Why We Use Comprehensive Laboratory Testing

1. Why Not Just Select Supplements Right Off the Shelf? Why not just go to the health food store and buy products that sound like they would address what you already know? For example, you could purchase tyrosine for your depression, lysine for herpes, taurine to lower cholesterol, GABA to calm you down and help you sleep, and so forth. We use state-of-the-art laboratory testing so that there is no guess-work in our "prescription." It is impossible to go to a health food store and buy the right amino acid supplements in the correct daily dosages if you have not been tested. You could waste a great deal of time and money and experience no benefit. In the process, you may have become demoralized about your health and may falsely believed that you "tried amino acid supplementation and it failed." Most importantly, therapeutic amounts of amino acids can throw the amino acid ratios in your body further out of balance, if you take the wrong supplements or the wrong amount of the right supplement. We test for 42 compounds - 41 amino acids and ammonia, the breakdown product of amino acid metabolism. We test for the 20 major amino acids and 21 minor amino acids. By testing for precise blood levels, we avoid countless mistakes that are inevitable if one goes on a hunch in picking out an amino acid program. A small example: our testing includes blood levels for phosphoserine. If phosphoserine is elevated, that indicates that you are deficient in P5P, pyridoxal 5 phosphate, the active form of vitamin B6, pyridoxine. P5P is required for amino acid reactions to take place. If you lack P5P and place yourself on a program of amino acids, without also adding P5P, your entire program will not work. That is just one example of how scientific testing removes the guess-work. Contrary to some holistic doctors' opinions, methods of analysis such as kinesiology, saliva testing, hair analysis, iridology, reflexology, and other approaches in that line of reasoning cannot yield laboratory results that match the accuracy and specificity of amino acid blood testing. Unfortunately, while kinesiology may support the intuition of the practitioner to some degree, it has nowhere near the predictive ability of an informed and experienced doctor who draws his conclusions based on percentages of amino acids that are deficient, normal or elevated. With all due respect to our colleagues in the many healing arts, we strongly suggest laboratory testing, followed by a more intuitive approach - and not vice versa. In other words, intuition is a valuable support to science, not a substitute for it. 2. A Comprehensive Workup - More Than Just Amino Acid Testing. An holistic approach may require a battery of tests,including: standard medical tests, x-rays, mri's, CT scans, results of a comprehensive physical exam, and amino acid testing - for starters. We do not wish to give the impression that amino acids are all there is, all that needs to be diagnosed or all that needs supplementation. Treatment at the Gersten Institute is frequently guided by further testing, each done at a particular laboratory, such as: Comprehensive stool analysis. If your "gut" is not working correctly, you will not absorb the supplements you require. Approximately one-third of our patients have gastro-intestinal problems that must be addressed, such as: candidiasis, dysbiosis, parasites, abnormal GI bacteria, malabsorption. Immunological testing We run tests that your average hospital or laboratory does not run. By so doing, we can pinpoint immunological problems, diagnose for chronic viruses that are becoming epidemic, such as: Epstein-Barr Virus, Cytomegalovirus, Human Herpes Virus 6 (HHV6), Lyme Disease, and much more. Allergy and Chemical Sensitivity You may eat a particular food and have a reaction to it that day. You'll know to avoid that food in the future. However, without testing, you won't know which foods produced a delayed hypersensitivity reaction. That means, a particular food may not produce a negative reaction within your body for 10 days after you've eaten that particular food. Vitamin Testing There are a number of ways to test for vitamins and several laboratories we use that give us and you the data. Mineral Testing In 1936, The U.S. government issued the results of a study, stating that our soil needs to have its minerals replenished every 3 years, and that without such replenishment, Americans would suffer a host of mineral deficiencies. Sixty years have passed and we haven't yet replenished our good farmland. As a result, almost all of us have mineral deficiencies. We can test you for this. However, because mineral deficiency is ubiquitous, high potency mineral supplementation is part of our standard supplementation program, and usually allows us to defer the testing and begin by providing these supplements at the beginning of a treatment program. Our approach is holistic. While amino acid supplementation is our starting point for bringing you back to health, we pay attention to all nutrients. Vitamins, minerals, amino acids and hormones are part of our medical program, and the medical program is part of a truly holistic approach, which also pays attention to the mind and spirit, and the power of the mind-body connection.

About Dr. Gersten               Please Read Medical Disclaimer

Amino Acid Home     The Power of Amino Acids     Getting Tested and Treated    Amino Audio

     Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Gulf War Syndrome      Amino Acid Tour