Nutritional Screening with the BTA.

Nutrition is an essential part of good health. I use a number of laboratory tests to measure nutritional status, and my favorite is the Biological Terrain Assessment (BTA) panel.

Disease prevention is a very hot health care topic today. Many of the major diseases today are avoidable by taking action early. Everyone is looking for medical tests that can give them a warning of future health problems. The BTA panel of tests is effective in screening for nutritional deficiencies and patterns of health balance.

I have used the BTA test panel since 1996 and it has helped many people make effective health decisions. The BTA panel measures key nutritional markers, including mineral levels, energy production efficiency, fats and oil levels, acid to alkaline balance, energy production through metabolic type, and protein utilization.

The BTA panel measures chemical values in the urine, saliva, and blood. As well, it measures a number of physical functions, such as blood pressure. Health patterns are determined from the total of forty individual measurements.

Urine is filtered blood and measurements from urine reflect what is happening inside of our cells. Saliva is derived from our lymph, the fluid that surrounds our cells and is an important indicator of health in our digestive, immune and detoxification systems.

Mineral concentrations in our urine help to explain emotional patterns as well as why we may have low energy. Low mineral levels are consistent with anxiety while high mineral levels are often associated with states of aggitation and being quick to anger. Next time you see someone who is making mad hand jestures in traffic think about how much excess salt from processed foods that person has eaten. A high concentration of minerals in the saliva is an indication of lymphatic congestion and the need for more aerobic exercise.

Energy is derived from our food. Sunlight energizes chlorophyll in green plants, which assembles atoms into molecules, which in turn become our foods. The chemical bonds that hold our food molecules together contain sunlight energy. How efficiently we breakdown the molecules of our foods, and capture the energy from the sun, will determine how much energy we have through out our lives. The BTA measurement of electron activity is an indication of how well we are capturing energy from our foods. Problems in this area indicate nutrient deficiencies, such as Co Q 10, or possible lead toxicity.

Many health experts recommend eating more good oils and less hard fats. We are made up of cells, which are essentially bags in fact cells are bags inside of bags. Too many dietary fats, and not enough dietary oils, can make our cells stiff and inefficient. Fats and oils have a similar molecular structure, the difference being fats are solid and oils are liquid at room temperature. A diet high in hard fats, such as lots of French fries, and low in good oils, such as flax seed and olive oil, will stiffen our cell walls. Stiff cell walls limit health by restricting the movement of energy producing and healing nutrients into our cells and the movement of wastes out of our cells. A special urine test in the BTA panel will determine whether you are consuming enough dietary oils.

Relaxation and healing is dependant upon our autonomic, or automatic, nervous system. The autonomic nervous system has two parts, the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems. The parasympathetic system must be turned on for us to digest our food, to read, to go to the bathroom, to sleep, and to heal. The sympathetic system is activated when we are under stress. Unfortunately only the parasympathetic or the sympathetic can be dominant at any one time. This means that the unrelenting stress that many of us live with keeps us in sympathetic mode and limits our ability to heal.

Nutritional minerals contribute to autonomic nervous system balance. An over abundance of the minerals calcium and sodium, and a deficiency of magnesium and potassium will encourage sympathetic nervous dominance, which is towards stress and away from relaxation and healing. The BTA panel assesses your autonomic nervous system dominance, and indirectly your mineral balance.

Health depends upon biochemical efficiency. pH is a measurement of the balance between acidity and alkalinity in your body. pH imbalances may lead to insulin over or under activity, and therefore blood sugar imbalances. pH imbalances may lead to poor digestion, detoxification, and immune function. pH imbalances are an indication of a diet high in proteins and refined grains, and low in fresh fruit and vegetables. As well, pH imbalances are an indication of a cellular imbalance between the minerals calcium, sodium, potassium, and magnesium.

Metabolic typing is an assessment of how well you are metabolizing your fats and carbohydrates. Ideally metabolic balance allows you to access energy from fats and oils on an ongoing basis, and the energy from carbohydrates for bursts of energy. A dependance upon fat metabolism may lead to high blood sugar, and a dependance upon carbohydrate metabolism may lead to low blood sugar.

Digested protein circulates in the blood and is used for many functions, including the support of brain thinking processes, as well as muscle healing. Protein will remain in the blood until used for up to five days, after which time it is converted to nitrate nitrogen. High levels of nitrate nitrogen indicate either an excessive intake of protein or a diet of the wrong protein. Ammonia nitrogen is another protein based marker, and it indicates either a long term over abundance of metabolic acids or fungal overgrowth.

Your BTA results will determine your nutritional supplement program, as well as your ideal diet. Your ideal diet will be computer generated from a list of 250 foods, some are recommended, some are allowed, and some are prohibited. The computer program takes into account your blood type, your BTA test results, and research studies on foods proven useful for your particular health concerns.

Special Offer
Determine Your Ideal Diet From Your BTA Results, and Save Money Doing It.

As a thank-you to all my present patients and as an introduction for all my new patients I am offering a discount on computerized diet plans booked during the week of June 19 to June 23, 2006. Call my office, at 250-762-8900, to book your BTA test panel, and receive a computerized diet plan at no additional cost.