Digestive complaints have become commonplace: bloating, wind, abdominal pain, constipation, heartburn… We very often blame our diet or our lifestyle (sometimes rightly so), yet the reality is usually far more complex. Alongside the well-known causes (an unbalanced diet, stress, bacterial or fungal infections, food sensitivities…), other factors remain overlooked: mineral deficiencies, enzyme imbalances, and our exposure to heavy metals.
This is where the HTMA hair test, an analysis of the cellular content of minerals and heavy metals, becomes a genuinely useful tool for understanding the deeper causes of digestive disorders. If you are only just discovering the HTMA test and would like to know more, here is my flagship page here !
A quick refresher on digestion and the HTMA test
In consultation, I like to point out that digestion begins in the mouth:
- Coating food with our saliva sets digestion in motion, partly because saliva contains enzymes, and partly because a signal is sent to the brain telling the various digestive organs to get to work.
- Chewing breaks down the cell walls of food and makes the rest of the digestive work far easier. I unpack all of this in my article The surprising benefits of chewing.
- Digestion then continues in the stomach, where hydrochloric acid and pepsin break down proteins.
- The gallbladder takes over and releases bile into the duodenum, which is essential for digesting fats.
- The pancreas produces the digestive enzymes that complete the breakdown of food. • Finally, the commensal bacteria of the colon help digest the food residues not absorbed in the small intestine, fermenting fibre and certain complex carbohydrates in particular.
Every stage rests on a subtle balance in which minerals play an important part. The HTMA gives us a visual picture of mineral levels inside the cell over the past three months. Let me explain which minerals are involved in good digestive health.
HTMA test and gastric acidity
Hydrochloric acid production depends in particular on our levels of sodium and potassium, because these are what allow it to be synthesised.
Good HCl levels do several things:
- Efficient digestion of proteins
- Stimulation of digestive enzyme secretion
- Better release of bile
- Cleansing of the food bolus, thanks to its acidity (yes, the food we eat comes from the outside environment and may carry pathogens that need to be dealt with!)
Depending on the metabolic profile revealed by the HTMA test, this process can be held back or, on the contrary, exaggerated. The metabolic types known as FAST and SLOW, which the HTMA test identifies, describe the speed at which the body uses nutrients to produce energy. FAST profiles have a rapid metabolism that is often unstable, whereas SLOW profiles have a slow metabolism, more conservative but less energy-efficient.
- In FAST metabolisms, sodium and potassium are often high. This drives excessive HCl production, with a resulting tendency towards heartburn or reflux.
- In SLOW profiles, these minerals are often low, causing gastric hypoacidity. That can lead to bloating, wind, difficult digestion and/or an underlying terrain that favours digestive infections.
As I mentioned, hydrochloric acid also plays an antimicrobial role: insufficient production encourages the proliferation of bacteria, parasites and yeasts, notably candida albican.
Nor can I leave out a mineral as important to our digestion as zinc. Not only is it a great protector and regenerator of the stomach mucus, it is also essential to the production of digestive enzymes by the pancreas. On top of that, it is involved in bile secretion and appetite regulation.
Did you know it is one of the first minerals lost under stress? 80% of the population is deficient, and that figure climbs to 100% in older people.
Bowel transit and HTMA
Contrary to what we tend to think, transit does not depend on diet or hydration alone. Minerals play an essential role in intestinal motility, that is, in the ability to move the food bolus towards the exit.
FAST profiles often have accelerated transit, linked to increased biliary activity. SLOW profiles frequently suffer from constipation, for several reasons:
- Less active bile (bile has a natural laxative effect). The main minerals involved in a good quantity and quality of bile are sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. These “fantastic four”, as I like to call them given how central they are to our overall health, are often low or out of balance in slow profiles. • Weakened muscle tone, which slows peristalsis
- An unbalanced gut flora
- Low overall energy
- Enzyme deficiency
Another key point: real constipation is not only about frequency. It is above all the absence of any sense of relief after a bowel movement, you know, that familiar line we sometimes catch ourselves saying: “phew, that feels better!”. Some people go to the toilet several times a day without that sensation: this is incomplete elimination, and therefore a form of constipation.
Bloating, which is common in SLOW profiles, is also often linked to:
- A low Na/K ratio
- Zinc deficiency, and therefore low production of digestive enzymes • A copper imbalance, which disrupts digestion and encourages fermentation
Another mineral that matters for transit is calcium. It is involved in the muscle contraction that switches on peristalsis, and therefore the movement of the food bolus towards the exit. Magnesium, for its part, is often low and yet offers valuable support: it helps retain water in the intestines, easing evacuation by adding weight to the waste. This is also why hydration is essential in constipation: it makes the waste heavier and helps it on its way.
Chronic candida and the HTMA test
A mineral imbalance really can create a terrain that favours the proliferation of candida albican.
- Copper, a powerful natural antifungal, must be present in sufficient and bioavailable amounts. A deficiency, or poor utilisation, encourages fungal overgrowth. • A sodium/potassium ratio below 2.5 reflects immune weakness that candida, true opportunist that it is, exploits to grow further, weakening our defences even more: a genuine vicious circle!
- A terrain that is too alkaline prevents effective elimination.
- Poor conversion of carbohydrates into energy leads to a build-up of sugar, which candida is very fond of!
And where do heavy metals fit in?
Heavy metals are being talked about more and more, which is just as well, because they are potent toxins, not least in the digestive sphere. Chronic digestive disorders can also be made worse by their presence, whether mercury, lead or cadmium. They disturb the gut flora, the integrity of the digestive mucosa and enzyme function. Their accumulation alters the body’s mineral balance and weakens digestive function, particularly in SLOW metabolic profiles. The HTMA test can detect the presence of certain heavy metals and, at the same time, assess the status of the protective minerals (zinc, selenium, calcium…) that are essential to support natural detoxification mechanisms and restore optimal digestion. Zinc, typically, is an excellent ally for clearing mercury from the body. But where exposure is excessive, the body draws on its zinc reserves to handle that detox, which can come at the expense of our digestive health for the reasons I set out above!
In this extract from an HTMA test, there is significant exposure to mercury, shown as Hg, which is causing my client to over-use her reserves of selenium (Se) and zinc (Zn). The Se/Hg and Zn/Hg ratios should sit at the top of the scale, in the white band. When they sit low down, as in this example, we understand that the client needs both to reduce her mercury exposure and to improve her zinc and selenium status in order to prevent a range of health problems.
Maud’s story: the impact of stress on digestion
Take the example of Maud (name changed), who had suffered for several years from bloating, wind, chronic fatigue and joint pain. A difficult family situation generated constant stress, which made her digestive symptoms worse.
Her HTMA test revealed excess calcium, a very slow metabolism (SLOW), and an imbalance between sodium, potassium and calcium.
We worked together on several fronts:
- Support for gastric acidity with betaine HCl, to reduce fermentation • Mineral rebalancing with B vitamins, zinc, vitamin C and potassium • Targeted adrenal support
The result: renewed energy, joint pain gone, a clear improvement in digestion! But the follow-ups showed a direct link between peaks of stress and mineral imbalances. Whenever the emotional context became tense again, her metabolic profile slowed once more, with a sluggish digestive system and fatigue as the symptoms.
This experience shows that digestive and mineral support can stabilise symptoms, but that stress management remains an essential key to maintaining balance over the long term.
In summary
The digestive system rests on far more than diet: minerals, enzyme activity, acid-base balance and stress all play a major part in how well it works.
The HTMA test is a valuable and almost indispensable tool in my practice for:
- Identifying mineral deficiencies or excesses
- Adjusting micronutrient intake
- Understanding the impact of stress on digestion
- Working in a truly individual way
If you have persistent digestive symptoms despite a healthy lifestyle, it may be worth exploring what your mineral terrain reveals.
Want to find out more? Watch Julia’s video interview with Simplycure.
