This test is performed by Spectracell Laboratory.

Specimen Collection: Have blood drawn at a hospital laboratory. I will write a lab draw order for you.  The Fed Ex pickup will be handled by the draw station.  Make sure to arrive before about 3PM so that Fed Ex can pick up that day and deliver the next.  The sample must arrive with live cells for the test to work properly.  Include the completed test requisition with the blood sample in the Fed Ex mailer.  There is no requirement regarding fasting, but I recommend that you do not take your supplements that day until your blood is drawn unless supplementation is critical. Insurance may cover the cost of this test after copay.

Test Description: The Spectracell test is done by extracting the lymphocytes from the blood sample.  The the same number of lymphocytes is dispensed into 34 reaction wells.

In well #1 the lymphocytes are suspended in a solution with a nutrient broth with all the test nutrients at a concentration insufficient to fully nourish the cells under the high metabolic load of rapid multiplication for 5 days.

The sample is then stimulated to rapidly reproduce by a chemical called a mitogen (hemagglutinin).  The cells are allowed to duplicate for the next 5 days.  At which point, the number of lymphocytes is counted in Well #1, and that number is used as a reference number for all the other tests.

Reaction well #2-34 each have samples of lymphocytes, but with a single nutrient removed from that nutrient broth.  These cells are likewise stimulated to divide by the added mitogen, and allowed to divide for the 5 day period.

At the end of the 5 days, the cells in each of the nutrient-deficient reaction vessels are counted and compared to the number in the nutrient sufficient sample.  There is an optimum number of cell replications for each nutrient-deficient well.

For those cultures which duplicate at a rate less than the optimum compared to the nutrient-sufficient culture, the results are tagged as insufficient and that nutrient is recommended for supplementation.