Heavy Metal Testing
Every day, we are exposed to hundreds of toxic chemicals through products like pharmaceuticals, pesticides, packaged foods, household products, and environmental pollution. As we have become more accustomed to chemical-laden products, and as our environment has become more contaminated, we have been confronted with an accelerating rate of chronic illnesses like cancer, heart disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, chemical sensitivity, autism spectrum disorders, ADD/AD(H)D, autoimmune disorders, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Because exposure to environmental pollutants has been linked to many chronic diseases, The Great Plains Laboratory has created GPL-TOX, a toxic organic exposure profile that screens for the presence of 168 different toxic chemicals including organophosphate pesticides, phthalates, benzene, xylene, vinyl chloride, pyrethrin insecticides, and others. This profile also includes Tiglyglycine (TG), a marker for mitochondrial disorders resulting from mutations of mitochondrial DNA. These mutations can be caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, infections, inflammation, and nutritional deficiencies.
Advantages of the GPL-TOX Profile
- GPL-TOX directly tests for 11 unique compounds. Indirect screening provides an evaluation of 168 different toxic chemicals by testing specific metabolites. All of the information is assessed from a single urine sample.
- GPL-TOX revolutionizes the development of testing by expanding the scope to include both the environmental pollutants and mitochondrial function metabolites. The Great Plains Laboratory, Inc. suggests that the comprehensive GPL-TOX profile be used as the initial screening test for patients with severe or chronic illnesses.
- GPL-TOX uses the power of advanced mass spectrometry (MS/MS) and the specificity of multiple reaction ion monitoring. Conventional mass spectrometry is adequate for substances present in urine at high concentrations, but is inadequate for testing substances such as certain genetic, mitochondrial, and toxic chemical markers. These markers found at very low concentrations in urine disappear in baseline noise with conventional mass spectrometry. Typically, many different individual tests are necessary to determine the levels of each pollutant, but the new GPL-TOX technology makes it possible in one single test by measuring urinary metabolites.