VHL Tests by Medical Category

Allergy

An increasing number of individuals are becoming allergic, intolerant or sensitive to components in food, inhalants (pollens etc), dietary and environmental chemicals, and even metals. Testing for immune responses to these substances can help in the identification of allergens causing symptoms. At VHL we offer tests for food allergies (IgE levels), food intolerances where there tends to be a more delayed response following ingestion of foods (IgG levels), inhalant allergies (e.g. IgE levels to pollens, house dust mites and others), and, although not strictly allergy, we offer a mycotoxins profile to determine if patients are inhaling chemicals produced by moulds.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants are an essential part of our diet and are primarily utilised to repair damage from ‘free radicals’ produced during normal metabolic activity which result in increased oxidative stress. Lifestyle factors, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, high sugar intake, exposure to toxins, etc., increase the rate of production of free radicals and require a continuous supply of nutritional antioxidants (primarily vitamins and similar compounds, and minerals).

Raised levels of oxidative stress in the long term are associated with increased risk of health problems. VHL can measure the circulating levels of many individual antioxidants and also provides an Antioxidant Profile incorporating many of these.

Essential Fatty Acids

Fatty acids are important nutrients derived from fats in our diet, but obtaining an optimal balance of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fats isn’t easy with current dietary choices. Fatty acids are required for energy storage, and are incorporated in to every cell membrane so they have wide-ranging functions; deficiencies or imbalances have been associated with many health conditions. VHL offers a profile that measures the levels of omega-6, omega-3 and other fatty acids as a tool for assessing the utilisation of dietary fats. Minerals and vitamins are also required in the metabolism of fats and are essential for the normal utilisation of fatty acids.

Gut Function

The gut is a large and important interface with the environment through which all dietary intakes passes. Optimal utilisation of ingested food (digestion of micronutrients, utilisation of fibre etc.) is essential for good health, but damage to the gut due to dysbiosis, food allergies, exposure to toxins, etc. increasingly leads to a wide range of health problems often including severe discomfort. We offer a range of test to assess gut health including breath testing for Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), gut permeability screens, stool testing to directly assess biochemical markers in the gut, dysbiosis and parasite screening, and urine testing for markers of intestinal yeast overgrowth.

Minerals

Minerals, mainly metals, are individual atoms from the periodic table (e.g. calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, chromium etc.), they are basic building blocks of everything in the living world, and are essential in the diet for all forms of animal life (often at extremely low levels, but essential nonetheless). Decreasing levels of minerals in the diet due to poor food quality and dietary choices has led to a fall in some mineral levels in the typical western diet (e.g. less magnesium which we obtain primarily from green leaves, nuts and seeds).

Minerals are essential constituents of enzymes which stimulate/control other chemicals such as hormones, making them biologically very powerful. Deficiencies can develop over many years or may result from recent dietary changes or other challenges (infections, environmental challenges including stress, wound healing etc.), and have been found to be present in a significant proportion of the population.

Other Tests

For the convenience of patients and clinicians we aim to provide access to most routine pathology tests and therefore offer a very wide range of tests, some are performed at VHL, others are referred to external highly reputable laboratories in the UK, Europe and America.

Profiles and Screens

Many VHL tests are grouped into associated profiles and panels to provide better value for money (e.g. mineral screens and vitamin profiles), but we also offer bespoke profiles combining a range of our tests to provide overall health assessments (e.g. Health Risk Profiles, Osteoporosis Screens etc.). We work closely with external laboratories so that we can extend the range of tests available, and this enables us to provide a much broader range of test profiles (e.g. haematology & biochemistry screens, thyroid screening, toxic elements, organic acids, environmental chemicals etc.)

Toxic Elements

Metals that have no biological use and which humans did not evolve to metabolise, such as lead, mercury and cadmium etc., tend to be present at low levels in the environment and food chain, but over a lifetime, or following an acute exposure, can accumulate in body tissues. They can then interfere with normal biological function as the level of exposure or accumulation increases.

We are also exposed to man-made sources of toxic elements (e.g. aluminium in antiperspirants, arsenic in wood preservatives etc.), and the living world can also accumulate environmental toxic metals which subsequently enter the human food chain (e.g. some varieties of rice have relatively high arsenic levels and seafood can be contaminated with mercury and other metals).

Vitamins and Function Tests

Vitamins are the spark that fires the body’s biochemical activity as enzyme cofactors and coenzymes. Biochemical activity may be reduced with inadequate levels due to nutritional deficiencies and/or increased physiological demand, and the likelihood of ill health and disease increases.

Some vitamin tests are now routinely available (B12, folate and vitamin D), but deficiencies of the fat soluble vitamins A and E, and water soluble vitamins, B1, B2, B6 and vitamin C are not uncommon. VHL measures blood levels of vitamins requested either individually or as combined panels of vitamins.