November 1. 2008 07:51

I prefer an E-book,if you have one.

Wattana Klintrakoon

November 27. 2008 07:01

This books sounds quite interesting, but it is priced for the professional market, and not the individual end consumer. I would have loved to read and understand more, but at $200 it is just too expensive. It can not be the objective of the Institute to develop an elitist model for information dissemination and communication.
Yours very disappointed

Bernard Smith

December 4. 2008 13:41

Thank you both for your comments.

Wattana: along with the book we provide a searchable cd-rom of the complete text so our readers have quick digital access to the information in the book.  We think this is a very effective tool when searching for information, and are excited to be able to provide that to those who purchase a copy.

Bernard: The price point we set for this book is what we feel is appropriate considering the scope and substance of the text.  Many years of effort went into creating this exhaustive text on Integrative and Functional medicine testing, which satisfies the highest scientific and research standards, and fills a critical gap in current mainstream medical knowledge.  Unfortunately, that effort is not without cost.  

While we recognize that this information is of tremendous value to our industry and the world at large, we have to be realistic about sustaining the company that made this book possible.  Without an ‘elitist’ model of information dissemination, much of the knowledge we take for granted today would not have had the support needed for its discovery, let alone its widespread dissemination.  

That said, we have uploaded the entire text to Google Books for anyone to peruse, search, and reference:

books.google.com/books

Enjoy!

Dr. Alexander Bralley

December 17. 2008 16:34

Hi, Does the Laboratory evaluations book go further into helping assess an organics profile test. I would like to get something that gives me a little more in depth picture or disease processes that may be starting when interpreting the organics profile test. Thanks Dr. Voltz

David Voltz

December 18. 2008 22:23

Dr. Voltz,
In fact, the reason the book was written was to give clinicians more in-depth knowledge that helps them to quickkly and confidently interpret an Organix (or other) laboratory profile. Chapter 6 covers the compounds reported on the Organix report. Each analyte is discussed and the reader is led to understand how to pick up patterns of abnormalities that reinforce conclusions about how to focus interventions and strengthen prognosis.

Here's one example:
IDENTIFYING THE PATIENT WITH AMMONIA CHALLENGE WHO IS LIKELY TO RESPOND TO A COURSE OF AGGRESSIVE ARGININE SUPPLEMENTATION, AND WHO MAY NEED AGGRESSIVE PROBIOTIC TREATMENT FOR MID-GUT BACTERIAL DYSBIOSIS

Chapter 6 in the book will help you understand that when you find concurrent elevations of citrate, aconitate and isocitrate (indicating potential renal ammonia challenge) that is corroborated with elevated orotate (indicating hepatic urea cycle challenge) your patient is likely to have inadequate arginine status for urea cycle responses to transient ammonemia episodes. If you also find multiple elevated markers of transitional gut bacterial metabolism, then the patient is a candidate for an aggressive course of pre-, pro- or anti-biotic treatment because the bacterial overgrowth is likely to be a major source of post prandial ammonia loading.

The illustrations show all the detail that you need for undersanding the relevant renal and hepatic biochemistry as well as the intestinal bacterial action on dietary polyphenols that generates several markers of small bowel bacterial overgrowth. So, you can feel like an expert on these complex topics when you talk with your patients.

This is just one of a great many clinical scenarios that you will find explained in the book.

Let us know whether the book succeeds to help you understand laboratory evalulations for integrative and functional medicine.

Richard Lord

January 17. 2009 20:09

Would just like to know who I can see locally to get more info.

nelda shumaker

April 2. 2009 10:20

The American Board of Functional Medicine asked me to review this book.

I have to say, our specialty is in dire need of these types of works. I found this book to be a great resource and I am submitting it to the Board of Directors and they will adopt this book as a required text.

We are all very thankful that we finally have better resources for our students and doctors. Hopefully more books on functional medicine will be available in the not so distant future. This is a great asset for any office.

Thanks,

Patrick Garrett, DC, DABFM (BE)
Vice President, Chairman of the Board of Directors
American Board of Functional Medicine
American Academy of Functional Medicine
www.dabfm.org

CEO / President
Natural Medicine Seminars
The eWellness System
Discount Lab Work

Dr. Patrick Garrett

April 4. 2009 13:34

Thank you Dr. Garrett for your very positive comments on our book. We are sure your group will find it useful. Later this year we are coming out with two more books. In May the Metametrix Handbook will be released. In a handbook format it is a documentation of all of the test analytes we presently measure at our laboratory, specifiying the interpretation of high and/or low values and stipulating treatment options. It will be in spiral binding for ease of use by the clinician.
Later in the year our Case Study book will be available. We are writing up a number of real case histories taken from clinician records which will illustrate how Functional Medicine uses laoratory testing to analyse and treat various chronic illnesses.
The three books we hope will be a valuable asset for any clincian wanting to get involved in this medical paradigm.

J. Alexander Bralley

May 6. 2009 00:24

i am thinking about getting the book and it's CD ROM but firstly would like to know just how much the book & Cd cover Hair tissue mineral analysis as i use this a great deal and toxicity is the major underling factor in disease (chanelopathies) nutrient being blocked at verious points in the body etc etc!

so dose HTMA get a good run as i would be distresed to find if it has not even been mentioned concidering bio chemistry occours in the cells not the blood. Like the late great Dr lee said about hormones and blood serum testing, "blood doesn't tell you diddly.

I'm but it if it has a health section on HTMA other wise I'll wait for the next edition>

thank you for your kind attempt at educating general practicioners in the fine art of nutrition.
david  
australia

david

May 9. 2009 09:10

Hi, I would like to know where I can find the ISBN and more technical information about this book.Thank you.

Felipe

May 11. 2009 11:27

Hi Felipe,

The ISBN number is 978-0-9673949-4-7.  We will have a Client Services Representative contact you to find out what other technical questions you may have about the book.

Thanks,
Cass

cnelsondooley

June 4. 2009 14:40

Hello,
Could you please include the publication month/yr. in your information on this website (or perhaps for both editions..?!).

Thank you.

Mark Butterfield

June 4. 2009 14:42

Oh, another (related) question:
When the next edition comes out, will purchasers of a previous edition be intitled to the CD-ROM and/or new edition at a reduced price..?

Thank you.

Mark Butterfield

June 9. 2009 17:46

Dear Mr. Butterfield,

I'm afraid there will not be a reduced price or free CD-ROM of the new edition. But don't worry, it will be awhile before there is a new edition. You will get your money's worth from this text on clinical chemistry, nutrition, metabolism, and toxicity.

Sincerely,
Cass Nelson-Dooley

cnelsondooley

June 9. 2009 17:49

We have also placed the publication month and year on the website. Thank you for that recommendation.

cnelsondooley

June 16. 2009 14:39

This email was sent on May 6, 2009 in response to the weblog comment above.

Hi Mr. David,

The Laboratory Evaluations for Integrative and Functional Medicine text covers hair element analysis in detail. The different specimens for analysis of elements are discussed under each individual element. For example, we discuss zinc assessment using plasma or serum, erythrocyte, hair, and urine.  Because hair specimen interpretation is spread out like that, it is difficult to say how many pages discuss hair elements. The “Nutrient and Toxic Elements,” chapter is 109 pages long and includes over 900 references. Chapter 10 focuses on hormones, but does not go into great detail on saliva hormone interpretation.

The entire book is available for review online at:
books.google.com/books

Just scroll down to the page you are looking for.

If you like the cellular biochemistry behind nutrition and health, as you indicate in your message, you will LOVE this book!

Sincerely,
Cass

Cass Nelson-Dooley, M.S.
Clinical Consultant

cnelson-dooley

June 19. 2009 13:28

Thank you!!!

I have been looking for a book along these lines.
It proves to be very useful.

heart surgery

June 19. 2009 18:00

We love to hear that! Thanks for your comment!

cnelson-dooley

August 12. 2009 14:03

My X-doctor uses Metametrix testing. I paid over a grand to metametrix so I could have the tests done. A bunch a values came back out of range. The doctor didn't really know what to do about the values, perhaps this information was hidden in a book somewhere. Now I can spend 200$ on this book and read it myself in hopes of finding what those values actually mean. Gee, thank you Metametrix, so very generous of you to offer this book to us for 200$. I can't wait to get more tests done so I can give Metametrix the remainder of my dwindling supply of money.

To be honest, you should really have this information available to clients/patients/doctors posted on your website, otherwise you are just another Mc-LabCorp. We are already shelling out serious WADS OF CASH just to have the tests performed. Now we must shell out more to be able to do something with the useless data we now have? I think I can see why the first two posters were rather upset. If I had known this about Metametrix I would have preferred to spare my money rather than get a lot of useless data that 99% of primary physicians have no clue about. This information is NOT mainstream. In other words if the doctor performs these tests and isn't prepared to interpret the results YOU ARE OUT OF LUCK!! Most doctors will not take your Metametrix reports seriously as they are tests that are not normally done. In my experience Doctors tend to become evasive when you pull out the massive Metametrix report and ask them what to do about it. Therefore I think Metametrix has some obligation to report this to their clients/especially their patients.

ALSO, if the book just restates what is written in the lab report I would be very hesitant to buy the book. I could probably find more information for free than would be found in the book. In other words, when I read the report I wont find out much more information than that if I was able to read the book... But I will never read the book because I'd feel stupid for shelling out more money to Metametrix. I am a REAL previous client of Metametrix (well my Physician was the one considered to be 'their' client, I was just the dumb shmuck paying at the other end).

This is my overall impression of Metametrix:

Good quality lab work / technicians. But unneccessarily POOR customer (I'm talking about the patient here not whatever information is given to the physician) service.
Patients don't want to spend this kind of money just to get one line reports on what to do next. Patients that are already desperate trying to find out the cause of their health problem don't need this. More information is needed on the site, either that or more stringent requirements must be expected of doctors using Metametrix for testing. I might as well just use LabCorp and save myself money if I want 'industry standards' because Metametrix doesn't warrant the extra money you WILL be spending.

I know this is a long rant, but it has been almost 3 years since my first/last/final dealings with Metametrix and that physician. I am still upset after this time because BOTH have let me down and in my opinion ripped me off. Thanks.

PreviousMetametrixClient

August 19. 2009 15:36

We are extremely sorry to hear about your bad experience. Metametrix tests are innovative medical tests that require specialized training for interpretation. Many doctors have not had this training, since it is not part of standard medical school curriculum. However, everyday more doctors are turning to integrative and functional medicine for their patients and we hope that one day treating the causes of disease, not just the symptoms, will be part of mainstream medical philosophy.  

In the meantime, we provide a variety of services and resources to patients and clinicians to help them understand the clinical value of these tests.

These include:

Free consultation service: for many years this service has helped explain test interpretation and meaning to clinicians so they are better able to advise and direct their patient's treatment.  Because of our licensing restrictions we are unable to provide this service directly to patients, but it is our hope that clinicians will use this service whenever necessary to the benefit of their patients.

Free interpretive guides: we are constantly improving our general interpretation guides.  Though they are not specific to the patient’s test results, they are a good guide for both clinicians and patients in understanding our testing.  These are located on our website: www.metametrix.com/.../Main

Books: as you mentioned, we have published the reference book, Laboratory Evaluations for Integrative and Functional Medicine. This book is intended to help aid in the education of clinicians.  It is an in-depth look at the science behind our tests with over 3500 references from the medical literature, and is used as a textbook and desk reference by many clinicians.  In an effort to make this valuable information accessible to as many people as possible, the book is available for viewing on books.google.com/books

We have also published a more succinct “manual” that directly correlates to our testing.  The Metametrix Handbook goes through each of our profiles, analyte-by-analyte in an organized and brief structure to help explain what high and low results would indicate. Learn more: www.metametrixinstitute.org/.../...nce-Manual.aspx

Free online educational resources: this blog site is part of our latest effort to make our knowledge and understanding of health and healing freely available to the world.  We’ve also published many resources on the Metametrix Learning Center here: www.metametrix.com/content/LearningCenter/Main

Consumer/Client Sales Liaison: We have also found that increasingly patients want answers to the deep-rooted problems rather than just a pill to mask the symptoms.  So patients are searching for answers on their own, and many times that leads them directly to our laboratory without the guidance of a clinician.

Federal and state law dictates that we cannot sell testing directly to patients.  However we have created a position–the Consumer/Client Sales Liaison–to work directly with patients, helping them find the best possible clinician for their specific needs.  We have identified clinicians not just locally for patients, but also have several clinicians who work with patients via telephone or internet conferencing all over the world.  More info here: www.metametrix.com/.../Find-a-Doc

We pride ourselves on exceptional client care and we always want patients and clinicians to feel supported and to realize the great value of these laboratory tests.

Please contact us immediately if you run into this problem again so that we can address it quickly and thoroughly.

Thank you,
The Metametrix Team

Stephanie Wickham

September 22. 2009 15:51

It's great to see more resources about functional medicine hitting the presses. Keep up the good work.

Physician Assistant

December 18. 2009 07:23

Happy to see your blog as it is just what I’ve looking for and excited to read all the posts.  

autism sign

May 15. 2010 04:53

Hi
My question is been in Ireland or even Europe how does one gain access to your testing / training etc

I think it would be extreamly beneficial to patient health and long term outcome to have access to these kind of resources

Haven't read the book yet but from what I have seen of your site it looks exciting

Jayne - Irish Association of Nutritional Therapists

Jayne

May 17. 2010 17:53

Organix Step 5: Detoxification

Organix Step 5: Detoxification

Metametrix Institute Blogs