Why Is Hair Follicle Drug Testing Better?

     Hair follicle drug testing is a new alternative to urine testing which is more reliable is easier to conduct. Unlike urine drug testing where the collection of the sample requires privacy and thus promotes a multitude of evasion methods. Hair follicle drug testing is much more reliable since it goes back up to 90 days depending on the test and the type of test conducted.

The only sample required is hair of the subject which is analyzed to detect evidence of drug abuse. As usual with any abuse detection test in the market, there are products which are purportedly capable of cheating the hair follicle drug testing process and returning a clean result. The more prominent among these that are doing brisk business over the internet are the so called cleansing shampoos. They only succeed in cleaning the exterior of the hair and leave the inside with trace amounts of illegal drugs as evidence.

In contrast, there are masking agents available to cheat the urine drug tests that are in wide use right now. Just the fact that in most cases the urine samples are collected in privacy enables the subject to provide a falsified or tampered sample for the test. Hair follicle drug testing is better on this front because the person in charge of the test can personally collect a sample and ensure that there will be no tampering of the sample.

Conducting a hair follicle drug test is child’s play with all those do-it-yourself drug test kits available in the market today. All you have to do is order a test over the internet and once the kit arrives, just follow the instructions on it accurately. Hair follicle drug testing works on the principle that when a drug is injected (or otherwise infused) into the blood stream which nourishes the growing hair follicles, a marginal but traceable amount of the drug is left on the hair follicle. Even after the hair follicle grows out, a trace amount of the drug is still left there which could be detected in the laboratory.

A half inch of hair sample could resolve into a 30-day history of drug abuse after being subjected to hair follicle drug testing. If the sample as 1.5 inches long, the rule of thumb dictates that up to 90 days of drug abuse history can be ascertained. People who are contemplating shaving their heads to evade the test could use the fact that body hair could also be used to test for drugs. The result of the tests is not affected by the use of bleaches or shampoos of any kind. It would be comforting to know that second hand smoke of weed is not detected in hair follicle drug testing.

Hair follicle drug testing is precise and sophisticated process, the low point being that it is also a slow process. A proper hair follicle test could take as long as 3 months before the results are returned. This obstinate delay in the availability of the result puts many people off, but the accuracy of the results and the general reliability of the method is an advantage that surely overrides any drawbacks of this process.

The amusing fact is that no matter whether you chose to agree with the credibility of hair follicle drug testing or not, this testing methodology is gaining wide opinion and devout followers. The future would see the elimination of urine drug tests in favor of this test for sure. The odds weigh in favor of the hair follicle drug tests, and for obvious reasons.

This Article is written by Lena Butler, the author of TestCountry Health Information Resources, a longer version of this article is located at Why is hair follicle drug testing better? and resources from other home health and wellness testing articles are used such as TestCountry Drug & Drug Testing FAQ.

Marijuana Withdrawal Symptoms - Common Signs of Detox

       Many regular and heavy pot smokers go through withdrawal when they first quit weed. The detox period tends to last between 10 days to a month, and is worst in the beginning. Quitting marijuana can produce both physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms.  The most common symptoms are discussed in detail below.

Anxiety and Restlessness - All dressed up and nowhere to smoke!

Anxiety is one of the biggest hurdles in the first couple weeks of quitting. The anxiety that is felt during quitting is usually minor relative to a full blown panic attack - but it is constant! You need to be prepared to deal with emotional and mental state you will be in for the first couple of weeks when you quit smoking. Some of you will know what I am talking about. I have searched through couch cushions, the garbage, and all of the other places just to find a roach or a little nugget to feel at peace. I describe it as missing something, and needing to get back to a stoned state so that you can relax again. You may notice you are holding a lot of tension and not breathing well in the first week. Keeping yourself busy will help some, but it won't make this feeling go away.

Insomnia and Racing Thoughts

Insomnia is a big deal in the first couple days of not smoking cannabis. There have been times where I have not slept for a couple of days. This always passes. If smoking weed makes you relaxed and tired, not smoking can make you stress out and your mind race.  It can take a while for your sleeping patterns to get back to normal. Usually within a month you will have more regular sleep patterns and get a full nights sleep. It is important to keep a regular sleep / wake schedule when going through marijuana withdrawal.

Vivid Dreams and Nightmares

As any pothead knows, marijuana seems to interfere with the dreaming mechanism of consciousness and either keeps you from dreaming, or keeps you from remembering them. When you give your body a break from marijuana, the dreams come back - and sometimes with a vengeance. If you haven't dreamed in a weeks, months, or maybe even years, this aspect of marijuana withdrawal is very strange. Memories from years ago may resurface in dream form. I remember having a dream of classmates from high school that I hadn't seen in over 10 years!

Nightmares are common when you go through marijuana withdrawal. These can be incredibly vivid and involve people and places you know. I have had several dreams where I thought the world was about to end and I have woken up in a sweat before.

Some people dream about marijuana, and some smoke marijuana in their dreams. This is completely normal and part of the detox process.

Loss of Appetite

One of the most common symptoms of marijuana withdrawal is a lack of appetite. This usually lasts for 3 to 4 days after the last time you smoke. You can almost think of it as the opposite of the munchies. Fast food doesn't taste the same with Mary Jane!

Don't be surprised if your appetite shrinks, or that you aren't interested in food for a couple days. You may even lose some weight when you go through cannabis withdrawal. The lack of appetite can be a part of a more general feeling of sickness that has been described as low-level flu like symptoms. Very few people report diarrhea or nausea, but it does exist for some of us.

When I quit smoking weed, my diet improved. I have experienced the loss of appetite, and even the runs during the first week of quitting.

The Sweats - Did someone turn up the heat?

This is one that I have experience only a couple of times after not having weed for few days. I think it caused from the stress, tension and anxiety of not smoking weed. I do know that after smoking (succumbing to temptation) the sweats dissapear immediately. One trick when dealing with this, is to think of it as cleansing and that your body is cooking out the THC and your are speeding up your recovery. If you are going to get hot, might as well enjoy it!

Are you sick of being a slave to weed? Have you tried and failed to quit before? Do you want to avoid withdrawal when you quit? For more information on how to quit weed, visit John A Mckee's website today at http://www.marijuana-addict.com and kick the habit for good!

Marijuana Detox - Harder Than You May Think

And when they have been able to score their hits, the effects of smoking their marijuana have left them unable to focus on school, work, or the simple tasks of daily life. Being marijuana dependent puts you on the fast track to failure, and is one good reason why, if you suspect that you are among the marijuana users who will develop an addiction to weed, you need to consider marijuana detox. Marijuana detox is a controlled process which will let you withdraw from marijuana use so that your cravings for the drug will end.

Marijuana Detox As A Solution

You can undergo marijuana detox in a drug detoxification and rehabilitation facility, where you will spend as long as it takes withdrawing from the drug so that your body no longer has accumulated residues to trigger your need for a joint. Marijuana detox is the first step in a substance abuse rehabilitation program, which will not only get you sober, but will let you confront the reasons why you became dependent on marijuana to being with.

Withdrawing from marijuana dependency, however, will be a physically challenging process, because the residues from marijuana will remain in your system much longer than those of many other drugs. The toxins left behind by marijuana usage will collect in your fatty tissues, where t hey can be difficult to flush out. You can have traces of THC, the ingredient responsible for the marijuana high, remaining in your system for as long as a month after you have last used the drug.

Why You Need A Marijuana Detox Center

The difficulty in removing all traces of marijuana during withdrawal is one reason why marijuana detox should be performed in a drug rehab center. You may need medical assistance and transition medications to help you manage your cravings for weed once you have begun the withdrawal phase of your treatment. For that, you'll need medical specialists experienced inhaling the marijuana detox process.

Marijuana detox is also capable of producing some seriously nasty side effects, showing up as early as the first day. You may develop restlessness and anxiety, sleeplessness, headaches, weight loss or lack of appetite, stomach pains and nausea, vision problems, and even impotence. In extremely rare cases, untreated marijuana detox symptoms have proven fatal.

Given the potentially dangerous side effects which can interfere with marijuana detox, the only safe way you can take it on is with the help of a staff of medical professionals at a good drug detoxification and rehabilitation center. You'll be given whatever psychological and medical remedies you need to get you through worst of your withdrawal symptoms.

And you'll be in surroundings which encourage you to decrease your use of caffeine, get regular exercise, eat healthy foods and drink lots of clean water, and learn to relax with meditation, all techniques you can use to keep you healthy and away from marijuana when you return to your regular life.

You can also find more info on detox patch. Detoxbliss.com is a comprehensive resource which provide information about Diet.

All You Need to Know about Hair Follicle Drug Testing

           Hair sample drug testing is a great way to detect whether or not a person has used drugs in the past 90 days. Whether in an office format or in the home, hair drug testing serves the purpose of answering questions about an individual’s drug use history.

How Does Hair Follicle Drug Testing Work?

Hair drug testing is actually quite simple and merely requires a sample of hair in order to be completed. Parents who are worried about their teen’s use of drugs can collect a strand of hair from their pillow. Employers can request a sample from their employees. Once a hair sample has been collected, it is sealed in an envelope and sent to a participating laboratory for completion. Hair testing is fast and more accurate than other drug test forms.

For instance, hair sample drug testing can detect drug use for up to 90 days after use. The detection window is much larger in hair drug testing (compare it to few days for urine and saliva based drug testing) because trace amounts of drug chemicals become trapped inside each hair. A simple lab test can detect these trace chemicals making for either a positive or negative test result. Once the results are recorded, you are sent notification of the results. Some companies even provide a phone service where you call in, enter an account number and retrieve the results in that way.

What Kinds of Drugs Can Hair Drug Testing Detect?

Hair sample drug testing can detect all of the major types of drugs, including marijuana, opiates, methamphetamines, PCP, ecstasy, and cocaine. Hair follicle drug testing can detect the trace amounts of illicit substances trapped in the cortex of the hair for up to 90 days after use.

Employee drug testing programs often incorporate hair follicle drug testing into their plans because of the sheer accuracy of these tests. Even though hair testing is more expensive that a urine drug test kit, for example, they can provide a level of accuracy that is nearly ten times that of other testing methods. Likewise, hair follicle drug testing does not involve the embarrassing collection of samples like that of urine or saliva drug tests. In most cases, a few strands of hair is all that is needed to obtain accurate results.

Parents can also benefit from hair sample drug testing. Hair testing is discrete and confidential. An individual can be tested without their knowledge, making it so parents can know the truth about their teen’s drug use first before making accusations. By using hair drug testing in the home, parents can safeguard their teens against drug abuse, and help them quit the abuse should test results come back positive.

More information about this article can be found at Hair Drug Tests. The article is prepared by Serhat Pala who runs the website TestCountry.com. Some of the information used in this article is taken from : All About Hair Drug Testing

A Look at Hair Drug Testing

Drug testing has become very common in both the workplace and schools within the last twenty years or so. Generally, urine testing is the most common form of drug screening. Many people are creative in their efforts to beat drug tests and have formulated many products to mask the appearance of drugs in the system. Products such as masking chemicals and even synthetic urine are widely available, and even the most severe cases of drug abuse may go undetected. Because of the ever-expanding market of products designed to help a drug user pass a screening, many employers are turning to hair follicle drug testing.

Although hair drug testing is significantly more expensive than urine, sweat or saliva testing, many employers consider the benefits to outweigh the costs. Employers are often pleased with the fact that hair follicle drug testing is less intrusive, is generally more sensitive to detecting drugs and can detect them up to twice as far back as other methods, and can show whether or not the employee has ceased to use drugs recently in an attempt to cover up usage. It is also more difficult to mask drugs in the system when using this type of test.

The hair follicle drug test requires taking a sample of the employee’s hair; usually just a small snippet of hair is taken and is considered less embarrassing than urine collection. A human resources employee or other official within the company can often perform the hair collection on-site. The sample is then sent to the laboratory for washing and testing. Labs generally wash the hair prior to testing in order to reduce the risk of picking up drug chemicals that may have come from external sources, rather than actually ingesting the substance.

Although most employers still rely on the urine analysis for detecting drugs among employees or prospective employees, others are recognizing the benefits of hair follicle drug testing. Most people are aware of various methods in which to beat the urine test; in some cases even resorting to purchasing urine from a “clean” friend. Hair drug testing is virtually unbeatable by current masking products. Although some products claim to mask the appearance of drugs in hair samples, most are based on false or inaccurate claims. Hair follicle drug testing has been proven to be more effective and less invasive than other alternatives.

Drug Testing Info provides detailed information about employee, random, high school, hair, and urine drug testing and drug testing kits. Drug Testing Info is the sister site of Prescription Drugs Addiction Web.

How to Use a Drug Test

        This article will discuss the most common type of drug test, the "Dip Test". Dip drug tests come in 1 to 12 panel test configurations. A one panel test will test for one drug at a time, a two panel tests for 2 drugs at a time, etc.

Most dip tests come individually packaged in foil pouch (one test per pouch).

DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS

1. Allow the test panel and urine specimen to equilibrate to room temperature (15-30°C) prior to testing.Bring the pouch to room temperature before opening it. Remove the test panel from the sealed pouch and use it as soon as possible.

2. Take off the cap outside of the test end. With arrow(s) pointing toward the urine specimen, immerse the test panel vertically in the urine specimen for at least 10-15 seconds. Do not pass the arrows on the test panel when immersing the panel. The same procedure is followed for a multi-panel test card.

3. Place the test panel on a non-absorbent flat surface, start the timer and wait for the colored line(s) to appear. The results should be read at 5 minutes. Do not interpret results after 10 minutes.

Please note: dip test assays provide only a preliminary analytical test result. A more specific alternative chemical method must be used in order to obtain a confirmed analytical result. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) has been established as the preferred confirmatory method by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Clinical consideration and professional judgment should be applied to any drug of abuse test result, particularly when preliminary positive results are indicated.

INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

NEGATIVE:* Two lines appear. One colored line should be in the control region (C), and another apparent colored or a faded color line adjacent should be in the test region (T). This negative result indicates that the drug concentration is below the detectable level.

NOTE: The shade of the test line region (T) will vary, but it should be considered negative whenever there is even a faint colored line.

POSITIVE: One colored line appears in the control region (C). No line appears in the test region (T). This positive result indicates that the drug concentration is above the detectable level.

INVALID: Control line fails to appear. Insufficient specimen volume or incorrect procedural techniques are the most likely reasons for control line failure. Review the procedure and repeat the test using a new test panel. If the problem persists, discontinue using the lot immediately and contact your local distributor.

For more information on how to use drug tests visit the website: http://www.uatests.com/drug-testing-information/how-to-use-drug-tests/index.html

The Future Of Drug Testing - Hair Sampling

      One may consider the hair as a person’s crowning glory. In fact, most people spend hours in front of the mirror fixing their hair. Aside from making each one of us look good, the hair has yet another function you might be interested in. In today’s modern world, there comes another way of detecting drugs in individuals. Yes, using the hair! And it is actually the most accurate method of detecting drug abuse in individuals. It can detect drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, opiates and the like. It is known as the hair drug test.

1. Ten Times More Effective Than Urine Drug Tests

With this kind of modern and convenient method, it is now easy for schools and even employers to test students and employees to determine whether or not they have drugs in their system. Hair drug tests come in handy kits with instructions on how to get hair specimens, then send it to the laboratory for evaluation.

2. How It Works:

According to studies, when a person takes in drugs, as with any other substances, such as food, medicines, or drinks, it mixes with our blood, and as we all know, the blood nourishes all parts of our body, including the head. Hints of these chemicals then become trapped or filtered through the hair follicle, thus, as the hair grows, these chemicals are stored in the hair. Interestingly, these chemicals become a part of the hair itself.

- Very accurate

- Chemicals in the hair can be traced

- Traces not just drugs in system at the time, but over the past three months!

- A two-inch sample can give that persons drug history for a four month period of time

- Hair drug testing is much more costly than urine testing

- Hair testing is now widely used due to it’s effectiveness

3. How It's Done:

- A hair drug test involves cutting a minimum of 50 strands of hair

- Hair must be cut approximately one and a half inches from the scalp

- Hair is then sent to the drug testing laboratory

- The hair is actually screened and reviewed, then liquified for final testing

- There are lots of hair drug testing kits available today

4. Hair Drug Testing Kits

Hair drug testing kits, though widely available, are not affordable. Prices range from $50-$69 for a complete kit. Laboratory processing fees are usually included when you make your purchase.

One point of view to consider tough - a positive test result does not automatically mean the person uses illegal drugs. In fact, positive results are sometimes triggered by other legal substances. One maybe is under medication or taking maintenance medications, or over-the-counter medications. It is wise therefore, that when the confirmation test comes back positive, it is important for a doctor, nurse, or other specialist to review the results and determine if illegal drugs are indeed the guilty party.

5. Beating Hair Drug Tests Is Impossible

Now other smart individuals are finding ways and means to beat the hair drug tests. Some say one can pass it through a kind of shampoo, especially from companies that claim that their shampoo cleans off all the toxins in the hair, but they are wrong. These toxins are already part of the hair follicle’s structure, cleaning it will literally mean taking it all off. The hair is like a plant. If a plant grows in a toxic environment, it will absorb toxins and toxins will become part of its structure - no amount of shampoo will change that.

As we cannot clean off toxins in the hair, can we mask it by bleach or dyeing one’s hair? Maybe for a time, yes we can. But then, our skin is made up of fatty tissues. These fatty tissues are responsible for storing toxins in the body. When our body sweats, it gives off skin oil and release toxins, and these will be touched and be absorbed by the hair. It’s like a cycle. The masked hair will then be contaminated once more.

Others shave off their hair, but sad to say, toxins don't leave the body anytime soon. If you are being kept in confinement, your hair will slowly grow back in, and your drug use history will come back for all to see with it.

For more great hair drug test related articles and resources check out http://www.topdrugtesting.com