How Does Your Child
START The Healing Program?
WITH TESTING.
Tests Help Eliminate the Uncertainties and Variables.
Tests Help to Individualize the Healing Program.
Only your child’s own physician can determine which tests are appropriate.
Therefore, you should consult closely with your child’s doctor, to decide which
tests are most important, most likely to be revealing, and are most affordable for
your family.
These tests will set the course that your child’s journey of healing will take.
I can not recommend which tests your own son or daughter should take, because
that is a decision that must be made by you and your doctor. However, I can tell
you which tests that I most often rely upon. I generally recommend four
fundamental tiers of testing, starting with the most basic tests, and moving on to
more specialized tests.
These are the three levels of testing I apply to my own patients.
Tier #1 Tests
These are primarily basic body chemistry profiles. They are very common tests
that almost all doctors routinely perform. They offer clues to frank pathologies, and
they also help to establish a baseline level of body chemistries, so that you and
your physician can monitor your child as treatment progresses.
The Tier One Tests include:
• Complete blood count.
• Basic urinalysis.
• Basic blood chemistry.
• Liver function.
• Kidney function.
• Electrolytes (including CO2 levels).
• Calcium levels.
• Magnesium levels.
• Blood sugar.
• Lipids.
• Cholesterol.
• Triglycerides.
• Thyroid function (including T3, T4, and TSH).
Even these basic tests can be confusing to people outside the medical
profession, so it is absolutely essential that you consult with a doctor.
Tier #2 Testing
These include nutritional and metabolic tests that I generally recommend to
almost all patients. These tests reveal the presence of the nutritional deficiencies
and excesses that are often the root causes of serious problems. They also
reveal metabolic dysfunctions that can cause troubling symptoms.
Unlike the Tier #1 Tests, these tests are not always routinely performed or ordered
by most conventional physicians. These tests often require the evaluation of a
doctor who is experienced in nutrition, and in the other aspects of integrative
medicine.
These Tier #2 Tests are frequently performed during the first office visit, but they
also may be ordered at subsequent visits.
The tests include monitoring the following:
• Minerals.
• Red blood cell or whole blood minerals.
• Plasma zinc.
• Serum copper.
• Urine organic acids.
• Plasma amino acids.
• Essential fatty acids.
• Fat soluble vitamins.
• Reduced glutathione.
• Lipid peroxides.
• Plasma cysteine.
• Plasma sulfate.
• Comprehensive digestive stool analysis (or CDSA).
In addition, as part of the Tier #2 Testing, I almost always order:
• Food allergy and sensitivity testing (for IgE and IgG reactions). This is
usually done by blood testing, but can be done by skin testing.
Tier #3 Testing
These are tests for more individualized problems. Therefore, many of them may
not be necessary for your child. Your physician can help you to determine which
ones are necessary. You and your child’s physician will be guided by your child’s
own unique signs and symptoms.
These tests include the following:
• Immune testing panels, which evaluate the following:
• IgA levels.
• IgM levels.
• IgG levels.
• IgG subclass levels.
• Lymphocyte subsets.
• Natural killer cell activity.
• Vaccine titers.
• Viral titers.
• Thyroid antibodies.
• Anti-myelin basic protein (MBP) antibodies.
• PANDAS profile.
• ASO titer.
• Anti-DNase B titer.
