STEP UP AND STEP DOWN PATTERNS ON A HAIR MINERAL TEST

by Lawrence Wilson, MD

Ó December 2011, The Center For Development

Step up and step down patterns on hair mineral analyses are very interesting and important patterns on hair tissue mineral biopsy tests. They are not the most common patterns, but can give us great insight, at times.

They are visual patterns, which means they can often, but not always, be visualized on the calibrated hair analysis charts from Analytical Research Laboratories. They are not visible on the graphs from other laboratories that I am aware of. The hair testing lab must not wash the hair for accurate mineral readings.

STEP UP PATTERN

This is fortunately rare. The definition of the pattern is a fast oxidation rate, combined with a double low ratio pattern. A double low ratio pattern means a calcium/magnesium ratio less than about 3, and a sodium/potassium ratio less than about 2.5. In addition, in our experience, so far, a four highs pattern or even possibly three highs must not be present.

This pattern appears visually like steps that ascend from the left side of the hair analysis chart toward the right. Hence the name step up pattern.

Meaning. A double low ratio pattern is, itself, rather uncommon, and found in some fast oxidizing children and a few adults as well. It reinforces all the symptoms and conditions associated with a low sodium/potassium ratio.

These include such symptoms as exhaustion, cardiovascular stress, a tendency for angina, arrythmias, heart attacks, malignancy, and diabetes, among others. All double low ratio patterns are what I call ‘death patterns’. This means that a person is not moving in the right direction. It does not mean a person is dead, or about to be dead. It only means that the direction of movement or health is not good.

With the step up pattern, the double low ratio pattern is combined with a fast oxidation rate. This is an acute stress and inflammatory pattern. It is also a very high stress tendency, and a tendency to be less self-aware and less relaxed.

This combination is not a healthful one. A step up pattern is an extreme chronic stress pattern that usually indicates a trend or tendency for an acute and perhaps disastrous health problem such as a heart attack or stroke, in our experience. It is more often associated with cardiovascular disease and acute, than with other types of acute conditions. It is thus a death pattern that may be called a disaster pattern or acute or fast death pattern. It is fast and reckless, the opposite of step down pattern, which is slow but sure.

Psychological meaning of step up pattern.

A person with this pattern, usually a man, by the way, is very stuck, moving in an outward direction (fast oxidation) when he should be looking within to make important life changes. He is under tremendous stress, burning out (low Na/K ratio doubled or reinforced by a low Ca/Mg ratio), and so he is in trouble.

It often indicates a futile attempt to stay in an egotistical pattern of pushing oneself hard or striving hard and “pushing through life” (a fast oxidation rate), when this attitude or response to life or to a particular situation just is not working. It is an intense striving pattern that is not producing results because it is not the appropriate response for the person at this time. Metaphorically, one might say it is a ‘hardening of the heart’ that is very dangerous.

Note that this does not mean that everyone with this pattern has psychological problems. In some cases, the pattern is mainly due to biochemical imbalances. However, in many cases, it has an mental/emotional component as well.

It may also be called a stuck in fast oxidation pattern. Visually, the pattern appears like a person running headlong into a wall, represented by the elevated potassium level on the right of the four macrominerals on the graph.

A type of deep conflict pattern. A conflict pattern means that a clash is occurring between two powerful but opposing forces. In this case, one of the forces at work on the person is a fast oxidation rate. This is a more aggressive, pushing forward, hard-driving, and more ‘male’ approach to life.

However, this tendency is in conflict with or opposed by a double low ratio pattern. The latter is a severe weakness, depleted-of-energy, reversed pattern. The person is pushing ahead on one hand, but the gearshift is in reverse, in a way, so it is not working at all! Perhaps it is more like having one foot on the gas pedal of the car, and the other on the brake pedal. This is very wearing on the engine.

The person is trying to push ahead at full speed, but the direction is blocked, like having the brake on or the car is pushing against a solid wall or rock. As a result, the body is becoming very weak and depleted.

Who has the pattern? The step up pattern is most often seen in:

1. Usually a man, in my experience, though certainly not always.

2. Perhaps a less emotionally mature person.

3. A person who needs to be more “spiritual” in some fashion and may not know how to do it, so he is just doing things as best he can, but not well enough.

4. One is ready to die, in a way, rather than change. One is so stuck in the ego in some way that the body is sacrificed, usually with a heart attack, stroke, cardiomyopathy or other cardiovascular accident or catastrophe.

5. A person who is under some type of stress that he cannot cope with properly.

6. The person is usually very angry underneath. This is associated with iron toxicity and step up is usually an iron personality type. The person is usually very smart, somewhat bitter and cynical, and rather rigid underneath, even if this is not apparent.

7. The pattern can occur in a child, again usually but not always a male child. Here it is less of a death pattern. The child is usually able to resolve the pattern into slow oxidation, which is a new way of coping with life.

CORRECTION, AND THE RELATION OF COPPER AND IRON TO THIS PATTERN

Needless to say, a step up pattern is one of the most important patterns to correct as quickly as possible. Dr. Paul Eck found that copper supplementation is needed for just a few situations on a hair mineral analysis. These include 1) fast oxidation, 2) a low sodium/potassium ratio and, 3) at times, a low calcium/magnesium ratio. It so happens that a step up pattern includes all of these situations!

This means that copper is a key to turning around this hair analysis pattern. An adult with this pattern may need up to 10 or 12 mg of copper daily to alter the pattern.

Copper is what is called a female mineral, meaning that it often gives a quality of softness and gentleness to a person, and it is needed more for women in some ways. It appears that the step up pattern is a certain type of rigidity and “male” approach that is hard-driving, stubborn and does not give up easily. When the pattern is present, this approach to life is causing extreme and dangerous stress on the body.

Giving a lot of copper, along with the other nutrients required for this pattern, seems to help “soften” the pattern and eventually reverse it. This is an interesting concept, and relates to the step down pattern as explained below. It may also “soften” or feminize the person so that he, usually, is less stubborn and stuck in the pattern.

Iron. A step up pattern has a quality of stubbornness and strength about it that is strongly associated with excessive and biounavailable iron in the body. People with step up pattern may be called “ironheads”. This is not a complimentary term and refers to a quality of hardness, stubbornness, and perhaps a Type A personality. They can be “hard-ass” or “tight-ass” people. They are moving forward, but at another level are reversed and “losing altitude” fast.

Iron is an older ‘male’ mineral, that is rather hard, strong but inflexible, and rather brittle metal. Iron accumulates in the amygdala and is associated with feelings of anger and rage. This is exactly the quality a person displays when in a step up pattern.

Copper and magnesium, seem to act as iron antagonists with this pattern to help balance the person physically and mentally/emotionally. These minerals are critical to turn the pattern around. One might “wiggle out of the pattern”, but the personality of the individual makes this difficult. Instead, they tend to speed up, become more toxic with iron, and perhaps become energy vampires to maintain their direction and this pattern for a little longer.

By the way, holistic doctors and naturopaths can and often do kill patients with this hair mineral biopsy pattern by giving them incorrect nutrients. In this case, these include B-complex vitamins, vitamins C and E, zinc and potassium. Giving thyroid or adrenal support can make them even worse. These supplements all tend to increase the oxidation rate and lower copper, the opposite of what is needed in this situation.

Step up and its relation to the Beam Me Up, Scottie pattern. Beam Me Up pattern. Described on this website, causes higher sodium and potassium readings and may be somewhat related to a step up pattern. Beam me up pattern is often related to eating a lot of fruit.

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STEP DOWN PATTERN

In some interesting ways, this is the opposite of the step up pattern, and appears this way visually. Instead of steps ascending to the right, it appears as steps descending from the left to the right on the hair chart.

The pattern is defined as a slow oxidation rate combined with a double high ratio pattern. This means the sodium/potassium ratio is above about 5 and the calcium/magnesium ratio is greater than about 9. Also, the pattern does not apply if a four lows pattern is present, and perhaps not if a four highs pattern is present with it.

This is a complex conflict pattern. Slow oxidation is associated with fatigue, burnout, exhaustion and introversion. A double high ratio, however, is associated with aggressiveness, acute stress, moving forward, attack and so on. Once again, the person is in this conflicted state with these two conflicting patterns. However, in step down pattern a person is moving ahead, “making a move” or “moving on out” slowly but surely.

MEANING OF STEP DOWN PATTERN

We find step down pattern far more common in women. It may combine with a calcium shell or sympathetic dominance in which a person is pushing oneself hard. The person is often very determined to move ahead in his or her life, in spite of great odds against it, or fatigue, or illness, perhaps. The person is often moving ahead slowly, with this pattern, and doing well, even though the energy level is low. It is thus a pattern of overcoming odds against oneself, and slowly pushing forward in one’s life. One can call it “digging in one’s heels” and moving ahead in spite of obstacles.

Developing the will. One may say that the step down pattern is about developing the quality of focused and concentrated will in one’s life. This is in contrast to a step up pattern, which is associated with a need to develop the quality of love and surrender, and to move past the lower will of the ego. I know this may sound vague, but it indicates how the bodily mineral patterns can relate to developmental states of a human being.

ROLE OF COPPER, ZINC AND SELENIUM IN THE STEP DOWN PATTERN

Copper. Slow oxidizers tend to have too much copper, some of which is generally biounavailable. They usually have what we call amigo copper, which is an oxide form that is irritating, and causes problems for them such as cloudy thinking and a scattered mind and intelligence. They may be extremely intelligent, but they are less focused than fast oxidizers.

Iron. They also have too much biounavailable iron in almost all cases. This raises the sodium level and can give rise to a high sodium/potassium ratio. They also have too much of the other “amigos” in almost all cases, such as aluminum, and biounavaillable chromium, selenium, nickel, molybdenum, cobalt, boron and others.

Other toxic metals. Most slow oxidizers also have at least some of other toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. This is the situation in these individuals.

With step down pattern, giving copper would make the person much worse because it is already too high inside. (The hair copper level is irrelevant and a very poor indicator, unless it is less than 1.5 mg%, which indicates excessive and very hidden copper.) Instead, these people need a diet and supplementation without copper, and perhaps they need the supplementary nutrients that help reduce copper in the body.

Zinc. Dr. Eck discovered that when the sodium/potassium ratio is high, one needs a lot of zinc. Zinc tends to lower this ratio. It is even more necessary when the double high ratio pattern is present. Step down pattern is a more yin or feminine-unbalanced pattern (high copper and slow oxidation). One of the most important minerals for this pattern is a “male” mineral, zinc.

Selenium. Also, another male mineral, selenium, may also be helpful or even essential. Selenium is an even more advanced or ‘spiritual’ “male” mineral that helps to reduce aggressiveness, and strengthens the body and helps with the slow oxidation rate as well.

High calcium/magnesium ratio. This imbalance, which is part of step down pattern, always relates to father issues, in our experience. This does not mean one does not like one’s father, but it has to do with attachments to the father that need work to resolve or mature, perhaps, is a better word. Step up pattern has the opposite situation, a low Ca/Mg ratio, associated with attachments or issues related more to the mother.

Sexual imbalances. In this way, and in others, step up and step down patterns relate to the sexual or gender issues and to the gender-related minerals in specific ways, and may represent imbalances in a person in this area of functioning. More research is needed to confirm this, but this has been our observation up till now.

Conflict issues. Step down is definitely a pattern related to some internal conflict. The person is determined to move ahead, but is blocked by either low energy or adrenal/thyroid problems, and possibly fear, anger and/or copper toxicity some difficulty focusing.

The presence of sympathetic dominance. Another common conflict with this pattern is a lot of sympathetic dominance. This has to do with difficulty transitioning into a relaxed slow oxidation metabolism when the body is weak. Those with step down pattern want to return to fast oxidation, and do not wish to slow down, which is what they need to do. Instead, they keep on pushing themselves hard. This can be very good, in that they are not giving up. However, it is hard on the body and not necessarily effective.

A need for grounding, or work on the first energy center. Sympathetic dominance, usually found with a step down pattern, is associated with a strong need for grounding. This is associated with the first energy center of the body, which is often somewhat weak.

Difficulty correcting the pattern. With sympathetic dominance and spiritual defensiveness present, step down pattern may be slow to correct. In contrast, step up pattern often changes quickly if the person is given the proper diet, supplements and lifestyle recommendations.

A more chronic type of pattern. Step down tends to be a more chronic, slow and sure, and life-giving pattern. Step up pattern is faster moving and somewhat reckless, and produces quick death in most cases.

About the heart. Both step up and step down have to do with the heart, both the physical and the emotional heart or soul. As mentioned above, step up pattern often ends up in a heart attack or stroke, and perhaps this is due to a magnesium deficiency and “not being in one’s heart”.

Step down pattern is often about too much heart and not quite enough will or power or proper grounding to follow through. They are coming from the heart, and need to move the energy downward to the lower “follow-through” power organs such as the adrenals and the kidneys.

Dr. Eck called potassium the follow through mineral.

Grief and step down pattern. Those with a step down pattern are often in a state of sadness or grief. This is related to a mild depression, and may be one reason the person is held back, at least in some cases.

Partial reversal patterns. Step down pattern involves reversal because the oxidation rate is quite slow in most cases. However, the Na/K ratio and the Ca/Mg are high, indicating a strong efforting tendency and underlying strength that may correct the situation.

In contrast, step up pattern indicates a fast oxidation rate, which is not reversed. However, both the Na/K ratio and the Ca/Mg are low, indicating a strong tendency for reversal, hostility, resentment, frustration and a deep weakness.

Stalled transition pattern. Both step up and step down may also be related to the concept of stalled transitions. Step up is a need to surrender and follow a different path. Step down may also be a need to relax and let go of some anger and “pushing”.

Trauma and step up/step down patterns. Trauma may be the cause, or a factor, in these two patterns. This needs more research at this time.

Relation to poor eliminator patterns. Both step down and step up patterns may predispose or cause poor eliminator patterns, as both are quite stressful for the liver and kidneys, which are primary organs of elimination. Also, step down often contains 1) sympathetic dominance pattern, 2) spiritual defensiveness pattern and 3) slow oxidation, a triple combination that can impair a person’s elimination processes.

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