Nearly 50% of people taking a multivitamin and eating a “healthy diet” are still deficient in some vitamins and minerals.
Blood testing panels done through conventional means only tell part of the story when it comes to your overall health. Standard lab testing panels during annual exams or check-ups are looking at static markers of blood levels that can change from day to day. These lab tests also show the nutrients that are in the serum, meaning the area outside the cell, that may be more reflective of short term status versus long. To gain better insight into your nutritional health, looking intracellularly, or inside the cell, is the best practice. Additionally, looking at cells that live longer in the body can give more of a “report card” of what has been going on instead of a quick “pop quiz”. Micronutrient testing of white blood cells, which have a half-life of around 4-6 months, in addition to red blood cells and serum allows practitioners to see what nutritional deficiencies have been ongoing for months at a time. With this knowledge, targeted and therapeutic supplementation is prescribed to correct your biochemistry and enhance your bodily functioning.
How Nutritional Deficiencies Can Affect You
Each one of us is biochemically different, so nutritional requirements from one person to the next varies greatly. Factors such as the capacity to digest, absorb, and utilize the nutrients you consume are also different among each person. Our body is ultimately to results of hundreds and thousands of biochemical reactions that are predominantly dependent on nutrient cofactors, which include vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids.
Supply and Demand: The first area to address that leads to chronic nutritional deficiency is a scenario of supply and demand. Our body runs primarily off of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, and other metabolic byproducts. Some of these essential nutrients can naturally be produced in the body, but the majority of nutrients must be supplied through the diet and supplementation. Conditions that demand increased levels of nutrients include inflammation, chronic disease, cancer, oxidative stress, strenuous exercise, stress, and lack of sleep. Even a “perfect” eater can be lacking in providing enough nutrients through the diet because demands are too high to be met.
Supply of nutrients through the diet may be lacking due to the decreased nutritional composition of the current food supply, losses of integrity due to increase distance traveled from time of harvest to when the food arrives at the grocery store, and the consumption of processed foods that are devoid of nutritional value.
Digestion/Absorption: A proper diet and supplementation is all for naught if we are unable to absorb the nutrition we are consuming. Our ability to absorb nutrients from food and supplementation is affected by several factors which include prescription medications, inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, suboptimal digestive enzyme production, stress, aging, alcohol consumption, excessive caffeine intake, and exercise.
Utilization: Due to genetic variances, each one of our ability to utilize certain nutrients is different. Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) are inherited genetic variations. In order for our body to make new cells, it copies genetic sequences and replicates them over and over. If one of these sequences is out of order missing a piece, it results in abnormalities to the way the body functions. 
How is Intra & Extra-Cellular Blood Testing Superior to Conventional Blood Panels?
Micronutrient Panel looks at 35+ different vitamins, minerals, amino-acids, fatty acids, metabolites, antioxidant status, and overall immune system functioning within the cell to give you a “big picture” view of your current nutritional standing. An analysis of the results will provide insights into a pattern of nutrition deficiency associated with conditions that could be occurring at the cellular level that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Based on the results, supplementation and dietary changes to correct the deficiencies to enhance metabolic pathways may be prescribed.