Beaumont Weight Control Center Now Offers MicroNutrient Testing

HOUSTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the current trend toward personalized medicine, the Beaumont Weight Control Center, affiliated with Beaumont Hospitals, a major Detroit-area health system, now offers individualized MicroNutrient Testing for patients. This addition to their weight loss program helps patients identify their specific nutritional deficiencies in 30 different vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, using a patented technology from SpectraCell Laboratories.

The Beaumont Weight Control Center offers a variety of medical and surgical weight loss options. The Center has helped thousands of patients over the past 20 years lose weight and keep it off. Studies have proven that being just 20 percent overweight can increase your risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke and even some cancers. There is also overwhelming evidence that nutritional deficiencies, if not corrected, can cause any number of diseases, such as arthritis, allergies, cancer, diabetes, obesity, depression, fatigue, heart disease, and dozens of other conditions, many whose etiology is often difficult to pinpoint.

"Nearly half of people taking vitamin supplements have nutrient deficiencies that vary from person to person, because we are all biochemically unique," explains Katherine Nori Janosz, M.D., F.A.C.P., internal and bariatric medicine specialist at the Beaumont Weight Control Center. "Nutritional status is an essential building block of good health."

SpectraCell's MicroNutrient Test reports this valuable personalized information. A person's white blood cells are introduced to various nutrient environments and their growth response is measured. Changes in growth determine if that person has what is called a functional deficiency in any of the tested nutrients.

Most people know that gross nutrient deficiencies can cause specific diseases, such as vitamin C and scurvy or vitamin D and rickets. However, when the deficiencies are more subtle, they will typically be undetected by conventional diagnostic methods, although such sub-clinical deficiencies will indeed contribute to disease. The metabolic pathways in each person are so complex that a single nutrient deficiency can affect several of the body's systems. That is why an understanding of a person's long-term nutritional status is critical to achieve optimal health.

About SpectraCell Laboratories - SpectraCell is a CLIA accredited laboratory that services healthcare providers nationwide by providing individualized micronutrient testing. SpectraCell's micronutrient testing is an innovative assessment of a patient's nutritional status. Unlike traditional serum, hair and urine tests, SpectraCell's testing measures how an individual's white blood cells function in specific nutritional environments. Over 31 vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants are evaluated. As a result, individual differences in metabolism, age, genetics, health, prescription drug usage, absorption rate and other factors are taken into consideration.

About the Beaumont Weight Control Center - For more than 20 years, the medical team at the Beaumont Weight Control Center has helped people to improve their health through behavior modification, diet and exercise. The center offers surgical and medical weight-loss programs provided by a team of Beaumont dietitians, psychologists, exercise physiologists and physicians working together to offer an individualized program that best meets each patient's health goals. The Center is located in Royal Oak, Michigan.