The Hidden Stressor in Her Home

What an epigenetic hair analysis prompted us to investigate

In the summer of 2017, Margaret was my houseguest for the weekend.

A fellow health coach and friend, she had travelled from her small ski-resort town to check out a wellness show happening at the Vancouver Convention Centre with me.

I was new to the world of epigenetic hair analysis, excited by its potential. I offered Margaret a complimentary analysis because I wanted practice going through the 30-page report before I began sitting down with paying clients.

Margaret happily offered up four strands of hair, roots attached. Sorry Margaret.

Neither of us expected her results to be particularly exciting.

A skier in the winter and mountain biker in the summer, Margaret was the picture of health—literally. Chocolate was about the only vice she admitted to, and as far as I was concerned, that ranked pretty high on the list of acceptable choices.

I practiced my health-coach explanation of epigenetics: the idea that gene expression can be influenced by things like environment, nutrition and lifestyle.

In other words, our bodies are continually responding to what is happening around us and within us.

We started scrolling through Margaret's report.

Most of it was fairly unremarkable.

Until we reached the page labelled Environmental Challenge Indicators.

There it was:

RADIATION.

A substantial piece of the pie chart was bright red, indicating that it was something worth investigating further.

That got our attention.

A report gives you questions—not a diagnosis

An epigenetic hair analysis isn't the same thing as a conventional laboratory test, and it isn't a diagnostic tool.

I don't use it to diagnose disease or tell someone that they have been exposed to a particular substance.

I use it as a wellness tool—a way of identifying areas that may be worth asking more questions about.

And that's exactly what we did.

“Have you been on a plane recently?”

No.

“Have you had any X-rays?”

Also no.

We sat there trying to think of anything in her recent life that could explain why radiation had shown up as a significant environmental stress indicator.

Eventually Margaret asked, “Does this mean something like cell-phone radiation?”

That type of environmental exposure appeared elsewhere in the report and hadn't been identified as a priority for her.

So we kept thinking.

And researching.

Eventually, we landed on something neither of us had initially considered:

Radon.

The thing she couldn't see, smell or know was there

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that can enter homes from the ground.

You can't see it. You can't smell it. And without testing, you generally wouldn't know it was there.

As it happened, I owned a radon detector.

I'm someone who researches everything, and after moving into an older house, radon had made its way onto my personal list of things I wanted to check.

So Margaret borrowed my detector and took it home.

About a week later, my phone rang.

Her radon reading was elevated.

Margaret then had the result investigated further and confirmed professionally. She ultimately had the radon problem in her home remediated.

We were both stunned.

The hair analysis hadn't diagnosed radon in her house.

What it had done was give us a reason to ask a question we otherwise may never have asked.

And that is one of the things I find most interesting about this type of analysis.

Sometimes you don't know what you don't know

Margaret hadn't lived in the house for very long, which was reassuring.

But she also had no obvious reason to suspect there was a radon issue in the first place.

There was no smell.

No visible sign.

No symptom pointing directly toward her home.

Without that curious little red section of her report, I don't know that either of us would have thought to investigate it.

Over the years, that became one of the things I appreciated most about using hair analysis in my practice.

Sometimes a report simply confirms what you already suspect.

Other times, it gives you a completely different place to start looking.

Nutrition.

Environment.

Lifestyle.

Stress.

Sleep.

Patterns you hadn't previously connected.

I don't see the report as an answer sheet. I see it as another source of information—something that can help guide the conversation about what may be worth changing, supporting or investigating further.

Curious about your own report?

I offer epigenetic hair analysis as a stand-alone service through Quiet Owl Wellness, and I also use it as part of my longer coaching programs.

Your analysis includes a personalized 30-page report that we review together, looking at the areas identified as priorities and discussing practical ways you may be able to better support your nutrition, environment and lifestyle.

Book your Hair Analysis appointment and find out what your report may encourage you to look at differently.

Not quite ready to book?

Send me an email and ask for a sample report. I'll happily show you what the analysis looks like and what kind of information is included.

Thanks for reading,

Heather