Blood shows what your minerals are doing right now, and whether the system that carries them is working. Hair holds roughly three months of what your body has been doing with them. Both are directional. They point, and then we talk.
Order whichever one you can get. You order the blood tests yourself, and the results come to you.
The requisition arrives with your order. You take it to the draw site when it suits you.
Thousands of draw sites across the country, and most of them take walk ins.
Usually within a few business days, sent to you rather than to a physician.
You order the blood panel from Request-A-Test and pay them directly.
Each of these stands on its own. Many people begin with blood, because the Root Cause Protocol is built on those markers. Plenty of people begin with hair, because the kit ships anywhere and asks for nothing more than a pair of scissors. Either one gives us something real to work with, and the second one can follow whenever you want it.
Eleven markers, drawn in one sitting, read as a group. This is the panel that shows how copper, iron and their cofactors are behaving today.
Ordered online in the United States and drawn at Quest or Labcorp. Request A Test sets the price and shows it on their page.
A small hair sample read by Trace Elements. Thirty six elements and twenty seven ratios covering roughly the last three months.
From $125 including the kit and the laboratory analysis. Add a reading or the laboratory’s own written report whenever you want one.
Officially it is the Mag, Zinc and Copper Panel with Iron Panel plus Vitamin A and Vitamin D. Everyone in this world calls it the Full Monty. It is a specific set of markers chosen because together they describe copper dependent iron regulation.
Read together. The relationship between the two carries the information, and it is the pair a standard workup usually leaves to you to ask for.
Saturation carries more meaning than any single value. Ferritin earns its place here for what it says about inflammation once the other three are sitting next to it.
Magnesium inside the red cell, where it does its work. Retinol measured rather than assumed, and stored vitamin D alongside it.
Zinc for context within the group. Uric acid because it is intricately tied to how your body is making energy.
You order the panel from Request A Test and pay them directly. Their link on this page is an affiliate link, so they pay me a small amount out of their own margin. Your price is the same either way, and so is everything I tell you about your results. Check their page for the current cost and for any fasting instructions.
Use the link on this page and pay Request-A-Test directly. The requisition comes with the order.
Take the requisition to a Quest or Labcorp draw site. Most locations take walk ins.
Usually within a few business days, sent straight to you. The results are yours to keep.
Email it ahead of our session so I can go through it properly before we sit down together.
Request-A-Test serves the United States, and a few states run their own rules. Everywhere else has a route as well. Some countries have direct to consumer laboratories of their own. Some work through a physician’s requisition, which usually goes smoothly once you walk in with a written list in hand.
Clients have put this panel together in Canada, across Europe, in Australia and in South America, and I keep track of what has worked in each place. Tell me where you are and I will tell you what I know, including which markers tend to be scarce and what stands in well for them.
If your laboratory runs a shorter menu, the five that carry most of the story are ceruloplasmin, serum copper, serum iron with TIBC, magnesium RBC and retinol.
Blood is regulated minute to minute, so it reads the present moment closely. Hair works on a longer clock and holds about three months of what your body has been doing with minerals. It is a different question, and for plenty of people it is the more useful one to ask first.
I use Trace Elements, a CLIA licensed clinical laboratory that has been running hair since 1984. Profile 1 reports thirty six elements and twenty seven ratios, and they analyze the sample unwashed, which keeps the loosely bound minerals in the result. I read it mostly through the electrolytes, for what stress has been costing you.
The kit and the laboratory analysis start at $125. Add a sixty minute reading with me, or the laboratory’s own written report, whichever suits what you are after. Iron status lives in blood, so pair the two when iron is the question you came with.
Send me the PDF and bring your questions. These sessions are built to leave you able to read your own numbers and run your own protocol.
Thirty minutes to look at what you already have, work out which lab to order, and decide whether this work is for you. $45.
Blood and hair side by side across ninety minutes, recorded, with notes, recommendations and the protocol shaped to you. $350.
A sixty minute reading of your Profile 1, or the laboratory’s own written report if you want their view of it. From $125.
The requisition comes with your order and you take it straight to the draw site. Ordering it yourself is the whole process.
Request A Test sets the price and it goes straight to them. Their page always shows the current number, along with any fasting instructions.
Yes, a small affiliate commission that Request-A-Test pays out of their own margin. Your price stays the same, and you are welcome to order without the link if you would rather.
Yes. Plenty of people do, especially where a blood draw takes some arranging. Hair on its own gives us a real place to begin, and blood can follow whenever you can get it.
Often, at least in part. Send me what you have before you order anything and I will tell you which markers are worth adding. Ceruloplasmin, retinol and magnesium RBC are the three that standard panels tend to leave to you.
Within about three months, and ideally within six weeks. Mineral status moves, so recent numbers give us the most to work with.
Carry on as you are and tell me what you take and when. Knowing what was on board when the blood was drawn tells me more than a washout would.
Because it says something specific once it sits next to transferrin saturation and ceruloplasmin. In that company it earns its place, and it reads as an inflammation signal rather than a fuel gauge. I wrote about this at length.
Pick the one you can get this week. Send me the results when they land, and bring whatever you have been wondering about. If the ordering link stops short of where you live, tell me where you are and we will find the route that reaches you.
Questions first? Send me a message, or book a Clarity call for $45 and thirty minutes.
Laboratory testing discussed on this page is for nutritional and educational purposes. Nothing here, and nothing said in a consultation or written in a report, is medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, and none of it replaces the care of your physician. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Talk to your healthcare provider before changing your diet, your supplements or your medication. Hair analysis is for nutritional purposes rather than forensic testing. Some links on this page are affiliate links.
