I’ve done my fair share of medical tourism and health-related tests, to say the least.
They can be very helpful when you don’t know where to start, don’t know what’s wrong.
The whole start to my health journey was making enough money online to be able to afford any and all health tests, to find what’s wrong with me.
I was desperate.
And oh, how I wish I knew then what I do today, but hey, I’m here to help, so that you will.
And if that isn’t good news enough for ya:
Table of Contents
- Medical And Nutritional Testing – Not As Necessary As You Might Think
- Useful Health Tests That I've done (Medical, Nutritional)
- And What Tests Do I Recommend?
- Medical Tourism Anecdotes
- Conclusion
- Share The Article:
Medical And Nutritional Testing – Not As Necessary As You Might Think
I used to be of the opinion that testing was the right approach to figure out what’s wrong and to then be able to do something about it.
And as mentioned above, it can be really helpful, but the thing is..
That from all I’ve learned from my own health journey, it’s not that necessary.
How so?
Because, by focusing on optimizing your health rather, you cover nearly all bases of your health, whether you’ve tested yourself before or not.
For example, you may have a chronic disease such as diabetes or being overweight, and/or some nutrient deficiencies (vitamin D and B12 are fairly common).
Now, if you know this, you can take some medicine for the diabetes, try losing weight and take vitamin B12 and D.
If you don’t however, and just follow my guidelines on optimizing your health (link above), you’re already taking and doing what you should to not just prevent but to reverse and cure.
You’ll be doing a proper diet without the vegetable oils (this will have you covered for most chronic disease, including diabetes and obesity), supplementing wisely (no nutrient deficiencies left), fasting for much faster results and maintenance, earthing to curb inflammation and oxidative stress, and so on, sunlight for vitamin D + a supplement, b12 too (they’re both already included in the recommended supplements).
Nearly every condition healthwise that you could have is addressed through a focus on health optimization, including chronic stuff, and that is again, whether you know that you have it, or what it is.
I myself would have gladly in my younger years have done just that, granted I had known about health what I do today.
No doctor’s visits, blood tests and so on, just a focus on covering every health base.
They can however still be useful to recover slightly quicker, or to deal with symptoms temporarily.
Useful Health Tests That I’ve done (Medical, Nutritional)
If you’ve got money to splash on health tests, I’d say go for it, because they can again be helpful, but take it from me, also again, that if you don’t, your money is better spent elsewhere (improving health, not testing).
The health tests that I’ve done and can recommend are 23andMe genetic and health testing, SpectraCell, NutrEval from Genova Diagnositcs, Trace Elements hair mineral analysis, and loads of medical tests including X-rays and MRIs, parasite tests, fungal, virus, lyme, allergies and sensitivities, standard doctor’s blood tests.
But what’s useful and for what?
23andMe
23andMe taught me something really valuable, and that is that I have mutations, MAO And COMT, both ++.
They explain why I was easily stressed growing up, and very addicted to and extra negatively affected by video games and other addictive stuff.
I simply break down dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline slower than most others.
Helpful and recommended since there are many genes that can hinder you, MTHFR is another example.
SpectraCell
From SpectraCell I learned more about a few nutrient deficiencies and that B12 for example was not making it into the cells (functionally deficient even though the blood tests now showed adequate levels).
One of the better nutritional tests out there that focuses on inside the cells rather than in the blood.
NutrEval from Genova Diagnositcs
NutrEval was another extensive nutritional panel that I did in London, and that again showed me having a bunch of deficiencies to be corrected.
Good and helpful for the money if you again have that to spare, but if not, a healthy diet and my recommended supplements would be better to splurge on.
Trace Elements hair mineral analysis
This one, a hair mineral analysis from Trace Elements, taught me I had a lithium deficiency, which was also very helpful, along with cobalt (probably related to my B12 deficiency.
I do take lithium intuitively today, and recommend it to others.
Various Medical And Nutritional Tests
Here I mean those you’re likely to get from your doctor and they can be useful for common deficiencies of say D and B12 and other nutrients.
Basically anything they can come up with goes here and can be useful as well, depending on cost.
And What Tests Do I Recommend?
As I “sort of” mentioned earlier, I recommend both none of them, and all of them, at the same time.
If you’ve got the money, they can be helpful, but if you’re desperate enough to wanna take these tests, you may be ready for a lifestyle overhaul as well, making them not as necessary.
I discovered through a combination of said tests that I was deficient in vitamin D, K2, zinc, B12, lithium (again), manganese and B2 {borderline deficient}, pantothenic acid as well as possibly magnesium and/or iodine.
Very helpful then but now these are already accounted for before testing, through following my diet and supplement guidelines.
Medical Tourism Anecdotes
I did a comprehensive medical journey a number of years ago, to Ukraine.
And there’s a lot to be said about that.
But it was very helpful for figuring out my health puzzle more fully and I learned I likely have chronic lyme, as well as some bulging discs, additional allergies and venous insufficiency (through X-rays and ultrasound).
It cost me a fraction of what it would have here at home in Sweden, and I also met with a bunch of different doctors under a short amount of time.
So, highly recommended as well, but same goes for this in that it’s no longer, in my opinion, entirely necessary.
Conclusion
To conclude, as included in my page on optimizing your health, medical and nutritional health testing can be a helpful addition when you’re trying to get well or to diagnose stuff, but not all that necessary when the steps to optimal health and wellness are already the same.
The money is better spent on improving your health than for testing, is all I’m saying (true for most people, because even if you get a doctor’s diagnosis, they may not have a way to help other than with medications to deal with symptoms, not root causes).
Medical tourism is also an alternative to cut costs, just saying.
/Emil
