I just got my Spectracell micronutrients test results back. It measures the presence of 33 micronutrients within your T-lymphocyte cells, taken from a blood draw. I did this through my primary care doctor for $88 since my insurance didn't cover it. However, I believe that was a special reduced price of some sort. Aside from the wide variety of things it tests for, the other thing that appealed to me was that it measures intra-cell levels instead of external levels. The two levels are not necessarily closely correlated.
It measures a lot of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (including CoQ10), and a few other things. Cellular levels of each are inferred by growing cells in a nutrient solution without the nutrient under test and comparing growth with a control solution with the nutrient. There's better info at their website: www.spectracell.com .
Turns out I'm deficient in B2, pantothenate, D3 (even tough I take 2000 IU a day and my normal lab test shows adequate levels), Glutathione, selenium, and vitamin E. That is compared to average levels in their "healthy" control testing.
So now I can supplement those and not worry about the others. I don't have to just blindly supplement just to make sure I'm not missing something. Or in my case, not supplement much of anything because I had no evidence or symptoms indicating that I needed to. That certainly appeals to the engineer in me.
It measures a lot of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (including CoQ10), and a few other things. Cellular levels of each are inferred by growing cells in a nutrient solution without the nutrient under test and comparing growth with a control solution with the nutrient. There's better info at their website: www.spectracell.com .
Turns out I'm deficient in B2, pantothenate, D3 (even tough I take 2000 IU a day and my normal lab test shows adequate levels), Glutathione, selenium, and vitamin E. That is compared to average levels in their "healthy" control testing.
So now I can supplement those and not worry about the others. I don't have to just blindly supplement just to make sure I'm not missing something. Or in my case, not supplement much of anything because I had no evidence or symptoms indicating that I needed to. That certainly appeals to the engineer in me.