Tests
Deficiency Tests
At Glenville Nutrition Clinic, the three tests that we would recommend are as follows:-
Exclusive Nutritional Profile MGL4
This is a very comprehensive blood test measuring all your important vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. This profile test is exclusive to the Glenville Nutrition Clinic and tests your levels of key nutrients, allowing your nutritionist to see where you have any deficiencies or imbalances and then to be able to tailor the nutritional recommendations to meet your specific needs.
Is This Test Suitable For Me?
This is a test of a wide range of vitamins and minerals (Minerals – calcium, chromium, copper, magnesium, manganese, selenium and zinc). Vitamins A, C, B12, D, E, folate and beta-carotene. Essential fatty acids (your ratio of omega 6 to 3).
This test is suitable for the following
- Optimising general health or with respect to a certain health condition
- If you are trying to optimise your diet for healthy ageing
- If you are following a restrictive diet and would like to know if you have deficiencies
- Vegetarians and vegans to check on levels of vitamin B12 and essential fats
- Anyone who is trying to conceive and would like to optimise their health for a successful and healthy pregnancy
- Couples who are having difficulties conceiving, have poor semen quality or quantity, poor egg quality or unexplained infertility
- Couples who are using assisted reproduction and would like to optimise their health ahead of their treatment.
Test Procedure
This test can only be carried out on the recommendation of a nutritionist
- A referral form will be created for blood to be taken at our recommended laboratory
- The test results will be returned to your nutritionist
- The test results will be interpreted by your nutritionist at the consultation and then a personalised diet and supplement programme will be tailored to your needs.
Omega 3/6
Omega 3 essential fatty acids are crucial for the correct functioning of all your cell membranes, which are made up of 60% fat. They help your membranes to be more fluid and flexible which is important for your heart health. Cells and arteries tend to get harder with age, so anything that can slow this down is helpful.
DHA which is the major omega 3 fatty acid in the brain seems to have the most protective effect against Alzheimer’s. The DHA in Omega 3 fatty acids helps to prevent the plaque forming in the brain which is present in Alzheimer’s. Research performed over 8 years with blood samples to measure omega 3 levels and MRI scans has shown that the hippocampus, the part of the brain important in cognitive function, is smallest in those people with the lowest omega 3 in their blood.
Omega 3 fatty acids are also important for prevention of type 2 diabetes as they help overcome insulin resistance by keeping insulin receptors fluid and more sensitive to insulin.
Is This Test Suitable For Me?
- Anyone with any pain or inflammation anywhere in their body.
- Anyone with any of these symptoms, dry, lifeless hair, soft, easily frayed nails, painful joints, arthritis, cracked skin on heels or fingertips, depression and mood swings, poor wound healing, dry skin, difficulty losing weight, lack of motivation and fatigue
- If you are trying to optimise your diet for healthy ageing
- If you are vegetarian or vegan and get your omega 3 fatty acids from oils like flaxseed, the body had to convert the oil to EPA (which we get directly from fish) and we now know there is only about a 0.05% conversion from flaxseed oil to EPA
- Anyone who is trying to conceive and would like to optimise their health for a successful and healthy pregnancy
Couples who are having difficulties conceiving, have poor semen quality or quantity, poor egg quality or unexplained infertility - Couples who are using assisted reproduction and would like to optimise their health ahead of their treatment.
Test Procedure
You can order the kit through the Glenville Nutrition Clinic, it is simple to do via a fingerpick test which can be done in the comfort of your own home.
Vitamin D
It is so important to have sufficient levels of vitamin D because research has shown that this versatile nutrient plays a key role in keeping you in good health, not only for supporting your immune function but also for your general health.
For example, it has been found to:-
- Be vital for bone health and osteoporosis
- Play a major role in breast and bowel cancer prevention
- Help with other conditions as diverse as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, joint pains and arthritis, dementia, autoimmune diseases, fertility, autism, and allergies
- Help with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).
We now have rickets back in children which was thought to have been eliminated 40 years ago. Your body does not expect to get much vitamin D from your food as it is made by the exposure of the skin to sunlight, so at certain times of the year, your level could be generally low. That is why Public Health England recommend that all adults and children over one should be supplementing with vitamin D.
If you suffer from joint pains it is important that you are checked for vitamin D deficiency because research has shown that people who have musculoskeletal pain e.g. low back pain are often deficient in vitamin D and when the vitamin D deficiency is corrected by taking supplementation the pain is eliminated.
If you have been told that you have high cholesterol make sure you change your diet but at the same time get your vitamin D level checked. Cholesterol is used to make vitamin D so if you are deficient in vitamin D, your liver can be producing more cholesterol to try and produce more vitamin D. By correcting the vitamin D deficiency, your body does not have to produce so much cholesterol.
And if you are trying to get pregnant or having recurrent miscarriages then it is important that your vitamin D level is checked because it is known that having good levels of vitamin D helps the body maintain a pregnancy by effectively switching off the part of the immune system that could reject a baby as only half the DNA is the mother’s.
Is This Test Suitable For Me?
- If you have low bone density (osteopenia) or osteoporosis or just want to work on prevention of osteoporosis
- Anyone with joint pains
- Family history risk of breast cancer and/or heart disease
- Anyone who has been diagnosed with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes
- If you have darker skin colour or have to stay indoors for long periods of time.
Test Procedure
You can order the kit through the Glenville Nutrition Clinic. It is simple to do via a fingerpick test which can be done in the comfort of your own home.
Test by Post Without A Consultation – Options
If you just want to do the test without a consultation, we are able to offer a ‘Test by Post’ facility for the Vitamin D and Omega 3 tests.
For every test ordered you will receive by post a special kit with full instructions. Follow the instructions and then after analysis you will be sent an extensive personalised report which will uncover any underlying issues.
Vitamin D (Finger Prick) Deficiency Test by Post
With all the news in the press about the benefits of having good levels of vitamin D e.g. prevention of cancer, especially breast cancer, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis it is important that you know whether or not you are lacking in this vital vitamin by taking a simple blood test.
As well as all of these benefits, it is now thought that having good levels of vitamin D can help slow down the ageing process and when taken in pregnancy and childhood could wipe out 80% of multiple sclerosis cases.
Omega 3/6 (Finger Prick) Deficiency Test by Post
Why is that problem? Well, your body makes beneficial prostaglandins (which are hormone-like substances) from these essential fatty acids. These ‘good’ prostaglandins help to prevent inflammation and pain (including period pains), regulate the immune system and reduce abnormal blood clotting. But the body can also produce ‘bad’ prostaglandins which increase inflammation, pain and abnormal blood clotting. These ‘bad’ prostaglandins are produced from Omega 6 fatty acids whereas the ‘good’ anti-inflammatory prostaglandins are produced from Omega 3 oils.
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