Jensen Schoonover is an FNTP and her main focus right now is teaching practitioners how to use Hair trace Mineral Analysis (HTMA) in their practice. If you’re not sure what an HTMA is, read on because you’ll learn so much in this post.
Jensen’s first dip into the natural health world was as a teenager. She struggled with acne and tried many things to clear it up. But, it was a naturally-minded esthetician that recommended that she try a colon cleanse for her acne. Within a month, her horrible acne was gone.
A few years later, Jensen struggled with pain from endometriosis. Throughout the next 10 years, and 3 surgeries, she still had a lot of pain and no answers. Her pain was so bad she would sometimes pass out from it. The doctors really had no answers for her except to give her birth control pills.
This not only threw her cycle out of whack, but also caused depression. At that point her doctor then wanted to put her on anti-depressants, but she knew there had to be a better answer.
Jensen stumbled upon the book The Magnesium Miracle and was fascinated by how magnesium is involved in so many functions and reactions in our bodies. At that point she started taking magnesium and within a month she wasn’t having any more cramps.
Jensen knew she had to learn more, so she signed up for the nutrition program through the Nutritional Therapy Association. As she completed her certification on that, she learned about HTMA and knew she had to learn more.
What is a hair trace mineral analyisis?
In case you’re still wondering what HTMA is, it’s a test that involves cutting a few inches of hair close to the follicle. Through this sample, you can see the metabolic activity of one’s body because it’s locked into the cells of the hair. Jensen goes on to explain that with blood, the body is always working to bring it back into balance. So, if it has excess of something, such as minerals or heavy metals, it will deposit it into the tissue which is why it can be seen in the hair. The same is true if the body needs something, such as calcium or magnesium, it will also pull it from the tissue, so this test can also show deficiencies in minerals as well.
This test is easy to do by a client at home, and it’s completely non-invasive, but the insight on health is so valuable. Jensen explains that this is not a diagnostic test, but rather information gathering to see what is out of balance in the body and what can be done to bring it back into balance. Every mineral affects every other mineral, so if one is off, it’s likely having an effect on many functions in the body.
Minerals are essential to overall health and function of the body because they are like the spark plugs in your car. If they’re not working properly, you can forget about that engine even starting to be able to evaluate how it is running.
Jensen Schooner
There are both macro-minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium. And then there are trace minerals such as zinc, iron, chromium, etc. Minerals are essential to overall health and function of the body because they are like the spark plugs in your car. If they’re not working properly, you can forget about that engine even starting to be able to evaluate how it is running.
Why are minerals so important?
Minerals are involved in thousands of enzyme reactions in the body. Processes such as contracting and relaxing every single muscle in your body, yes things like your heart as well. Minerals are also involved in transferring nutrients in and out of every single cell in your body. They’re also involved in the overall pH balance of the blood and body as well. It’s important to note that our bodies cannot manufacture their own minerals though, and we need to get them through food or supplementation.
Through the HTMA, you can also see patterns of stress in a client. When someone is stressed they burn through minerals and this will show up as an imbalance. Similar to my conversation with Michael Rutherford about functional blood chemistry, the HTMA also looks at the ratios of minerals to each other rather than individual levels.
There are ratios that can indicate how well certain organs like the thyroid or adrenals are functioning, based on the profile of the minerals. Jensen has found the thyroid ratio very helpful for her clients because so many people, women especially, have symptoms of thyroid dysfunction, such as losing hair and cold hands and feet. This despite having a “normal” thyroid test.
How to learn about HTMA
Jensen’s program, the Instant HTMA Professional, helps practitioners to start using HTMA in their practice within a month of joining. The lessons are short (less than 20 minutes long), and to the point. The program walks you through the process of reading the test and understanding what patterns you’re looking for and what that means for your client.
Jensen is a self-professed data nerd and has also created an amazing app that helps you to analyze and understand your client’s results. Lifetime access to this app comes along with taking the course. She also teaches you how to prioritize where to start with your client. This is so important because there’s so much information to be taken from the results that it can be hard to know where to start with a client.
She wraps up the course by teaching practitioners how to build a business around using HTMA. Jensen started her business with zero clients when first implementing the HTMA test into working with clients. It wasn’t long before she had a wait-list of clients wanting to work with her because of the word-of-mouth from other clients and the value they saw in this information they were getting from working with Jensen.
There are many RN’s and Pharmacists who have gone through the Instant HTMA Professional program and found it to be a great fit for stepping out and truly helping people with their health.
If you’re interested in going through Jensen’s Instant HTMA Professional program, use code BECCA50 to save $50 on your enrollment.
You can find Jensen on Instagram here.
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