Micronutrients, way to test for them

[MCS]

This phamphlet was in my wife's Doctors office. It explains the roles of micronutrients in the management of D and whre to get them tested.

Here is the link to thier website:

SpectraCell Laboratories (http://www.spectracell.com/)

What they do from what I have read is work with your doctor and test for all of the micronutrients that are thought to be defecient in Diabetics. Warning you if any are low and allowing you to replenish them before any harm is done to your body. Sounds pretty interesting.

[DeusXM]

Given that we actually don't know the causes of diabetes, or really what treats it other than oral hypoglycaemics and insulin, I'm not entirely sure how they can assert that certain vitamins play an important role in the treatment and prevention of diabetes.

In any case, if deficiencies in those vitamins causes problems....well, evidently the vast majority of people must get those vitamins somehow naturally (which is why most people don't have diabetes). So therefore, to be low in those vitamins either indicates a poor diet or an underlying genetic cause - ergo, it would make much more sense to deal with either of those issues, instead of chugging a load of vits and hoping for the best. A bit like how having a working pancreas is better than having to take insulin, you know?

In other words, this is mumbo jumbo bull**** designed to extract a little more money from the pockets of the perpetually credulous.

[MCS]

I don't think so. Are you not the least bit interested to find out if with in all of your proper diet you are not defecient in any of the micronutrients. The testing involved here makes no claims in treating D, it is only a tool to determine if you are defecient in any micronutrients that have been found to be low in people with D. They are not selling you anything other than information of your own body. How can you be so sure you are not defecient in any micronutrients?

[DeusXM]

The testing involved here makes no claims in treating D

Oh, no, the testing certainly won't treat D. It's just that obviously if the test finds you are apparently deficient in micronutrients, you can take them because they "all play a role in the prevention and treatment of diabetes."

This sort of thing is unfortunately what happens when you have an entirely privatised medical market. If it had been clinically proven that these things actually matter, it would just be provided as part of the standard clinical testing, like an A1C or creatinine test. Instead, it's a private company hawking its wares through an alarmist leaflet with no evidence of any scientific backing. I checked out SpectraCell. "Lipoprotein particle test"? "Measuring levels of 11-dehydro thromboxane b2?" Measuring "the length of a patient's telomeres in relation to the patient's age"? This isn't really stuff that individual patients should be deciding to get done in the first place unless they happen to have a medical degree.

Look, let's face it, there's a wealth of information out there about what constitutes a healthy diet and you don't need to pay for some special test to find out whether or not you've got enough chromium in your diet. I'm not disputing that vitamins and minerals play an important role in maintaining good health but the fact stands that if you're eating sensibly, you're getting those vitamins. I mean, christ, the leaflet's even got a picture of what you should be eating to get those nutrients, do you really need to pay for a test that will essentially say 'eat more veg'?

Also, what on earth does it mean when a test says it measures 'antioxident status at the cellular level?' This all sounds far too similar to that blender that was being hawked on here a few months that apparently did things at the cellular level.

When you've worked in marketing and PR you can spot this nonsense a mile off, where scientific sounding terminology is used to describe really basic stuff in an effort to make it sound more important than it actually is. It's a really simple trick and it's exploitative.

How can you be so sure you are not defecient in any micronutrients?

Can I be honest? This isn't really a question that keeps me awake at night. Simply put, if I'm healthy (and I am, by the way), evidently I've got enough chromium and glutathione for my body's requirements.