Dr. Parsons offers vitamin and mineral testing that can determine a multitude of vitamin and mineral deficiencies such as vitamin B12, C, iron, and calcium and many others. Vitamin and Mineral deficiencies can lower the immune system and even lead to life-threatening situations if left unaddressed. These quick blood tests are safe and easily done and can help improve former feelings of fatigue and restlessness.
Dr. Parsons utilizes micronutrient testing through a unique system of testing your live white blood cells and testing these cells directly to determine deficiencies as developed by the University of Texas. Your blood will be drawn in the office and flown overnight to the clinical laboratory Spectracell. Please refer to the Spectracell Laboratories website for more information www.spectracell.com. Dr. Parsons also tests for and treats for MTHFR genetic variants.
SpectraCell’s flagship diagnostic test is the Micronutrient Test (MNT) which measures 31 specific micronutrients—vitamins, minerals, amino acids, antioxidants and metabolites—and how they affect cellular function in a person. If someone is deficient in a particular nutrient, the MNT will uncover this deficiency so that it can be effectively treated, thus facilitating real prevention. Not only will correcting intracellular deficiencies slow aging and degenerative disease progression, but it can also prevent as well as repair cellular dysfunction, and by extension disease.
What makes the MNT particularly relevant is that it takes into consideration a person’s biochemical individuality when assessing nutritional status. The MNT is performed intracellularly—it is not a static serum measurement—thus taking into account cellular absorption, metabolism and utilization in its nutritional evaluation of cell function, which correlates with tissue health and systemic health. Serum (extracellular) nutrients fluctuate wildly, are only a snapshot and tell you nothing about the functional health of cells. The MNT measures nutrient status, in the context of cellular function, over a period of 4-6 months. No other nutritional test compares.