Laboratory Testing Information

In this section, you will find the tests I most often recommend to my patients. There are thousands of different blood, stool, urine, saliva, and other tests available through doctors and hospitals. We do not need to test everything under the sun; we just need to focus on what tests are required to help us find the root cause of our health problems. Every test has some value, but testing is very expensive, especially for individuals like my patients who pay out of pocket, so we try to focus on the most useful tests only.

The following list shows the tests we most often use in our office. On occasion, we have to branch out from these tests, but for more than 95 percent of our patients, these are the tests we use to help them regain their health and optimize their well-being. The most useful test by far is the Organic Acid Test, followed by the routine blood tests and then the DUTCH hormone test. Of course, we select different tests depending on the symptoms and complexity of each individual. I am providing a brief overview of these tests for you here, so you will have a reference as to which tests are most useful to you in your quest for optimizing your life and your health.

Organic Acid Test (OAT)

The Organic Acid Test (OAT) is an incredibly useful tool. The OAT is a urine test that is run through a complex chemical analysis to evaluate the levels of 75 individual molecules. Basically, the OAT is testing your urine for volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, just like the VOCs that were once present in paint. The OAT can tell you a great deal about your chronic health issue. I like the OAT specifically because it helps me answer the following questions:

• How much yeast and bacteria are in your body?
• What species of yeast and bacteria are present?
• How many oxalates are in your body?
• Do you have high or low catecholamines?
• Do you have high or low serotonin?
• Do you have enough methylation occurring in your cells?
• Are you high or low in B vitamins, antioxidants, glutathione, etc.?
• Is your body able to burn fat for fuel?
• Are your mitochondria strong, or weak and inefficient?

Over the past 3 years, I have seen more than 500 OAT results from my patients, and it has been an incredible asset. It enables us to connect the dots between your gut, your brain, your mitochondria, and your genetics like no other test in existence. Obviously, if you want to use all the cutting-edge information found in Your Genius Body, you need a high-quality test like the OAT to get you started.

The OAT I recommend is provided only through Great Plains Laboratory (800-288-0383, www.greatplainslaboratory.com). Other companies offer an “organic acid test” but they omit oxalate testing and also have fewer yeast (aldehyde) and bacterial (phenol) markers. Suffice it to say, you are better off spending your resources on the Great Plains Test as it is the most useful OAT on the market.

The cost for this test is still $309 as of fall 2017. Some insurance plans cover this test (make sure to ask Great Plains Laboratory for details), so it could be even less expensive for some of you. For anyone with a chronic health problem whose doctors are scratching their heads, the OAT from Great Plains Laboratory should be at the top of your list for testing.

Routine Blood Tests

Many of you will be familiar with some or all of these tests. I would call these lab tests “routine” in that they should be done from time to time. Nothing fancy here—just good ol’ preventative medicine. They help to make sure all the major metabolic systems in your body—liver, kidney, immune, methylation, blood sugar, adrenal, pancreas, etc.—are being properly supported. I would recommend they be performed on a yearly basis to monitor health and progress regardless of the diagnosis or label you have been given. 

The blood lab tests I recommend for my patients include the following:

• CBC with differential
• Comprehensive metabolic panel
• Ferritin
• HgA1C
• Homocysteine
• hs-CRP
• Insulin
• Iron
• Lipid panel
• Erythrocyte sedimentation rate
• TIBC
• Vitamin D 25-OH

These tests are performed together first thing in the morning, after fasting approximately 12 hours. (Fasting is required only for the comprehensive metabolic panel, lipid panel, and the insulin, but since we usually do them all together, we include the fasting instructions to our patients). These tests are very common and should be available through any hospital, medical doctor, or lab company such as Quest or LabCorp.

Chronic Virus Blood Tests

Sometimes routine blood tests and OAT are not enough by themselves. In many cases of patients with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, adrenal weakness, and brain fog, there is evidence of viral involvement. In other words, many people with chronic health issues are actually suffering from an unrecognized and untreated virus infection. Virus infections can persist under the radar for weeks, months, or even years if our immune system is not able to address the infection adequately. In many chronically ill and chronically stressed patients, the immune system is operating far below 100 percent, making chronic virus issues more common.

Viruses replicate by putting their DNA inside our DNA. When infected with a virus, the viral DNA actually hijacks our own cellular machinery, forcing our cells to make more copies of the virus. Instead of making proteins and molecules to help us heal, the virus directs the cells to reproduce more invaders. We discussed in chapter 3 how our body uses methyl groups to regulate genes, and to repress them and turn them off. When our genes are methylated, they get a carbon atom with three hydrogens stuck on top of them and they are turned off. Since we know viruses insert themselves into our own DNA, the viral DNA acts just like a gene—it can either be silenced or expressed via the methylation process.

My opinion is that people with MTHFR and methylation-related issues are more susceptible to chronic viruses because they are less able to methylate fully and turn off the viral DNA inside their cells. And there truly is a lot of viral DNA inside our cells. Recent research suggests that 40 percent of our human DNA is “parasitic” residue left behind by viruses either we or our ancestors encountered! If your methylation is weak, and you had mononucleosis in eighth grade, it can come back 20 years later during periods of high stress. The way to make sure you do not have a chronic virus is to do the testing listed here.

Blood tests for chronic virus infection include EBV, HSV-1, HSV-2, VZV, and CMV. You want to test the IgM and IgG levels for all these viruses. These tests are also available through any hospital, medical doctor, or lab company such as Quest or LabCorp.

CHRONIC VIRUS PROTOCOL:

In addition to taking L-Lysine and B6 from chapter 5, I recommend the following supplements whenever patients uncover a hidden or chronic viral infection:

Ganoderma Plus – 2 capsules 3 times per day. Ganoderma spore powder is a highly concentrated extract of Reishi mushroom. This plant helps increase white blood cell function and has proven very effective for helping the body get rid of chronic viral infections.† (Nutridyn)

L-Glutamine Powder – 2 tablespoons 3 times per day with or without meals. Glutamine helps to increase the total number of white blood cells; it helps our white blood cells do a better job of clearing infections.† (Nutridyn)

Immune Support – 1 tablet per day with or without meals. Provides broad-spectrum nutrients to assist the white blood cell function, increase glutathione, and help clear viruses.† (Nutridyn)

I have one last thing to mention regarding viral IgM and IgG tests. There is some confusion in the medical system about what a positive test means. Any positive result on these viral blood tests indicates an active infection. If your test comes back and either one or both of your IgG or IgM levels are elevated for any virus, it means you are in the process of fighting it.

†This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information provided in this book is intended for your general knowledge only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment for specific medical conditions. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider with any questions or concerns you may have regarding your condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read in this book.

An infection that happened 20 years ago will have undetectable levels of IgG and IgM. The reason for this is in the half-lives of IgG and IgM. These molecules at most have a half-life of around 20 days, which means approximately 3 months after you got over mono, for example, the test should come back normal. If you still have elevated viral antibodies weeks, months, or years since you had the illness, it indicates the virus has reactivated. Don’t worry though, because you can use natural medicine tools to assist your immune system and optimize your methylation cycle so this problem is taken care of once and for all. Contact our office for a consultation and we can help you with a personalized virus-killing protocol.

Comprehensive Stool Test

Comprehensive Diagnostic Stool Testing involves sending in a sample of your stool to a laboratory for analysis. Normally for gut health, I use the OAT because it provides information about yeast and bacteria, and this is usually enough in most cases. When the OAT doesn’t provide enough detail about the gut environment, my next favorite tool is to use a stool test. This type of testing detects the presence and species of pathogenic microorganisms such as yeast, parasites, and bacteria that contribute to chronic illness and neurological dysfunction. Where the OAT will tell you if you have high phenols and/or aldehydes, etc., the stool test will directly identify which specific pathogens are in your GI tract. Obviously, this is helpful information for many who have a chronic intestinal problem that has resisted routine treatments. In addition, this test provides helpful information about prescription and natural products effective against specific strains detected in the sample. The test also evaluates beneficial bacteria levels, intestinal immune function, overall intestinal health, and inflammation markers.

Because most of my patients are working with us out-of-pocket, we simply don’t go overboard on testing. That said, sometimes a stool test is very useful; it is up to you and your doctor to decide whether the test is right for you. My favorite lab for performing stool testing is the GI Map test from Diagnostic Solutions Laboratory (877-485-5336, diagnosticsolutionslab.com).

DUTCH Hormone Test

One of the newest tests available for understanding your hormones is a dried urine test. The Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones, or DUTCH test, has become a valuable tool in my office for helping patients. As many of you are aware, there are several methods for hormone testing, and they all have some value. Blood tests are still used as the primary method of hormone testing by our medical system, and they accurately reflect the levels of hormone in the blood stream. Saliva testing is the next method many are familiar with. Saliva has the advantage of measuring the amount of the hormone that gets into your cells, which is more accurate than which levels are in the blood. But neither of these tests give you nearly the information found with the DUTCH.

What sets this test apart is how thorough it is in measuring your body’s hormone system. The DUTCH test will measure not only your sex hormones—progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, and estrogen—but it will also measure several adrenal stress markers as well. The DUTCH test measures a total of 35 different hormones, which is by far the most in-depth test available. But that isn’t even the best part. Not only does it measure the three different estrogens (estrone, estradiol, and estriol) as they circulate through your body, it also measures the estrogen metabolites that come from the detoxification process in the liver. In other words, the DUTCH test gives you instant feedback on how well you are detoxifying the estrogen-related hormones through the phase I and phase II systems. It shows who is at a greater risk for estrogen-related cancers due to an excess of 4-OH and 16-OH estrogen metabolites.

This test helps me identify which patients are at risk of hormone-related health problems; it shows me who needs methylation support and who needs support for improved estrogen-related detoxification. I recommend the DUTCH test because it is affordable, easy to collect, and provides data that no other testing method can.

To order this test, contact Precision Analytics (503-687-2050, https://dutchtest.com/shop/) and select the DUTCH Complete test kit. This test kit costs $399 as of fall 2017, and to my knowledge is not covered by insurance plans. However, we are able to offer this exact test to our patients for only $250. The difference almost covers the cost of a new patient consultation so it makes sense to reach out to our office and get on our schedule!

SIBO Breath Test

The gold standard test available for detecting SIBO is called the Lactulose Breath Test. Basically, you drink a highly fermentable liquid and then measure the increase in methane and hydrogen-sulfide gas over the next 2 or 3 hours. Most tests use a 2-hour measure, but some new tests now offer a 3-hour sample. This test is usually performed in a doctor’s office, where you exhale multiple times into a special sealed container and send that to the lab. I usually diagnose SIBO by symptoms and by looking at the OAT results. However, there have been cases where OAT results were fine but the patient still had a strong case of SIBO, so the correlation isn’t 100 percent. Like any test, use the SIBO breath test as a way to confirm your suspicions and justify major changes to your diet, lifestyle, supplements, etc. Before you make major changes to your life, it helps to have a test that confirms that you indeed have a problem.

Many labs offer this testing. We use Genova Diagnostics (800-522-4762, www.gdx.net) for the Lactulose SIBO Breath Test. The cost for this SIBO testing is usually between $100 and $200. 

Sulfite Urine Test

Quantofix sulfite test strips are available on Amazon.com and are designed to test sulfite levels in liquids such as urine, wine, beer, etc. Be cautious when ordering that you are in fact purchasing sulf-“ite” strips and not sulf-“ate” strips, they sound alike and can be confused for one another. Test your urine midstream 3 times daily and record your results, first making sure the pH of the urine is greater than 6.0 (you may need to use pH test strips to confirm). If the test strip shows any evidence of sulfites in your urine, this indicates that you need molybdenum supplementation.

For an adult, I recommend molybdenum supplementation from Thorne, Molybdenum Glycinate. Standard dosing in our office is 1 capsule 2 times per day with meals for 60 days, and then reduce the dose to 1 capsule per day ongoing for support. Once you have been on molybdenum support for 3 to 4 months, it is fine to stop taking the supplement and check your sulfite levels occasionally to monitor molybdenum levels. If molybdenum levels remain undetectable in your urine, you do not need additional molybdenum support. If sulfite levels return after a period of time, it simply indicates the need for continued molybdenum supplementation.