Malter Institute Blog

From Dr. Rick: 

It has long been known that prolonged and intense stress eventually lead to the onset of disease and other health problems.  This is most likely due to inflammation that occurs with prolonged stress.  Being able to assess a person’s stress condition can be especially helpful in detecting this health factor if it can lead to a reduction in stress and inflammation.  There are two ways to assess stress and inflammation that reflect an increased risk of disease.

A hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) reflects a person’s stress status by the general mineral pattern that it shows, especially the relationship between sodium (Na) and potassium (K).  The more the sodium level exceeds the potassium level as shown in a high ratio of sodium/potassium (Na/K), the more intense is the stress reaction that the person is experiencing.  A high Na/K stress ration in a HTMA also reflects an inflammation condition.  However, such a high Na/K ratio reflecting an inflammation condition is a general factor.  The high Na/K stress/inflammation ratio does not localize where in a person’s body the inflammation is located.

The localization of where inflammation is in the person’s body can be assessed by doing a thermogram.  The thermogram results in a picture of different body temperatures in different parts of the body.  Warmer temperatures of inflammation are reflected in red in contrast to less inflamed cooler temperatures.  Thus, the color contrast in a thermogram localizes areas of the body where inflammation is most intense.

Thus, the combination of a HTMA with a thermogram provides a comprehensive picture of risk for disease and health problems.  The magnitude of the Na/K stress ratio in a HTMA reflects the presence of a serious stress condition associated with inflammation.  A thermogram localizes the areas of inflammation in the body.  Using the HTMA mineral pattern as a guide, anti-stress vitamins and minerals can be given to the person to reduce a high Na/K stress ratio.  This will reduce a person’s stress condition and tendency to develop inflammation.

Retests of the HTMA and thermogram allow us to monitor the effectiveness of a supplement program designed to reduce the intensity of stress and inflammation.

BONUS: Letter to the Editor of the Verde Independent Newspaper

Complex Health Issues:

  In regard to your excellent coverage of the mass protest against mandating the covid “vaccine” as a condition of continued employment at VVMC, there are complex health issues involved.  That was already evident to me last year when my op ed article was published by Dan Engler in the Verde Independent. We knew back then that a "vaccine” was already in the works since it was being developed at "warp speed."   But, most of us didn't know much about this new experimental "vaccine" other than the fact that it was going to be really a genetic medical treatment with mRNA components. We have since learned that it would also have large numbers of spike proteins that trigger inflammation that is damaging to people’s health.  Why mandate a shot that triggers inflammation such as myocarditis?   

During the past year, we also have been able to access articles and videos by MDs and researchers who have raised serious questions about the safety and effectiveness of these covid shots.     

As I reflect back on what we have been subjected to by the mass media and public “health” spokespersons during the past 20 months around covid 19, it seems very clear that the real agenda was to sell billions of dollars worth of covid shots that are highly experimental.   Censorship has dominated the covid narrative that has pushed for mass “vaccinations” regardless of the health of individuals or whether a person has had a covid infection and has natural immunity.

What is urgently needed to properly deal with this complex health situation is an open debate among MDs, nurses, psychologists, researchers, lawyers, and journalists to address the scientific and clinical data with complete transparency.  This is long overdue.

One of the major aspects of hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) is that it provides us with an overview of the dynamics of the mind/body mineral system. The more we understand these dynamics of the mineral system, the more clearly we see how it supports mental and physical health functions, We also see how mineral deficiencies and ratio imbalances lead to health breakdowns and disease unless they are corrected. This was the genius of the research breakthroughs that Drs. Eck and Watts achieved 40 years ago. This is why mineral balancing is so important.  The HTMA research of Eck and Watts also introduced a major paradigm shift linking minerals, stress, energy, the immune system and psychological functions.  This paradigm shift is like creating a whole new language.  Trying to communicate with others who have not studied HTMAs and minerals will present quite a challenge.  There is essentially a substantial language and concept difference between the HTMA paradigm and allopathic medicine concepts.  Virtually everybody is familiar with the allopathic medicine concepts and approaches to health issues.  But, only a very small group of us has made the paradigm shift to understanding and applying HTMA concepts.  I believe a strong case can be made that learning the basic concepts of HTMAs and mineral balancing should be the foundation of health education for everyone.  Such an advance in health education would empower many more people to take personal responsibility for their own health care.

The Joy of Teaching:  Transmitting Vital Health Knowledge to Others  

Rick Malter, PhD May 12, 2022  

Back in 1980, I was in a severe stress burnout with severe reactive hypoglycemia. My medical doctors were baffled about what was wrong with me even though I was in chronic fatigue and brain fog. Fortunately, I was working with a brilliant PhD educator, Ken Candelaria, who was doing cutting edge work with children who had learning disabilities or ADHD. One of the tests he was using was the hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) as a foundation for the nutritional recommendations he made. Ken saw what bad shape I was in and he urged me to get a HTMA. When he got the test results back from the lab, he recognized that I was showing a very severe magnesium deficiency. Ken was already aware of the research of Mildred Seelig, MD. She wrote about stress, magnesium deficiency, and heart attacks. Ken got my attention with these test results and put me on a supplement protocol that, of course, included a lot of magnesium. That restored my energy and normalized my blood sugar regulation. That also led me to attend the HTMA seminars given by the staff of the HTMA lab in Phoenix, Drs. Paul Eck and David Watts. I was amazed at what their HTMA research showed about minerals and health. Later, I learned that Henry Schroeder, MD made the observation that “minerals are the spark plugs of life.” I kept returning to Phoenix to attend more and more of the HTMA seminars. As it turned out, there was so much more to learn about HTMAs and how minerals relate to the autonomic nervous system, the endocrine glands, and the immune system. 

By 1984, I was ready to write my first paper on copper toxicity, one of the major mineral imbalances that is clearly reflected in the vast majority of HTMAs. Copper toxicity affects both physical and mental health. www.coppertoxic.com. As I incorporated HTMAs into my work with my psychology clients, individuals with depression, anxiety, and ADHD, I was amazed at how much these lab data added to my understanding of these individuals and their problems. Since I had learned the basic concepts and principles for interpreting and applying HTMA test results, each individual HTMA added to my understanding of this health breakthrough lab test. By 1994, I wrote an extensive article on HTMA and published it in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, HTMA and psychoneuroimmunology. The article included case studies as well as explanations of core principles and concepts. This article eventually became the basis for my HTMA book The Strands of Health that I wrote in 2002 after I retired to Cottonwood, AZ. Once I was settled in our new home in Cottonwood, I decided to offer seminars locally explaining HTMAs to local residents. As I was becoming more familiar with the internet and putting up a website, I started to receive inquiries about teaching my HTMA seminars online.  

One of the first inquiries came from a brilliant nurse practitioner who had over 40 years of experience in the medical field as a nurse in ERs, ICUs and other medical settings. He had already acquired a vast knowledge and understanding of lab tests and clinical diagnosis. He also became an expert at triage in the ER quickly recognizing which patients were most urgently in need of immediate care and treatment. I refer to this particular nurse as the “Big O”. Even though he was short in stature, he was really big in his medical knowledge and treatment applications. Since he was one of my first online HTMA students, I put together my best set of slides to effectively teach what I had learned about HTMAs, health, and nutrition. The Big O was constantly open to new learning and, with his medical background and experience, he quickly grasped the essence of HTMAs and integrated that new knowledge with his other medical training and experience. He was able to take his medical knowledge and applications to a whole new level. I was very pleased that I was able to teach something of unique health value to someone like the Big O who then integrated it into his own extensive medical knowledge and background. I felt like I had successfully transmitted HTMA knowledge very well and that it raised one medical expert’s knowledge to a whole new level. 

Another one of my top students is Rick Fischer who had seen first hand the devastating effects of female contraceptives on his relationship. Rick contacted me and wanted to know if I could help him to understand how a copper IUD could drastically change the personality of a woman and destroy a relationship. Rick took my HTMA training course and quickly began to understand how the female contraceptives build up excess copper levels that start a cascade of changes in the woman’s mineral system that affect her mentally as well as physically. This led Rick to doing extensive research on the female contraceptives and copper toxicity. The result of his research was that he built an outstanding website www.coppertoxic.com that has become a valuable resource of vital health information for thousands of women worldwide. He has truly become an expert on copper toxicity that devastates the mental and physical health of millions of people, especially women. 

Down under is another one of my top students, Abdul Saad, a brilliant young clinical psychologist. Due to his own health issues, he eventually found HTMA and contacted me to learn more He took my HTMA training course and followed it up with reviewing individual HTMAs with me. I was able to show him that, since HTMAs reflect stress and energy, these are psychological as well as physical tests. Stress involves “fight or flight”, anger and anxiety. Low energy often manifests as depression. Abdul has put together some outstanding videos on narcissists and empaths in relationships. Vital mind psychology.com. More recently, Abdul did a wonderful video interview on HTMAs and psychology explaining how HTMAs link mind/body and spirituality. He is so clear in his thinking about integrating mind/body and spirituality. 

Teaching HTMA concepts and principles to these special individuals has been especially satisfying to me. Transmitting HTMA to each of them and seeing how they were able to  absorb and integrate what they learned with their unique backgrounds and interests has been especially gratifying to me. I was not interested in creating clones of me, but to transmit vital HTMA information so they could make it fit their own unique interests and needs. This has been a great joy for me to teach and transmit vital HTMA concepts and principles to very talented individuals.

Coming Soon

There is a strong reciprocal relationship between stress and magnesium. Stress is reflected in the HTMA sodium (Na) level and the stress ratio (Na/K) This is why the HTMA is so vital when choosing supplements including such an important mineral like magnesium. Balancing minerals is a key concept here and has been for over 40 years thanks to the ground breaking HTMA research of Drs. Eck and Watts. The epidemic of copper toxicity adds to the complexity of magnesium supplementation because so many women (some males also) have a low Na level, a very low Na/Mg ratio (adrenals), and a very high Ca/Mg ratio. This is why a basic understanding of the dynamics of the mind/body mineral system is essential for understanding individual differences in response to supplementing with magnesium.  

coming soon

Coming Soon