Vitamin tests to order for son

[Christianmom]

I have an appointment with my son's lyme doctor on Friday. He is going to run some bloodwork (don't know what) and I am going to ask him to also order a vitamin D 25 hydroxy test as recommended by my son's homeopath. I was curious if anyone could suggest any additional vitamin deficiency type of tests that I should ask the lyme doctor to order.

 

If anyone is interested, my son's homeopath has an e-book on vitamin D called "Here Comes the Sun: Preventing Chronic Disease with Vitamin D."

Here is a link:

http://www.foroptimalhealth.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=339&Itemid=4

 

You have to get it through him directly.

[LNN]

Not sure if this is your first appt with this doctor or not. If it is, you obviously have to walk that line between letting him be the expert and yet also advocating to the best of your ability. That said, in the vitamin arena, we tested for many mineral levels and also did two urine tests - one from Doctor's Data for heavy metals ($60) and the other thru Vitamin Diagnostics (now Health Diagnostics and Research Institute) for KPU ($70).

 

If you have KPU, you excrete zinc and B6 in your urine without allowing the body to properly utilize them (thus, blood tests may show no problem with the levels of these yet the body is starved for them). Zinc is essential for the immune system and B6 is important for neurons and brain functions. This explains it much better than I can http://betterhealthguy.com/joomla/images/stories/PDF/kpu_klinghardt_explore_18-6.pdf

 

Other non-vitamin tests we've found very helpful are C3a and C4a complexes and Shoemaker's list of mold related markers (MMP-9, MSH, etc - hopefully others will chime in on this - not my area of expertise).

Edited July 25, 2011 by LLM

[Christianmom]

Not sure if this is your first appt with this doctor or not. If it is, you obviously have to walk that line between letting him be the expert and yet also advocating to the best of your ability. That said, in the vitamin arena, we tested for many mineral levels and also did two urine tests - one from Doctor's Data for heavy metals ($60) and the other thru Vitamin Diagnostics (now Health Diagnostics and Research Institute) for KPU ($70).

 

If you have KPU, you excrete zinc and B6 in your urine without allowing the body to properly utilize them (thus, blood tests may show no problem with the levels of these yet the body is starved for them). Zinc is essential for the immune system and B6 is important for neurons and brain functions. This explains it much better than I can http://betterhealthguy.com/joomla/images/stories/PDF/kpu_klinghardt_explore_18-6.pdf

 

Other non-vitamin tests we've found very helpful are C3a and C4a complexes and Shoemaker's list of mold related markers (MMP-9, MSH, etc - hopefully others will chime in on this - not my area of expertise).

 

Did your insurance pay for any of these test you mentioned--mineral levels, heavy metals, KPU, C3a, C4a, mold markers?

[LNN]

All the tests were run through labs that accepted insurance (most of it thru Labcorp) except the two urine tests - those were out of pocket.

[Christianmom]

Spectracell is good. http://www.spectracell.com/

What tests would you have done from this lab? Thank you.

[Christianmom]

Not sure if this is your first appt with this doctor or not. If it is, you obviously have to walk that line between letting him be the expert and yet also advocating to the best of your ability. That said, in the vitamin arena, we tested for many mineral levels and also did two urine tests - one from Doctor's Data for heavy metals ($60) and the other thru Vitamin Diagnostics (now Health Diagnostics and Research Institute) for KPU ($70).

 

If you have KPU, you excrete zinc and B6 in your urine without allowing the body to properly utilize them (thus, blood tests may show no problem with the levels of these yet the body is starved for them). Zinc is essential for the immune system and B6 is important for neurons and brain functions. This explains it much better than I can http://betterhealthguy.com/joomla/images/stories/PDF/kpu_klinghardt_explore_18-6.pdf

 

Other non-vitamin tests we've found very helpful are C3a and C4a complexes and Shoemaker's list of mold related markers (MMP-9, MSH, etc - hopefully others will chime in on this - not my area of expertise).

[Christianmom]

Not sure if this is your first appt with this doctor or not. If it is, you obviously have to walk that line between letting him be the expert and yet also advocating to the best of your ability. That said, in the vitamin arena, we tested for many mineral levels and also did two urine tests - one from Doctor's Data for heavy metals ($60) and the other thru Vitamin Diagnostics (now Health Diagnostics and Research Institute) for KPU ($70).

 

If you have KPU, you excrete zinc and B6 in your urine without allowing the body to properly utilize them (thus, blood tests may show no problem with the levels of these yet the body is starved for them). Zinc is essential for the immune system and B6 is important for neurons and brain functions. This explains it much better than I can http://betterhealthguy.com/joomla/images/stories/PDF/kpu_klinghardt_explore_18-6.pdf

 

Other non-vitamin tests we've found very helpful are C3a and C4a complexes and Shoemaker's list of mold related markers (MMP-9, MSH, etc - hopefully others will chime in on this - not my area of expertise).

 

 

Did you have to have a doctor's order for the urine tests KPU and heavy metals? And what exact test for heavy metals did you have run? Thank you.

[LNN]

Did you have to have a doctor's order for the urine tests KPU and heavy metals? And what exact test for heavy metals did you have run? Thank you.

Yes, you need a doctor's signature. You can get a test kit sent directly to you from Doctor's Data but then need a doctor to sign the order form. We did the urine heavy metals test. http://www.doctorsdata.com/test_info.asp?id=4FYI - it's a test that requires provocation with a chelating agent. Our LLMD used DMSA - which is an FDA approved chelating agent for children, but requires a doctor to prescribe (i.e. can't be prescribed by a naturopath or non-MD).

 

Also, just be aware that this test has been criticized because it gives results of a post-chelated sample and compares them to a reference range of samples that were non-provoked. Some say "duh - most provoked samples will be higher than non-provoked ranges and lead you to assume you need chelation. The lab should compare apples to apples" Here's the full argument: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/urine_toxic.html

 

We did the test 4 weeks ago. I spoke with another patient who sees our LLMD and he is apparently now suggesting both a pre and post-chelating test so you can compare results. It's an extra $60 to do a second test, but it seems like a good idea.

[Christianmom]

Did you have to have a doctor's order for the urine tests KPU and heavy metals? And what exact test for heavy metals did you have run? Thank you.

Yes, you need a doctor's signature. You can get a test kit sent directly to you from Doctor's Data but then need a doctor to sign the order form. We did the urine heavy metals test. http://www.doctorsdata.com/test_info.asp?id=4FYI - it's a test that requires provocation with a chelating agent. Our LLMD used DMSA - which is an FDA approved chelating agent for children, but requires a doctor to prescribe (i.e. can't be prescribed by a naturopath or non-MD).

 

Also, just be aware that this test has been criticized because it gives results of a post-chelated sample and compares them to a reference range of samples that were non-provoked. Some say "duh - most provoked samples will be higher than non-provoked ranges and lead you to assume you need chelation. The lab should compare apples to apples" Here's the full argument: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/urine_toxic.html

 

We did the test 4 weeks ago. I spoke with another patient who sees our LLMD and he is apparently now suggesting both a pre and post-chelating test so you can compare results. It's an extra $60 to do a second test, but it seems like a good idea.

 

My son's lyme appointment was yesterday (second one) and the doctor ordered a heavy metals blood test through LabCorp. Is that OK? He also ordered vitamin D, magnesium, sed rate by mod west, cbc with differential, aso, and complete metabolic panel (to check for liver and kidney damage from antibitoics) tests and signed for me to get the KPU test done. He added rifampin to my son's amoxicillin 2000 mg and biaxin 1000 mg. He wants to try this for two months and expects to see improvement. If there is no improvement, he seemed to be ruling out lyme as a factor in my son's illness.