Micro Nutrient Testing, Get the Facts
By Tracey Philippi, BSN, RN
“University studies show that 50% of individuals taking multivitamins still remain nutritionally deficient”
- William Shrive of the University of Texas.
The above statistic begs the questions, are my vitamins and antioxidants doing the job? Am I eating right? Within the past months I have read numerous articles that have much to say on this topic. Many of the supplement companies make frequent claims on what they can do and in reality a lot of supplements are junk. The most important advice I give people is not to gamble with your health or your wallet. There are many reasons why we can have deficiencies even when you are taking a quality supplement. There can be absorption and gut issues, chronic illness, aging and lifestyle can all be factors in having deficiencies. Athletes are very susceptible to having a lot of free radicals and testing poorly on there antioxidant function tests. So basically I don’t mess around giving random advice on vitamins.
At Philippi Sports Institute I have implemented a Micro Nutrient Test that measures 34 different elements of nutritional status at the cellular level. This test, created by SpectraCell Laboratories, measures all fat and water soluble vitamins, elements of carbohydrate metabolism, amino acids, fatty acids, metabolites, individual antioxidants, and a marker of total anti –oxidant functioning called Spectrox. There are no other tests on the market that can measure intracellular performance of cells. So in a nut shell this is not your normal run of the mill serum test. Serum test are variable, depending on what you ate that day. This type of test gives invaluable information on how your body is functioning at the cellular level. Deficiencies at this level sometimes take 4-6 months to correct.
So my advice is don’t mess around with your health and get the most out of functioning at optimal levels through nutrition by getting the facts of knowing where you are at the cellular level.