Description: While the cause of autism is unknown, there are suggestions that excessive mercury or other toxic metals, and/or a lack of essential minerals, may play a role. The amount of toxic metals and essential minerals can easily be assessed by blood, urine, and hair. Hair is especially useful for toxic metals, as they are much more concentrated in the hair. Since hair grows at a rate of 1-1.5 cm/month, a 2-3 cm sample from next to the scalp can provide an average over 2-3 months. It provides a measure of what is being transported in the body during that time, but will not be able to detect earlier exposures. There has been some recent well-publicized criticism of hair analysis studies [1], but the major criticism centered on differences in results between different labs, some of which were using inferior equipment and less rigorous preparation techniques. Those concerns can be addressed by using a single high-quality lab, with blinded testing of subjects vs. controls. In a classic review of ov