Spectracell / Micronutrient Testing

[Richard Seaman]

I notice there are a couple older questions regarding micronutrient testing using Spectracell Labs, but nothing very definitive. I guess my first question is have you had any experience with this since the last posting (maybe 2018?). An do you think it's valid and useful?

My PCP recently talked me into running a test. It tests for 35 micronutrient levels in white blood cells. This is supposedly representative of a person's levels over the previous 4-6 months. The claim is that white blood cell levels are a proxy for the body's uptake overall. I supposedly have 2 "functional deficiencies" and 13 "borderline deficiencies". Her suggestion now is that if I correct these I might feel better still. Actually at age 73 I feel pretty good. She claims to have patients that are high level athletes and that correcting deficiencies has led to significant performance improvements among there athletes.

So, just wondering if you have a view on the overall concept. I could share my specific results but I'm more interested in your view of the overall concepts here. The report does have some nice color coded pictures of the Krebs cycle and the Citric Acid cycle along with the various micronutrients they test for and where in the cycles they play a role, as well as color coded to show where I'm normal or deficient. Kinda cool looking if it actually means anything useful. Other similar cool looking chars of the Methylation Cycle micronutrient roles.

[Robert Santana]

Do you have a citation for a validation paper or how they are measuring these things?

[Richard Seaman]

Do you have a citation for a validation paper or how they are measuring these things?

I don't have what you're looking for, I don't think. I do have a general description of what and how they measure that was in my test results and I tried to upload it. It looks kinda hard to read after this site reduce the size. But it wasn't a "validation", if you will. Nor do I see anything like that on their web site. I'll admit I haven't researched this in detail. I was hoping maybe you had prior experience with it. I do respect my PCP more than most, and she told me the test detected and resulted in a cure for a specific symptom she had. In my case I don't have what I would consider a specific symptom. Plus she has told me other patients of hers had identifiable benefits from correcting deficiencies. I guess that's why I agreed to spend monty on the test. I guess I'm also still skeptical and was just looking for a second opinion. I can definitely take a bunch of supplements and/or try to modify my diet and see if I get identifiable results.




Screenshot 2023-07-28 at 9.39.46 AM.jpg

[Richard Seaman]

Further follow up.
History and Technology
Introduction to SpectraCell: Micronutrient Testing - YouTube

The youtube video is kinda long but the first few minutes cover the testing methodology.

That's the best I have for now.

[Robert Santana]

It isn't very specific in how it measures micronutrient balance. The thing about micronutrients is that measuring your status isn't a simple as a blood test for that micronutrient. It really tepends on the micronutrient. For instance you can assess bone mineral metabolism by measuring serum phosphorus, calcium, and potassium. However, if you are assessing B-12, for instance, a serum B12 value tells you nothing, however, a methylmalonic acid test is more sensitive because B12 reacts iwth methylmalonic acid to produce CoA. If you are low in B12, then you guessed it, MMA levels increase. There are other examples of functional tests for other micronutrients, so I'm skeptical of a one-size-fits-all "micronutrient test."