PRACTICE BUILDER

Intracellular Blood Testing

How you can evaluate and impact your patients' nutritional status.

By Michael P. Lange, O.D.

There is overwhelming evidence that nutritional deficiencies are directly related to many systemic illnesses and eye diseases. Vitamin, mineral and antioxidant deficiencies can suppress the immune system and thus contribute to many degenerative diseases, such as collagen vascular diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, hypertension and diabetes, just to name a few.

If we can control these systemic diseases, our patients will be less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD), dry eye, uveitis, artery and vein occlusions, optic neuropathies and diabetic and hypertensive retinopathy, among other eye diseases. This raises the question: How do you discover if a patient has any nutritional deficiencies?

Testing patients

As a solution, we started offering intracellular blood tests to our patients roughly two years ago. As "the eye is the window to the body," who better to offer these tests than the patient's primary eyecare provider, the optometrist?

Intracellular blood tests can reveal deficiencies that plasma tests may miss. For example, if a patient who typically eats little meat were to eat beef liver the day before a plasma blood test, the test may show normal to high levels of vitamin B12 and B6, folate and homocysteine.

The intracellular blood test provides functional nutritional status through a much longer period of time. With the same patient, the cellular blood test may show that homocysteine levels are high because of a deficiency in B12, B6 and folate. By adding these nutrients, the patient may lower homocysteine levels and potentially decrease his/her risk of heart disease, occlusive artery disease and strokes. This is synonymous with the Hemoglobin A1C being a better predictor than a fasting blood sugar for diabetes control.

Intracellular blood tests allow you to identify any micronutrient deficiency at a cellular level. Now, you can make vitamin recommendations based on sound scientific data. The tests take a huge step toward maximizing a patient's health. Everyone's bio-chemical makeup is different. Many factors, such as age, chronic disease, medications and lifestyles impact cellular deficiencies. With testing, no guesswork is involved in identifying nutritional deficiencies.

Getting started

The first step to incorporating intracellular blood tests into your practice is to become acquainted with a local blood lab that performs intracellular testing. We use a lab near our practice to make it convenient for our patients. Ask the lab to print referral cards that include driving directions or a map. Refer patients to the lab for intracellular tests.

Once the lab reports results to your office, schedule the patient for a visit to review the results. Your office should bill the patient or, if appropriate, his insurance company for the visit.

Build a healthy practice

Offering your patients the latest technology to slow down age-related systemic and ocular disease is a significant practice builder and patient-care service. Word-of-mouth travels quickly, as patients are eager to tell family, friends and associates about your new health service.

Through my experience, I've discovered that many new patients will visit a practice that promotes blood testing. Patients today are very in tune with their health and want to be an active participant in maintaining it. However, many patients take vitamins that offer little or no clinical evidence of efficacy. Intracellular blood tests are one way to prove that a patient's current diet and supplement regimen is either adequate or needs improvement.

Adding vitamins

I founded the company Fortifeye Vitamins a few years ago to offer patients a nutraceutical that was based on the most recent scientific data combined with ongoing research we do using intracellular blood tests at our centers in Florida. We've used these blood tests to aid in the development of new and effective formulas for patients. We receive testimonials daily from patients who have benefited from nutritional intervention and lifestyle changes. This is one of the reasons our practices continue to thrive, even in the current economic environment.

Moving to the future

The days of optometrists helping patients solely with optical corrections are a thing of the past. You should utilize all types of blood testing, not just nutritional testing. But, if you maximize the health of the body, the other blood tests may not be as necessary. Think of the advantages of receiving a stat sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein on a patient whom you suspect may have giant cell arteritis. What about the patient with recurring uvei-tis? Why not get the necessary blood tests and then make the appropriate referral? And for conditions within the scope of our care, why refer to an M.D.? Do it yourself.

When you offer blood tests, you reinforce the reputation that optrometrists are the primary eyecare providers. In my experience, it improves patient care.

When the optometrist follows through and provides patients with education, they realize how nutrients, combined with proper diet and lifestyle adjustments, affect systemic and ocular health.

Without any direction, patients may spend a lot of money on vitamins and supplements that don't meet their needs.

The practice benefits

The doctors that embrace this science now will be the ones who reap the financial benefits. The increase in practice revenue can be substantial, as patients visit a practice with a unique niche of cellular nutrient analysis.

Not only will new patients be interested in cellular nutrient analysis, they'll also buy vitamins and nutritional supplements from such practices. These satisfied patients can become a beacon of advertising for your practice. We have patients who travel hundreds of miles to get not only the eye exam, but also to undergo the nutritional blood testing and purchase vitamins.

It's about health

Understanding that proper nutrition and supplementation help to slow the progression of degenerative eye diseases, the question becomes, why wouldn't you embrace nutritional therapy? By offering this therapy, we have made it easier for our patients to select the proper supplement and improved their compliance with nutritional therapy and regularly scheduled visits to the office.

Isn't optimum patient health and practice profitability the combination that you're seeking in your practice? Intracellular blood testing offers this combination — a win for patients and practices. OM

Dr. Lange is founder of Lange Eye Care and Associates and The Lange Eye Institute in Central Florida. He is chief executive officer (CEO) of Fortifeye Vitamins and for the past 15 years, he has hosted the radio show "Ask the Doctor." You can contact him at eyedude92@aol.com, www.langeeyecare.com or www.fortifeye.com.