by it actually being accurate.

came back my horse was allergic to molasses and soya. Removed them out of the diet and horses behaviour improved. Didn’t totally cure the problems but certainly helped.

now molasses and soya are things that are known for causing issues in horses, so could be sheer luck.

 

[Alternativent32]

It isn't junk science at all. But in the most cases it's useless for ordinary people/pets.

 

[ycbm]

I’ve had it done previously and it helped my horse, by chance or by it actually being accurate.

came back my horse was allergic to molasses and soya. Removed them out of the diet and horses behaviour improved. Didn’t totally cure the problems but certainly helped.

now molasses and soya are things that are known for causing issues in horses, so could be sheer luck.

I'm pretty sure it's junk science to use hair to test for allergies.
.

 

[Quigleyandme]

I knew someone who had a very talented horse at home that consistently turned into a total dud at competitions. After spending loads of money on loads of investigations she had a hair analysis done and found the lorry exhaust was faulty and the poor horse was being poisoned with carbon monoxide.

 

[Chinchilla]

Where would you get this done? I've never heard of it.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I’ve seen and wondered about this, not only horses. I posted on a dog fb page for recommendations of food and a lady contacted me to say she had her dogs hair analysed this way for allergies and was able to eliminate a few things from its diet.
I never followed it up tbh as it sounded a bit airy fairy but, who knows! I’m less convinced by it being a useful food allergy diagnostic than mineral imbalance.
We need @ester maybe?

 

[ycbm]

NHS website says hair analysis is junk science for allergies, not to use it.
.

 

[Chinchilla]

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/400244

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379073899001462

https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-abstract/46/2/233/4694558


for anything other than drug testing evidence for its use seems to be lacking

 

[Palindrome]

I knew someone who had a very talented horse at home that consistently turned into a total dud at competitions. After spending loads of money on loads of investigations she had a hair analysis done and found the lorry exhaust was faulty and the poor horse was being poisoned with carbon monoxide.

How could they detect carbon in carbon though? Organic molecules are made of carbon (plus a lot of oxygen), carbon monoxide is carbon with one oxygen. You would just not be able to detect that as it doesn't make sense, the hair is made of carbon containing molecules but that's just normal.