Beaumont Weight Control Center Now Offers MicroNutrient Testing

HOUSTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the current trend toward
personalized medicine, the Beaumont Weight Control Center, affiliated with
Beaumont Hospitals, a major Detroit-area health system, now offers
individualized MicroNutrient Testing for patients. This addition to their
weight loss program helps patients identify their specific nutritional
deficiencies in 30 different vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, using a
patented technology from SpectraCell Laboratories.

The Beaumont Weight Control Center offers a variety of medical and surgical
weight loss options. The Center has helped thousands of patients over the
past 20 years lose weight and keep it off. Studies have proven that being
just 20 percent overweight can increase your risk for heart disease, diabetes,
stroke and even some cancers. There is also overwhelming evidence that
nutritional deficiencies, if not corrected, can cause any number of diseases,
such as arthritis, allergies, cancer, diabetes, obesity, depression, fatigue,
heart disease, and dozens of other conditions, many whose etiology is often
difficult to pinpoint.

"Nearly half of people taking vitamin supplements have nutrient deficiencies
that vary from person to person, because we are all biochemically unique,"
explains Katherine Nori Janosz, M.D., F.A.C.P., internal and bariatric
medicine specialist at the Beaumont Weight Control Center. "Nutritional status
is an essential building block of good health."

SpectraCell's MicroNutrient Test reports this valuable personalized
information. A person's white blood cells are introduced to various nutrient
environments and their growth response is measured. Changes in growth
determine if that person has what is called a functional deficiency in any of
the tested nutrients.

Most people know that gross nutrient deficiencies can cause specific diseases,
such as vitamin C and scurvy or vitamin D and rickets. However, when the
deficiencies are more subtle, they will typically be undetected by
conventional diagnostic methods, although such sub-clinical deficiencies will
indeed contribute to disease. The metabolic pathways in each person are so
complex that a single nutrient deficiency can affect several of the body's
systems. That is why an understanding of a person's long-term nutritional
status is critical to achieve optimal health.

About SpectraCell Laboratories - SpectraCell is a CLIA accredited laboratory
that services healthcare providers nationwide by providing individualized
micronutrient testing. SpectraCell's micronutrient testing is an innovative
assessment of a patient's nutritional status. Unlike traditional serum, hair
and urine tests, SpectraCell's testing measures how an individual's white
blood cells function in specific nutritional environments. Over 31 vitamins,
minerals, amino acids and antioxidants are evaluated. As a result, individual
differences in metabolism, age, genetics, health, prescription drug usage,
absorption rate and other factors are taken into consideration.

About the Beaumont Weight Control Center - For more than 20 years, the medical
team at the Beaumont Weight Control Center has helped people to improve their
health through behavior modification, diet and exercise. The center offers
surgical and medical weight-loss programs provided by a team of Beaumont
dietitians, psychologists, exercise physiologists and physicians working
together to offer an individualized program that best meets each patient's
health goals. The Center is located in Royal Oak, Michigan.

SOURCE SpectraCell Laboratories

Otto Schaefer, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of SpectraCell
Laboratories, Inc., 1-800-227-5227, Fax, +1-713-621-3234