Testing is a very important part of what we do from a biomedical approach. And there are a lot of different lab tests. Now I have talked about this before with respects to a particular test called an organic acid test (OAT), particularly an organic acid test from Great Plains Laboratory which I use quite a bit. What I wanted to discuss regarding testing is when you are considering testing for your child you have to break things down into non-blood testing and blood testing. In my practice I always ask parents whether their child has had blood testing before.

If they have, one of the things I want to know is how they did with the testing. Some kids do fine with blood testing where it is not a big struggle, not a big problem. With other kids testing is a very, very traumatic situation. I have had some situations where certain kids have had to be held down with 3 or 4 adults because it is so stressful. But we realize that a blood test is an essential part in what we do and that we need to do blood testing at times with your child to get specific data. However, when you are starting off with a biomedical approach, blood testing up front is not always necessary. I am not saying it is not necessary in some cases but in many cases you can actually implement various treatments like dietary interventions or treatment for yeast and bacterial problems based on non-blood tests.

One of the first tests I run is an organic acid test in my practice. It is a urine test so it is generally fairly easy to get, non-traumatic and it does give a lot of good information with respects to yeast and bacterial toxins as well as other metabolic issues that can be supported supplementally. Stool testing as well is one of the first things I do. You are looking at bacteria, yeast, parasitic infections, markers of inflammation off of some of the comprehensive digestive stool analysis that are offered through the biomedical community.

Those are two things that can be done up front that don’t require any blood testing and you can implement a lot of treatment from those. So when you are looking at testing, blood testing does become important down the road whether it is looking at cholesterol levels or liver function or kidney function or mineral assessments. There is a wide variety of blood tests but it doesn’t have to be done right up front initially with your child because you can get some very, very good information off some of the non-blood tests, specifically the organic acid test and comprehensive stool analysis in order to start initial treatment from a biomedical approach.

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