Understanding Your Nutrient Testing: What Your Standard Labs Never Told You
Understanding Your Nutrient Testing
Nutrient Genetics + Nutrient Zoomer
What Your Standard Labs Never Told You About Your Cells
Ryan Bentley, MD, PhD, DC
You are tired, and not the kind of tired that a good night of sleep fixes. This is the kind that settles into your bones and does not leave. You wake up feeling like you never actually rested. Your brain feels like it is running through fog. You walk into a room and cannot remember why you are there. You lose words mid-sentence. Your joints ache first thing in the morning for no clear reason. You used to work out and feel great afterward, but now exercise wipes you out for days. You bruise from barely bumping into something. You squint at restaurant menus in dim lighting and wonder when your eyes got so bad. You catch every cold that comes through your house and it takes you twice as long to recover as everyone else. Your hair is thinning. Your skin looks older than it should. You feel anxious or on edge, and you cannot point to a reason. A single glass of wine hits you harder than it used to. You have tried eating better, sleeping more, exercising, and taking a multivitamin. Nothing moves the needle.
You have told your doctor all of this. Maybe more than once.
Your doctor ran labs. Complete blood count, metabolic panel, thyroid. Everything came back “normal.” You were told to sleep more, stress less, maybe try a multivitamin.
But you know something is off. You can feel it.
Here is what most people do not realize: standard blood work was designed to catch disease, not dysfunction. It flags problems after your body has been struggling for months or years. By the time your B12 shows up as low on a CBC, your cells have been starving long before that number moved. By the time your vitamin D triggers a red flag, your bones, immune system, and energy production have already paid the price.
The gap between “your labs are normal” and “you feel terrible” is not imaginary. It is real, it is measurable, and it is exactly where Nutrient Genetics and Nutrient Zoomer testing lives.
What Standard Lab Work Does Not Show You
Your annual physical checks hemoglobin, white blood cells, liver enzymes, and kidney function. These are valuable tests. They tell us whether disease is present. What they do not tell us is whether your cells are actually getting what they need to function.
Think of it this way. Serum levels measure what is floating in your bloodstream. That is like having a full gas can sitting next to your car. The fuel is right there. But if it never gets into the engine, your car still does not run. Intracellular testing tells us whether the fuel is actually reaching the engine. That is the difference between knowing what is in your blood and knowing what your cells can use.
Nutrient testing works the same way. Serum levels (what is in your blood) and intracellular levels (what is actually inside your cells) can tell two very different stories. A patient can have a “normal” serum B12 and critically depleted intracellular B12. The blood looks fine. The cells are starving.
Standard labs also do not account for your genetics. Two people can eat the exact same diet, take the exact same supplements, and end up with completely different nutrient levels. The difference is in their DNA, specifically in the genes that control how nutrients are absorbed, transported, converted, and used. Without testing those genetic pathways, supplementation is educated guessing at best.
Why One-Size-Fits-All Nutrition Falls Short
We tell every patient the same thing, whether we are working with a professional football player, a corporate executive, an 85-year-old pickleball champion, or a 30-year-old stay-at-home mom who is probably busier than all of them combined. The human body runs on the same basic requirements. Vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, water, and oxygen. When any of those become deficient, symptoms and physical signs start to show up. That part of physiology does not change based on your job title, your age, or how many trophies are on your shelf.
What changes is the demand.
Think of it like cars. A Formula One race car and a Honda Civic both run on fuel, oil, and tires. But the Formula One car is pushing its engine to the absolute limit every single day. It burns through fuel faster. It needs oil changes more frequently. It requires higher-octane fuel, specialized lubricants, and an entire pit crew standing by to keep it performing at that level. The Honda Civic does just fine with an oil change every few thousand miles and regular octane from the pump. Both are engines. Both need maintenance. But the maintenance schedule that keeps a Civic running will destroy a race car.
The problem is that modern nutrition guidelines treat every human body like a Civic.
The Recommended Dietary Allowance, the RDA that appears on every food label and supplement bottle, was created in 1941 when the United States was preparing to enter World War II. The government began screening young men through the Selective Service Act of 1940, and the results were alarming. Up to a quarter of draftees were malnourished and unfit to serve. Of the first million men screened, at least 130,000 were rejected for severe disabilities directly related to malnutrition. These were young men coming out of the Great Depression, and their bodies showed it.
The government responded by establishing the Food and Nutrition Board and tasking it with creating a set of minimum nutritional standards to prevent deficiency diseases like rickets, scurvy, and pellagra across the general population. That is what the RDA is. It is the minimum daily intake needed to ensure that roughly 97% of healthy people do not develop a deficiency disease. Not optimal. Not thriving. Not performing. Just not clinically deficient.
The 1953 edition of the RDA went further and explicitly stated that these allowances are “designed for the maintenance of good nutrition of healthy persons” and are “not necessarily applicable to situations of stringency.” In other words, the people who created the RDA acknowledged from the beginning that these numbers do not account for increased demand.
Now consider what “increased demand” looks like in real life. A professional athlete pushing through two-a-day training sessions. An executive running on four hours of sleep during a product launch. A mother managing three children under five on broken sleep with no recovery time. A patient fighting chronic inflammation from mold exposure. An 85-year-old whose body does not absorb nutrients as efficiently as it did at 25. Every one of these scenarios increases the rate at which the body uses its nutritional resources. And every one of them is invisible to the RDA.
The Buffer Zone: Why “Normal” Is Not the Same as “Safe”
This is where the buffer zone matters. Imagine a nutrient with a reference range of 0.2 to 10.0. If your level sits at 0.3, you are technically “in range.” Your doctor will tell you it is normal. But you are sitting just above empty. The moment your body encounters significant stress, whether it is an illness, a surgery, a season of poor sleep, or an emotional crisis, your demand for that nutrient spikes. You burn through that tiny reserve almost immediately, and now you are in true deficiency with no buffer to absorb the hit.
You would not leave for a cross-country road trip with your gas gauge barely above empty. You would not start a long drive with your oil at the very bottom of the dipstick. You would fill up first because you know the trip is going to make demands on the engine, and you want reserves. Your body works the same way. Sitting at the bottom of the reference range is not health. It is vulnerability disguised as a normal lab value.
This is where precision medicine separates itself from conventional nutrition advice. Precision medicine is personalized, meaning we build protocols based on your genetics, your current cellular levels, and your life, not on a population average from 1941. It is predictive, meaning we identify vulnerabilities before they become disease. And it is preventive, meaning we create the buffer your body needs to handle whatever life throws at it without breaking down.
But nutrition is only one piece of the equation. True health optimization requires assessment on every level: physical (structure, movement, injury), chemical (nutrients, toxins, hormones), and mental, emotional, and spiritual (stress, purpose, relationships, faith). A body that is nutritionally optimized but emotionally depleted is still not firing on all cylinders. We address the whole person because the whole person is what shows up in the exam room.
What Is Nutrient Genetics + Nutrient Zoomer Testing?
At Vitalis-Health, we use a combination of two tests that work together to show us what is happening at the cellular level. (If you have heard us refer to “NutriPro” in the past, this is the same testing panel under its updated name.) One test reads your genetic instruction manual. The other checks your current nutrient dashboard. Together, they answer two questions that standard labs cannot: what does your body need, and is it actually getting there?
Part 1: Nutrient Genetics (One-Time Test)
This test reads the portions of your DNA that control nutrient metabolism. It reveals how your body processes vitamins, minerals, and other compounds. Which nutrients do you absorb efficiently? Which ones get stuck in a bottleneck? Which forms of supplements actually work for your unique biology?
Your genes do not change. We only need this test once. It becomes your permanent metabolic blueprint, and every decision we make about your nutrition is built on it.
Some of the most clinically significant genetic variants we look for:
BCMO1 (Beta-Carotene Conversion): This gene controls whether your body can convert plant-based beta-carotene (from carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach) into active vitamin A. Roughly 45% of people carry at least one variant that significantly reduces this conversion. If you are one of them, eating colorful vegetables does not fix your vitamin A status. Your body cannot make the conversion. You need preformed retinol from animal sources or targeted supplementation. What makes this finding so common and so overlooked is that the symptoms are easy to dismiss. Difficulty seeing in low light. Struggling to read a menu in a dimly lit restaurant. Dry eyes that never seem to improve. Skin that stays rough or bumpy no matter what you do. Most people chalk these up to aging. They are not aging. They are signs of insufficient vitamin A at the cellular level. This is one of the most common findings in our practice, and it changes the supplement plan entirely.
FUT2 (B12 Transport and Cellular Delivery): FUT2 variants affect how B12 distributes between its two carrier proteins in the bloodstream. Most people do not realize that B12 circulates on two separate carriers. Haptocorrin carries 80 to 90% of the total B12 in your blood, but it cannot deliver B12 into your cells. It is essentially a storage vehicle driving around with no destination. Transcobalamin carries only 10 to 20% of total serum B12, but it is the only carrier that actually delivers B12 into cells. FUT2 variants alter haptocorrin in a way that shifts more B12 onto that storage carrier and less onto the delivery carrier. The result? A standard serum B12 test counts all of it, both carriers combined, and reports a number that looks perfectly normal or even high. But the fraction that actually reaches your cells may be insufficient. What does this feel like in daily life? Persistent fatigue that does not respond to rest. A foggy feeling where you cannot hold a thought or recall the word you are looking for. Tingling or numbness in the hands and feet. Mood changes that seem to come out of nowhere. Many patients with these symptoms have been told their B12 is fine based on a serum level. The total number is fine. The delivery to cells is not.
MTHFR (Folate Metabolism): MTHFR is one of the most discussed genetic variants in nutrition, and for good reason. Variants in this gene reduce your ability to convert synthetic folic acid into the active form your cells use (methylfolate). If you carry MTHFR variants and take a standard multivitamin containing folic acid, much of it sits unused. Your body needs methylfolate specifically, and without genetic testing, there is no way to know that. When methylation is not working efficiently, patients often experience anxiety or irritability that seems disproportionate to their circumstances. They may notice they are more sensitive to caffeine or alcohol than other people. Headaches, difficulty managing stress, and a general sense of being emotionally “on edge” are common. These are not personality traits. They are methylation bottlenecks with a biochemical explanation.
VDR (Vitamin D Receptor Function): Even if your serum vitamin D level looks perfect at 45 ng/mL, VDR variants can reduce how effectively that vitamin D binds inside your cells. Two patients with identical blood levels can have dramatically different biological responses based on their VDR genetics alone. This is why some people supplement vitamin D aggressively and never feel the difference. The vitamin D is in the blood. It is not getting into the cells where it matters. Patients with VDR variants often report persistent muscle aches and bone discomfort that physical therapy does not fully resolve. They get sick more often than those around them, picking up every cold and virus that comes through. Low mood and seasonal changes in energy are common, even in people who spend time outdoors. Joint stiffness first thing in the morning that loosens up as the day goes on. These patients are often told their vitamin D is fine. It may be fine in their blood. Their cells are telling a different story.
SLC23A1/SLC23A2 (Vitamin C Transport): Vitamin C depends on specific transporter proteins to move from the gut into the bloodstream and from the blood into cells. Variants in the SLC23A1 and SLC23A2 genes reduce the efficiency of those transporters. A patient with these variants can take high-dose oral vitamin C and still show poor intracellular levels because the standard form cannot get past the transport bottleneck. This is where liposomal vitamin C becomes clinically important. Liposomal delivery wraps the vitamin C in a fat-based membrane that bypasses the defective transporters entirely, allowing direct absorption into cells. Same nutrient, different delivery, dramatically different result. Patients with poor vitamin C status at the cellular level often notice they bruise easily, even from minor bumps. Cuts and scrapes take longer to heal than they used to. Their gums may bleed when brushing. Their skin looks dull or aged beyond their years. They catch colds frequently and take longer to recover. Vitamin C is essential for collagen production, immune defense, and antioxidant protection. When your cells are not receiving it efficiently, every one of those systems shows the strain.
Phase I/II Detoxification Variants (CYP450, GST, NAT2): These genes control how your body processes and eliminates toxins, hormones, and metabolic waste. Variants here can mean your body creates toxic intermediates faster than it can neutralize them. Understanding these pathways tells us how aggressively we need to support your detoxification capacity and whether environmental toxin exposure is accumulating faster than your biology can handle. Patients with compromised detoxification pathways often describe chemical sensitivity, meaning strong perfumes, cleaning products, or new car smell give them headaches or nausea when others around them are unaffected. They may feel generally unwell after moderate alcohol consumption, even just one glass of wine. Hormonal imbalances that do not respond to standard treatment can point to sluggish hormone clearance through these same pathways. A persistent feeling of being “toxic” or inflamed without a clear cause is another common report.
Antioxidant Production (SOD, GPX): Your body manufactures its own antioxidant defense system. Variants in SOD (superoxide dismutase) and GPX (glutathione peroxidase) genes can reduce that internal defense. If your antioxidant production is genetically compromised, your cells take more oxidative damage from daily living, aging accelerates, and recovery from illness or exercise slows down. These variants tell us whether standard antioxidant support is enough or whether we need a more targeted approach. What patients notice is that they recover slowly from workouts, sometimes taking days longer than friends or family members doing the same activity. They may look older than their chronological age, with premature graying, thinning skin, or increased wrinkles. Wounds heal slowly. They feel run down after any illness for weeks rather than days. Chronic joint soreness that does not have a clear orthopedic explanation can also point to elevated oxidative stress. These are not signs that your body is failing you. They are signs that your internal defense system needs more support than the average person’s.
Part 2: Nutrient Zoomer (Baseline + Follow-Ups)
The Nutrient Zoomer measures your actual nutrient levels right now. Not serum levels. Intracellular levels. This is your current dashboard, a snapshot of what your cells have to work with today.
We run it at baseline to establish your starting point, then again in 3 to 6 months to track improvement. This is how we prove the protocol is working, not by how you feel (though that matters), but by measurable changes at the cellular level.
What the Nutrient Zoomer Measures
| Category | What We Measure |
|---|---|
| B Vitamins | B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6, B9 (folate), B12. These drive energy production, nerve function, and methylation. |
| Fat-Soluble Vitamins | Vitamins A, D, E, and K. Critical for immune function, bone health, cardiovascular protection, and cell membrane integrity. |
| Minerals | Zinc, magnesium, selenium, copper, manganese, chromium, and more. These are cofactors for hundreds of enzymatic reactions. |
| Amino Acids | The building blocks of protein, neurotransmitters, and enzymes. Deficiencies here affect mood, muscle recovery, and immune defense. |
| Fatty Acids | Omega-3, omega-6, and omega-9 ratios. Imbalances here drive inflammation and affect cell membrane integrity throughout the body. |
| Antioxidants | CoQ10, glutathione precursors, and other markers of your body’s internal defense against oxidative stress. |
Why Both Tests Matter Together
Genetics tells us the “why.” The Zoomer tells us the “what.” Neither test alone gives you the full picture.
Your genetics might reveal that you carry BCMO1 variants, meaning your body cannot efficiently convert beta-carotene to active vitamin A. That is valuable information. But it does not tell us how depleted you are right now. The Zoomer fills that gap. It shows your current intracellular vitamin A level, which tells us how urgently we need to intervene and at what dose.
Conversely, the Zoomer might show critically low intracellular B12. Without the genetics, we might just increase your B12 dose. But if your FUT2 gene shows a carrier protein distribution variant, more B12 is getting trapped on the storage carrier (haptocorrin) instead of the delivery carrier (transcobalamin). Simply taking more oral B12 may just load more onto the wrong carrier. We need to monitor the right markers, use forms of B12 that preferentially support cellular uptake (methylcobalamin, hydroxocobalamin), and in some cases use sublingual, intramuscular injection, or IV delivery to bypass the distribution bottleneck entirely.
This is the difference between precision and guesswork. We match the right form, the right dose, and the right delivery method to your specific biology. No two patients get the same protocol because no two patients have the same genetics.
What This Looks Like in Real Life
The following is a real patient case from our practice, shared with permission and de-identified to protect privacy. The numbers are real. The improvements are real. This is what precision medicine looks like when it works.
A woman in her mid-forties came to our office with a list of concerns that had been dismissed for years. Chronic fatigue that no amount of sleep resolved. Brain fog so persistent she struggled to stay sharp at work. Peripheral neuropathy in her feet severe enough that she needed ice packs at night just to manage the discomfort. Sleep that never felt restorative. A feeling of constant hypervigilance, like her nervous system was stuck in threat-detection mode. And a history of mold exposure that nobody had connected to any of it.
She had seen multiple specialists. Her standard labs came back within reference range. Thyroid, normal. CBC, normal. Metabolic panel, mostly normal aside from mildly elevated liver enzymes that were attributed to fatty liver with no clear explanation. She was told she was healthy. She did not feel healthy.
We ran Nutrient Genetics and Nutrient Zoomer.
What Her Genetics Revealed
Her Nutrient Genetics panel told a story her standard labs never could.
PEMT gene variant (rs7946 C/T): This variant reduces her liver’s ability to manufacture phosphatidylcholine on its own. Phosphatidylcholine is what liver cells use to build their membranes and to package triglycerides into VLDL for export. When that process breaks down, triglycerides accumulate in liver cells. The result? Fatty liver and elevated enzymes. The “unexplained” fatty liver that three doctors shrugged at suddenly had a genetic explanation.
FUT2 and TCN1 variants (B12 transport): These variants affect B12’s carrier protein system. B12 circulates on two carriers: haptocorrin (which stores B12 but cannot deliver it to cells) and transcobalamin (the only carrier that actually delivers B12 inside cells). FUT2 variants alter haptocorrin’s structure in a way that shifts more B12 onto the storage carrier. TCN1 variants compound this by further affecting haptocorrin itself. The combined effect means a disproportionate amount of her B12 was riding on a carrier that could never deliver it. Her serum B12 was actually high at 1,184 pg/mL. On standard labs, that looks excellent. But her intracellular B12 was below range at 1.76 pg/mL (reference minimum: 2.0). The standard test counted all the B12 in her blood, both carriers combined, and reported a number that looked great. But the fraction on the delivery carrier, the only fraction her cells could actually use, was insufficient. This is the gas can analogy in action: the fuel inventory looks full, but the delivery truck carrying fuel to the engine is running nearly empty.
SVCT1 (rs6139591 T/T) and SVCT2 (rs6596473 C/G): These vitamin C transporter variants make it harder for standard vitamin C to cross from the gut into the bloodstream and from the blood into cells. She had been taking regular oral vitamin C for years. Her cells were not receiving it efficiently. We switched her to liposomal vitamin C, which wraps the nutrient in a fat-based membrane that bypasses those defective transporters entirely.
Her panel also revealed methylation variants affecting folate metabolism and detoxification pathway polymorphisms that, combined with her mold exposure history, explained why her body was struggling to clear toxins effectively.
What Her Zoomer Revealed at Baseline
The Nutrient Zoomer confirmed what the genetics predicted. Her intracellular levels painted a picture of a body running on empty in nearly every category that mattered for her symptoms:
| Marker | Baseline | 6 Months Later | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Omega-3 Index | 5.78% | 8.40% | +45% |
| DHA (brain omega-3) | 3.81% | 6.42% | +69% |
| Glutathione (cellular) | 181.8 pg/MM | 594.8 pg/MM | +227% |
| Choline (cellular) | 0.3 ng/MM | 0.8 ng/MM | +167% |
| MMA (B12 utilization) | 0.24 nmol/mL | 0.10 nmol/mL | -58% |
| Folate (cellular) | 335.6 ng/mL | 517.2 ng/mL | +54% |
| Vitamin C (serum) | 0.9 mg/dL | 1.3 mg/dL | +44% |
| Vitamin K1 (cellular) | 0.08 pg/MM | 0.13 pg/MM | +63% |
| Vitamin K2 (excess) | 19.54 ng/mL | 0.27 ng/mL | Normalized |
| Calcium (excess) | 10.8 mg/dL | 10.0 mg/dL | Normalized |
| Chromium (excess) | 0.90 ng/mL | 0.28 ng/mL | Normalized |
| Iron (excess) | 150 ug/dL | 136 ug/dL | Normalized |
Nine markers that were out of range moved into range in six months.
[CONTINUING IN NEXT MESSAGE – File size limit…]Four additional markers showed meaningful improvement. Three items needed refinement at her next visit.
What Changed for Her
Based on her combined genetic and Zoomer results, we built a protocol matched to her biology. Not a generic multivitamin. Not a one-size-fits-all stack. Every product was chosen because her data told us she needed it, in the specific form her genetics could use:
Double-dose omega-3 fish oil for her depleted Omega-3 Index. S-acetyl glutathione (not standard glutathione) because the S-acetyl form crosses cell membranes intact. BodyBio PC (phosphatidylcholine) to bypass her PEMT gene bottleneck and support her liver directly. Homocysteine Supreme with the methylated B vitamins her methylation cycle required. Liposomal vitamin C to bypass her SVCT1/SVCT2 transporter variants. Vitamin K1 specifically (while stopping K2) to rebalance a dangerous K vitamin ratio that had pushed her calcium above range. And we stopped the selenium, chromium, and iron supplements she had been taking because her levels showed excess, not deficiency. More is not always better.
At her six-month follow-up, the numbers spoke for themselves. But the numbers were not the most important part. What changed was her life.
Her Symptoms at Six Months
The peripheral neuropathy in her feet improved. She had been using ice packs on her feet nightly just to manage the discomfort. After six months, she reported she did not always need them anymore. Her Omega-3 Index crossing the 8% threshold meant her body finally had the raw materials for nerve membrane integrity and repair. DHA, the omega-3 most concentrated in nerve tissue, jumped 69%. Her nerves were getting what they needed to rebuild.
Her sleep became restorative for the first time in years. Multiple biochemical shifts contributed. DHA improves the fluidity of neuronal membranes in sleep-regulating brain regions. The dramatic MMA reduction meant better methylation, which supports serotonin and melatonin production, the hormones that govern your sleep-wake cycle. Tripled glutathione reduced the oxidative stress that fragments sleep architecture. Her body was not just sleeping longer. It was sleeping better.
The hypervigilance quieted. She described a feeling of constant alertness that made it impossible to relax, like her nervous system was stuck scanning for threats. Tripled glutathione meant less neuroinflammation, which quiets the brain’s threat-detection circuits. Higher cellular choline meant more acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter associated with calm focus rather than reactive alertness. Alongside the nutritional interventions, she also began autonomic nervous system retraining through Royer Neuroscience (royerneuroscience.com) and Inner Armor (myinnerarmor.com), programs developed by Dr. Tim Royer that specifically address the dysregulated stress response driving hypervigilance. Nutritional optimization gave her nervous system the biochemical foundation it needed. Autonomic retraining taught it how to stand down. She told us at her follow-up that she sometimes “did not care” about being perfectly compliant with every supplement, and she said it with a laugh. That shift, from obsessive vigilance to relaxed confidence, was a sign her nervous system finally felt safe enough to let go.
Her stress resilience improved despite life getting harder. She experienced two major life stressors between her baseline and follow-up testing. Despite that, her stress levels consistently decreased. A body with tripled glutathione, optimized omega-3 levels, normalized mineral status, and improved methylation handles stress differently than one running on empty. She was building resilience from the inside out.
The fatty liver that nobody could explain had a genetic answer. Her PEMT variant meant her liver could not manufacture enough phosphatidylcholine on its own. The BodyBio PC bypassed that bottleneck, and her cellular choline nearly tripled. Her liver finally had what it needed to do its job.
She had not been “fine.” She had been in cellular dysfunction that standard labs were never designed to detect. Three doctors told her she was healthy because their tools only measure disease. Once we identified the actual genetic bottlenecks and cellular deficiencies, addressed them with the correct forms and doses, and removed the supplements that were causing excess, her body did what it was designed to do. It healed.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE: PRECISION ALSO MEANS KNOWING WHEN TO STOP
One of the most significant findings in this patient’s case was not what she was missing. It was what she had too much of. Her selenium, chromium, iron, and vitamin K2 were all elevated, some significantly above range. She had been taking supplements containing all of these because a previous provider recommended them without testing cellular levels. The right move was to stop those supplements and let her body clear the excess. Within six months, chromium and iron normalized, calcium corrected as the K vitamins rebalanced, and selenium was trending down. Precision medicine is not about taking more. It is about taking exactly what your body needs, nothing more, nothing less.
Common Patterns We See at Vitalis-Health
After running Nutrient Genetics and Nutrient Zoomer on hundreds of patients, certain patterns appear over and over. These are not rare findings. They are remarkably common, which makes them all the more significant because they are almost never caught by standard care.
The “Healthy Eater” Who Is Still Depleted
This is one of the most frequent patterns we see. A patient eats well, exercises, does everything right by conventional standards, and still feels terrible. Nutrient testing almost always reveals why. Genetic variants in absorption, conversion, or transport genes mean the nutrients from food are not reaching cells effectively. The diet is fine. The delivery system is broken. These patients are often the most relieved when they see their results because it finally validates what they have been experiencing. They were not imagining it. Their cells were genuinely struggling despite doing everything they were told to do.
Near-Universal Magnesium Depletion
The vast majority of patients we test show suboptimal to deficient intracellular magnesium. This is consistent with published data showing that roughly 50% of Americans consume less than the estimated average requirement for magnesium. Magnesium is a cofactor in anywhere from 300 to over 600 enzymatic reactions depending on which research you review. Either way, that number tells you how much the body depends on it. It affects energy production, muscle function, sleep quality, heart rhythm, and blood pressure regulation. When intracellular magnesium is low, patients often report muscle cramps, poor sleep, anxiety, and persistent fatigue. Restoring magnesium levels is one of the fastest ways we see symptom improvement.
The Vitamin D Disconnect
Many patients come in already supplementing vitamin D because their previous doctor told them their serum level was low. They take 2,000 or 5,000 IU daily. Their serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D looks fine at 40 to 50 ng/mL. But their intracellular vitamin D is still suboptimal, and their VDR genetics explain why. The vitamin D is in their blood. It is not getting into their cells. Without understanding the genetic layer, these patients keep supplementing at the same dose and never improve. We adjust the dose, add cofactors like K2 and magnesium that support vitamin D utilization, and the picture changes.
B Vitamin Complexity
B vitamins are not as simple as “take a B-complex.” We routinely see patients with adequate serum B12 and intracellularly depleted B12. We see patients with MTHFR variants who have been taking folic acid for years with zero cellular benefit. We see thiamine (B1) deficits that standard labs never measure, driving fatigue and brain fog that gets attributed to depression or aging. The B vitamins are a network. When one is depleted, the others compensate until they cannot anymore. The Nutrient Zoomer shows us the entire network, not just one or two markers, so we can address the actual bottleneck.
Omega-3 to Omega-6 Imbalance
Nearly every patient we test has an omega-3 index below the optimal range, even patients who take fish oil. The standard American diet creates an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio that is significantly skewed toward inflammation. When we measure actual intracellular fatty acid profiles, we see this imbalance clearly. It drives chronic low-grade inflammation that does not show up on a standard CRP test but affects everything from cardiovascular health to cognitive function to joint integrity. Correcting this ratio is one of the most impactful interventions we make.
How We Use Your Results to Build Your Protocol
Once we have both your Nutrient Genetics and your Nutrient Zoomer results, the clinical picture comes together. This is where precision medicine separates itself from conventional supplementation.
Step 1: Identify the Genetic Bottlenecks
We review every genetic variant and identify the pathways where your biology needs extra support. These are permanent findings. They do not change. They inform every supplement recommendation we make for you going forward.
Step 2: Assess Current Cellular Status
The Zoomer shows us where you are right now. Which nutrients are critically depleted? Which are suboptimal? Which are in good shape? This is where we determine urgency, what needs to be addressed first versus what can wait.
Step 3: Match Form and Dose to Your Genetics
This is the step most supplement protocols skip entirely. If your genetics show that B12 is loading onto storage carriers instead of reaching your cells, we do not just give you a higher dose of the same thing. We change the form and delivery. If your MTHFR variants mean folic acid does not convert, we give you methylfolate at the dose your genetics require. If your BCMO1 says beta-carotene is useless, we give you preformed retinol. Every recommendation is built on your data, not on a population average.
Step 4: Monitor and Adjust
At 3 to 6 months, we recheck your Nutrient Zoomer. The genetics do not change, so we do not retest those. But the Zoomer shows us whether the protocol is working. Are levels moving toward optimal? Are we seeing the cellular changes we expected? If something is not moving, we adjust. This is how we know we are not guessing. We measure, intervene, and measure again.
The Bigger Picture: Deficiencies and Toxicities
Nutrient Genetics and Nutrient Zoomer answer the question: “What are your cells missing?” At Vitalis-Health, we pair that with a second question: “What is poisoning your cells?”
Our Total Tox panel (a separate test) measures environmental toxin burden, including PFAS (forever chemicals), heavy metals like mercury and lead, mycotoxins from mold exposure, pesticide residues, and other persistent organic pollutants. When cells are simultaneously nutrient-depleted and toxin-loaded, they cannot function. Years of this dual burden is what eventually becomes disease, whether it shows up as diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune conditions, or neurodegeneration.
We catch dysfunction early. We do not wait for pathology.
For patients with significant toxic burden in addition to nutrient depletion, we often recommend therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) to clear the toxic load from the bloodstream before rebuilding with targeted nutrition. You cannot fill a cup that is already full of something harmful. First we clean the environment, then we rebuild the foundation.
Understanding Your Results
Genetics Results
| Category | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Green (Normal) | Your genes work as expected here. Standard supplementation and dietary approaches are effective. |
| Yellow (Moderate) | You need higher doses or specific forms of this nutrient. Standard approaches may be partially effective but likely insufficient. |
| Red (Significant) | Your body needs targeted intervention. The wrong form of this nutrient will not work regardless of dose. Specific supplementation strategy required. |
Zoomer Results (Current Levels)
| Status | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Deficient | Below optimal. Your cells are struggling with this nutrient. Intervention is a priority. |
| Suboptimal | In range but not where we want it for cellular health. Room for improvement. |
| Optimal | Target level for cellular health. This is where we want every marker. |
Your Testing Timeline
First Visit
Almost every new patient starts with Dr. Bentley’s Basic Essentials panel through LabCorp. Standard labs have their place. They help us identify active disease processes and rule out conditions that need immediate attention. Sometimes, they even pick up dysfunction before it progresses to disease. From there, based on your history, goals, and chief concerns, we layer in more advanced testing like the Nutrient Genetics and Nutrient Zoomer panels. These go deeper, showing us what’s driving the dysfunction at the cellular level and how to correct it. Not everyone needs every test on day one. We meet you where you are and build from there.
If you’re already a patient and we haven’t run this testing yet, just let us know. We’re happy to add it in whenever you’re ready.
3 to 6 Months Later
Nutrient Zoomer only (recheck current levels). We compare your follow-up Zoomer to your baseline to measure progress. Are your levels moving toward optimal? Are we seeing the changes we expected? No need to retest genetics. Your DNA is permanent.
Ongoing
For most patients, we recommend annual Zoomer checks to ensure levels stay optimized, especially as seasons change, stress fluctuates, and life happens. Patients with significant genetic variants often do best with ongoing targeted supplementation. We adjust doses as your levels improve, but the genetics do not change, and neither does the need for the right forms of nutrients.
Common Questions
“Why can’t I just take a multivitamin?”
Because your genetics determine which forms of nutrients your body can actually use. If you carry MTHFR variants and take a multivitamin containing folic acid (the synthetic form), your body cannot convert it efficiently into the methylfolate your cells need. If you carry BCMO1 variants, the beta-carotene in your multivitamin will not become active vitamin A. Generic multivitamins are built for average genetics. You are not average. You are you. And your cells deserve a protocol designed for your biology, not a guess based on a population average.
“Do I have to take supplements forever?”
Many patients do best with ongoing targeted support, especially for genetic variants that permanently affect absorption or metabolism. The genetics do not change, and neither does your body’s need for specific nutrient forms. That said, once levels optimize, we often reduce doses to a maintenance level. The goal is not to take the most supplements possible. The goal is to give your cells exactly what they need, nothing more, nothing less.
“How is this different from what my primary care doctor does?”
At Vitalis-Health, we start with the same foundational work any good primary care physician does. We run traditional labs, evaluate vital signs, and screen for disease. That is essential medicine, and we take it seriously. Where our approach goes further is when those traditional labs come back normal and you still do not feel right. That is the moment most patients hit a wall. The standard tools say you are fine, but your body is telling you otherwise. Nutrient Genetics and Nutrient Zoomer pick up where traditional labs leave off. They ask a different question: not “do you have a disease?” but “are your cells getting what they need to function at their best?” This does not replace what your primary care doctor provides. It adds a layer of insight that standard panels were never designed to offer.
“What if my results show everything is normal?”
It happens, though less often than you might expect. If your genetics and Zoomer both look strong, that is genuinely good news. It means your current approach is working for your biology. We would still use the genetics as a guide for long-term optimization and prevention, because knowing your metabolic blueprint helps you make better decisions about diet and supplementation for the rest of your life. Think of it as a map. Even if you are not lost right now, the map still tells you the best route forward.
“I already eat organic and exercise daily. Do I really need this?”
Some of the most surprising results we see come from patients who do everything right by conventional standards. They eat organic produce, exercise five days a week, sleep eight hours, manage stress. And their intracellular levels still show deficiencies. Why? Because genetics determine the efficiency of nutrient processing regardless of how clean your inputs are. If your body cannot convert, transport, or utilize a nutrient efficiently because of a genetic variant, a perfect diet cannot overcome that bottleneck. These are the patients who benefit most from this testing because it finally explains why they are doing everything right and still not feeling their best.
Your Cells Tell the Real Story
Standard labs measure disease. Nutrient Genetics and Nutrient Zoomer measure function. One tells you when something has already gone wrong. The other tells you why your body is struggling before it ever reaches that point.
If you have been told your labs are normal but you know something is not right, trust that instinct. The gap between “normal” and “optimal” is where cellular dysfunction lives. It is where fatigue, brain fog, inflammation, and slow decline begin. And it is exactly where we can intervene.
Here is what we want every patient to understand: you are not broken. Just as every person is different on the outside, every person is different on the inside. The way your body absorbs nutrients, processes vitamins, clears toxins, and responds to stress is unique to you. That is not a flaw. It is simply your biology. The goal of this testing is to understand where your specific vulnerabilities are so we can optimize them. When your body has what it needs, in the forms it can actually use, it does what it was designed to do.
At Vitalis-Health, we start where standard care stops. We look at what your cells are missing, what your genetics require, and what your body needs to function at its best. Not a guess. Not a one-size-fits-all protocol. Precision medicine built on your biology.
Because when your body is functioning the way it was designed to, you have the energy, the clarity, and the resilience to fulfill your purpose. To show up fully for the people who depend on you. To serve others with the gifts and skills you have been blessed with. That is what health optimization is really about. It is not about perfect lab values on a page. It is about giving you the foundation to live at your maximum so you can pour into the people and the calling that matter most to you.
Your body was designed to heal. Sometimes it just needs the right information to get there.
Ready to See What Your Labs Have Been Missing?
Schedule your Nutrient Genetics + Nutrient Zoomer consultation at Vitalis-Health.
vitalis-health.com | Holland, Michigan | (616) 294-3211
Vitalis-Health | Nutrient Genetics • Cellular Optimization • Precision Medicine