Does this test look worthwhile ?

[wdb]

It's £250 for the pair, so not an outrageous cost assuming it is of reasonable scientific validity.

Metabolic Analysis Profile
assesses urine metabolites in order to evaluate four critical areas of
metabolism: gastrointestinal function, cellular energy production, neurotransmitter processing, and
amino acid/organic acid balance as influenced by vitamin/mineral cofactors.
Results can be used to address chronic systemic complaints ranging from fatigue and mood disorders to headaches, muscuar/joint pain, and digestive problems

Adrenal Stress Profile
powerful and precise noninvasive salivary assay that evaluates
bioactive levels of the body’s important stress hormones, cortisol and DHEA. This profile serves as a
critical tool for uncovering biochemical imbalances underlying anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue,
obesity, dysglycaemia, and a host of other clinical conditions

Full details here
http://www.gdx.net/uk/core-uk/one-p...uk/Chronic-Fatigue-Test-Description-MET03.pdf

 

[maryb]

Both good tests but its the interpretation of them that's important.

 

[barbc56]

Genova diagnostics has quite a "shady" reputation as their tests are not considered valid. See below.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/bogus-diagnostic-tests/

Barb

 

[wdb]

Genova diagnostics has quite a "shady" reputation as their tests are not considered valid. See below.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/bogus-diagnostic-tests/

Barb

Thanks for the link, I was afraid that might be the case

 

[Valentijn]

You can get neurotransmitters tested more directly, via the blood, which can be quite useful. Additionally, my abnormal blood norepinephrine results matched up with earlier urine results from a different company which that article is attacking.

Perhaps coincidentally, I had pretty impressive remission after starting one of the recommended products. My naturopath was very helpful and encouraging in my attempts to buy the ingredients separately from cheaper sources, and I did find some highly useful supplements as a result (NAC, B6, etc). Unfortunately the remission slowly faded over a few months.

Another problem with that article is that they make it sound like salivary cortisol is not a reliable test. They are very misleading about that point, and admit it in the comments when confronted about it. Salivary cortisol has been verified as being just as accurate as other methods.

I would not consider that a good source of information, in general. They are much more pro-status-quo than pro-science, and can get quite stupid at times. It might be useful for getting links to other sources of information, but their own spin on it makes their site untrustworthy. If you search for CFS on that site, you'll find that they are very heavily in favor of psychosomatic theories, despite the lack of a sound evidence base, and extremely derisive toward contrary theories and data.

 

[justy]

I think it depends on what your are able/prepared to do about the results.

My Genova salivary cortisol panel showed normal am, normal afternoon and VERY VERY low midday and evening - they said this was showing how well my adrenals were responding to the stresses of the first few hours of the day - obviously not well. But what to do about it - I was prescribed HC cream, to take in the am, but I have had problems with steroids before and I was only prescribed a tiny dose - not enough to really do much, and as they say you can really add to your own, but you sure as hell can supress your own production.

I also didn't want to take the HC cream when my morning result was OK. In the past I have taken steroids for lung issues and they wrecked my immune system. Herbal adrnela support has helped only tiny amounts.

Next DHEA - mine was extremely low. Great I thought - ill take some of that- everyone says its great and you will feel a lot better. Prescribed 10 mg daily - I started with approx. 2 mg every other day and within a week was miserable, weepy, depressed, angry, raging - it was hell. I cannot take DHEA at all.

So, I paid for the tests but can do nothing about it.

Not being cynical, but it is something that happens to me a lot - you may be different and it may help you...

 

[maryb]

This is what Rich said in an old post about the MAPs test. Like I said its the interpretation of it that's important. Impossible to do it on your own, well for me anyway.



"The MAP test is also an excellent panel, and it gives "a lot of bang for the buck," because it analyzes many different organic acids, representing several parts of the overall metabolism, from a single urine sample.
I use it a lot when I consult on cases. It's best run along with some other tests, because they complement each other, and the whole is thus "greater than the sum of its parts." Urine or plasma amino acids testing, as well as urine or red blood cell or whole blood elements analysis are two of the others that help a lot if done together with the MAP test. Of course, they all cost money!
Unfortunately, it isn't easy to explain how to interpret the MAP test. It does come with sort of a general interpretation, which is mostly based on looking for nutritional deficiencies, and is put together by a computer program that selects sections based on which things come out very high or very low, and that is somewhat helpful, but the subtleties of chronic fatigue syndrome aren't included in this program, and it really takes some study of the biochemistry and some experience to sort out what all the results mean. Some help can be gotten from the book by Lord and Bralley, which is sold on the Metametrix.com site, but there are still things that aren't included in that book. I continue to learn about more aspects of this test as I analyze different cases.
If I could give straightforward guidance about interpretation of the MAP test, I would. As far as the partial methylation cycle block is concerned, if both methylmalonic and formiminoglutamic acids are elevated on the MAP test, it's very likely that this partial block is present. If pyroglutamic acid is low or high, that's an indication of glutathione depletion. Another indication of glutathione depletion is if there is a fairly big drop between citric acid and the ones that follow it in the Krebs cycle. This last one doesn't always work, though, because some PWCs have sort of a general collapse of the Krebs cycle, so that citric acid is low, too. I guess those are the general clues I can give, but it's really best to look at this set of tests together to try to sort out what's going on"

 

[barbc56]

If you search for CFS on that site, you'll find that they are very heavily in favor of psychosomatic theories, despite the lack of a sound evidence base, and extremely derisive toward contrary theories and data

From SBM search on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Until recently my understanding of CFS was that it is probably a post infectious syndrome, perhaps in the genetically predisposed, in at least a subset of the CFS population. While the studies show various physiologic abnormalities in CFS are not always replicated, I wonder if the results are due to the inadequacy of the CDC definition in stratifying patients

(in reference to xmrv theory.)
.

The second type of patient has a different, more intriguing, pattern. They are usually highly functioning people who had the abrupt onset of a ‘flu’ that never left. The have marked post-exercise fatigue and difficulty concentrating for even minor tasks. It is a striking pattern, and reasonably consistent from patient to patient. They sound, for all the world, like someone who continues to suffer from an ongoing infectious disease, yet when all the markers of infection and inflammation are evaluated, they come up normal

The metaphor I use is a rock in a pond. The infection, whatever it was, is the rock. The CFS state is the ripples, lasting long after the rock as disappeared. It would not be the first time an infection left behind long term clinical sequelae

I find it particularly intriguing that CFS patients havedifferent sets of genes activated when compared to normal controls

Barb

 

[adreno]

The test are based on functional medicine, which is rejected by mainstream medicine. I think functional medicine can provide lots of benefits that the mainstream misses.

The tests are certainly valid. Whether you can use the information for something meaningful is another matter. Tests can be difficult to interpret and the underlying biochemistry is extremely complex. So even if you identify problems, actually doing something about them is no simple matter.

Personally I have gained valuable information from those tests, that have lead to improvements in my symptoms, mostly be taking supplements that adresses those problems identified.

I generally dislike the SBM blog and find it arrogant and narrow-minded. Seems like the blogger skims a few abstracts of some subject he is already biased towards and then deems himself an expert, cherry picking any negative evidence that he can find, similar to quack watch.

 

[Valentijn]

From SBM search on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Those are comments. The actual articles are quite bad.

 

[barbc56]

The quotes are from the article.

Barb