Patients want to know about tests that measure environmental exposures. Now we offer another non-invasive assessment for environmental exposures.
Specific urine profiles are associated with high-level exposure to mercury, arsenic, lead and some chemicals and drugs. We now offer urinary porphyrin testing. It's hard to pronounce, but what are porphyrins? Porphyrins are involved in making red blood cells. Let's back up. How do we make red blood cells? Heme, is an iron-containing compound, which is produced in the liver and bone marrow. Heme is used in every tissue in the body. It is a key building block that is responsible for cellular metabolism and transport of oxygen and energy throughout the body.
When heme is not produced correctly you can experience a number of symptoms like: extreme abdominal pain, constipation, anemia, weakness, red or brown urine, nausea, seizures, swelling, abnormal hair growth, high blood pressure, skin pigmentation, muscle pain, headaches and blisters on the skin.
Urinary porphyrins are intermediate metabolites of heme synthesis. If an individual is producing high rates of porphyrinogens then we know that specific enzymes have been blocked in heme production by metabolic diseases, anemias, oxidative stress and high-level exposure to toxic chemicals or metals.
Here is a sample test result:
Research at Doctor's Data, Inc. has identified three separate precoproporphyrin peaks. Since knowledge about the mercury-associated precoproporphyrin entities is limited, we report the levels of all three peaks separately, as well as the total, for research use. Since uroporphyrin levels are not known to be affected by Hg, we also report the total precoproporphyrins-to-uroporphyrin ratio to increase the sensitivity for detecting abnormalities in individuals with low heme biosynthesis, as may occur in children with nutritional deficiencies or autism.