🥬 Full Micronutrient Screen
For everyone · 11 markers · $363.60
with code CAMERON $404.00
Restrictive diet, plant-based, post-bariatric, on a GLP-1, heavy training load, or you just want to stop guessing which supplements you actually need.
🩸 Order this exact panel — 10% off
All 11 markers load into your cart in one click. No doctor's visit, drawn at any Quest location in the US, results by email in about two weeks. Code CAMERON applies automatically.
Add all 11 markers — $363.60 → Open the full Bloodwork Vault →Why this panel
Most people take supplements based on a podcast rather than a measurement. This tests the deficiencies that are both common and consequential — and, just as usefully, tells you which bottles to stop buying.
What this panel can settle, and by what logic
Eleven nutrients in one draw. The panel is better than most of its kind for one reason: on three of the eleven it chose the intracellular form of the test over the serum one.
- Magnesium, RBC instead of serum magnesium is the single best decision on the list. Serum magnesium is homeostatically defended and stays inside range through genuine depletion, so it is the wrong test for status Fiorentini 2021; the red-cell measurement is run by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and reports the intracellular pool Bithi 2024.
- Zinc, RBC and Folate, RBC follow the same logic. Plasma zinc moves with meals, time of day and inflammation Ceballos-Rasgado 2024; red-cell folate integrates roughly the preceding three months rather than this week's intake, though the assay itself has known calibration problems Hunt 2020.
- Ferritin is on a nutrient panel as the anchor, and it only works with a CRP. Ferritin is an acute-phase protein, which is why the BRINDA methods exist to adjust micronutrient biomarkers for inflammation Luo 2023.
- Vitamin B12, Vitamin D (25-Hydroxy), Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) and Copper, Serum cover the deficiencies that actually present in well-fed adults — after bariatric surgery, on long-term acid suppression, with heavy alcohol use, or on a restricted diet Zheng 2023.
What it cannot settle, and what would
For most of these markers a blood concentration is not tissue status, and that gap is the honest headline of the page. Blood is a transport compartment that the body defends; the store is in liver, bone, muscle and marrow. Reviews of micronutrient biomarkers say this explicitly and it is why validated status assessment usually needs a functional marker beside the concentration — methylmalonic acid for B12, a transketolase activity for thiamine Zheng 2023.
Serum Iodine is not how iodine status is measured. The established population measure is urinary iodine, and even that is a poor individual measure: estimating one person's habitual intake takes on the order of ten repeat collections, because day-to-day variation swamps the signal König 2011. A single serum iodine should not be used to start or stop iodine.
Vitamin A barely moves until deficiency is severe, and moves for the wrong reasons when it does. Serum retinol is held constant by hepatic regulation across a wide range of liver stores, and it falls during inflammation independently of vitamin A status — adjustment for inflammation improves specificity but costs sensitivity Suri 2021. A normal result does not exclude depleted liver stores.
And Vitamin C is the most fragile number you will buy. Plasma ascorbate reflects recent intake rather than tissue saturation and degrades in the tube unless the sample is handled correctly Carr 2020. A low result is at least as likely to be the courier as the diet.
Draw conditions that decide whether the money is wasted
This panel is ruined more often by preparation than any other on the site, and each failure ruins a different marker.
- Stop every supplement 3 to 7 days before. Circulating micronutrients rise measurably after a meal and after a dose, and an interventional meal study found the postprandial shift large enough to change interpretation Pellowski 2024. Testing an hour after the morning stack measures the stack, which is the most expensive way to learn nothing.
- Fast, go in the morning, and do not go while unwell. Inflammation lowers zinc, Vitamin A and Vitamin C and raises Ferritin at the same time Luo 2023 Suri 2021, so an illness produces several apparent deficiencies and one falsely reassuring iron result in a single tube.
- Ask for the red-cell assays to be run on a properly separated, unhemolyzed sample. Red cells carry far more zinc and magnesium than plasma, so contamination runs the result in whichever direction the error went Bithi 2024 Ceballos-Rasgado 2024.
- Get Vitamin C to the laboratory fast, ideally on ice and protected from light. Ascorbate oxidizes in a warm tube Carr 2020; if that cannot be arranged, do not buy the marker.
How you would know it answered your question, and what each pattern means next
Five outcomes, and only two of them justify a retest.
- One marker mildly low, everything else normal: the most likely reading is analytical or preanalytical, not deficiency. Repeat that single marker in 4 to 6 weeks under correct conditions before supplementing Zheng 2023.
- Several low together: the pattern that means something. Look for a shared cause — celiac disease, bariatric surgery, chronic acid suppression, alcohol — rather than starting five supplements.
- Low Ferritin with a raised hs-CRP (High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein): not readable. Redraw when CRP is under 1 mg/L, or interpret with a BRINDA-style adjustment Luo 2023.
- Iodine low or high: do not act on it. If iodine matters to you, ask for a urinary iodine and accept that a single collection is a screening observation about a group, not a measurement of you König 2011.
- Copper, Serum low with a high zinc intake: stop the zinc and recheck both at 8 to 12 weeks. Zinc induces the intestinal protein that blocks copper absorption, so removing the cause is the treatment Ceballos-Rasgado 2024.
Sources read for these sections
- Zheng J, et al. Biomarkers of Micronutrients and Phytonutrients and Their Application in Epidemiological Studies. Nutrients 2023 · PMID 36839326
- Fiorentini D, et al. Magnesium: Biochemistry, Nutrition, Detection, and Social Impact of Diseases Linked to Its Deficiency. Nutrients 2021 · PMID 33808247
- Ceballos-Rasgado M, et al. Methods of Assessment of Zinc Status in Humans: An Updated Review and Meta-analysis. Nutrition Reviews 2024 · PMID 38917458
- König F, et al. Ten repeat collections for urinary iodine from spot samples or 24-hour samples are needed to reliably estimate individual iodine status in women. Journal of Nutrition 2011 · PMID 21918061
- Suri DJ, et al. Inflammation Adjustments to Serum Retinol and Retinol-Binding Protein Improve Specificity but Reduce Sensitivity when Estimating Vitamin A Deficiency Compared with the Modified Relative Dose-Response Test in Ghanaian Children. Current Developments in Nutrition 2021 · PMID 34386690
- Carr AC, et al. Factors Affecting Vitamin C Status and Prevalence of Deficiency: A Global Health Perspective. Nutrients 2020 · PMID 32630245
- Luo H, et al. A Practical Guide to Adjust Micronutrient Biomarkers for Inflammation Using the BRINDA Method. Journal of Nutrition 2023 · PMID 36792034
- Pellowski D, et al. Postprandial Micronutrient Variability and Bioavailability: An Interventional Meal Study in Young vs. Old Participants. Nutrients 2024 · PMID 38474753
- Hunt SE, et al. Red Blood Cell Folate Likely Overestimated in Australian National Survey: Implications for Neural Tube Defect Risk. Nutrients 2020 · PMID 32369938
- Bithi N, et al. Method validation of an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) assay for the analysis of magnesium, copper and zinc in red blood cells. Journal of Mass Spectrometry and Advances in the Clinical Lab 2024 · PMID 39469428
What's inside
This panel covers 11 markers chosen for this specific situation. The full list, the clinical reasoning behind each marker, draw timing and how to interpret your results are available to Skool members.
Every marker and why it's here — plus the full evidence-graded Full Micronutrient Screen protocol: which nutrients serum lies about and which it doesn’t, the zinc habit that quietly causes copper deficiency and nerve damage, the drugs that deplete B12 for years unnoticed, and the bottles a normal result lets you stop buying. $10/mo, cancel anytime.
Unlock the full panel →Free marker breakdowns
These explainers are free: what each one measures, the optimal range rather than just the lab range, and what actually moves it.
What this panel is ordered to decide
A panel is a set of numbers until it settles something. These are the decisions this one feeds — each links the pathway it belongs to, what that pathway claims, and what its test list is read for.
Melasma is frequently hormonal, and thyroid disease causes pigment change directly. Worth ruling out before spending months on topicals.
Collagen synthesis has obligate cofactors — without vitamin C, cross-linking fails outright; without copper, lysyl oxidase can't finish the job. Supplying substrate while a cofactor is missing is the most common wasted effort in this pathway.
How you metabolize estrogen matters as much as how much you make, and the methylation step depends on COMT having the methyl groups to work with. Homocysteine is the read on that.
HbA1c belongs here and surprises people: glycation cross-links dermal collagen and stiffens it, and it is one of the few visible ageing mechanisms you can measure and reverse.
Raised homocysteine is the single best functional read on whether the methylation cycle is running. This is the pathway behind most treatment-resistant low mood that responds to nothing else, and the whole workup costs less than a month of supplements.
Conjugation runs on amino acids, methyl groups and minerals. Homocysteine is the functional read on whether the methylation arm is working — upregulating Phase I with Phase II short produces more reactive intermediates than you started with.
A multivitamin is a hedge against gaps you haven't measured. This panel tells you which gaps are real — and RBC values beat serum for zinc, magnesium and folate, because serum is defended at the expense of tissue.
Related panels
Frequently asked questions
11 markers: Magnesium, RBC, Zinc, RBC, Copper, Serum, Vitamin D (25-Hydroxy), Vitamin B12, Folate, RBC, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin B1 (Thiamine), Blood, Iodine, Ferritin.
$404.00 before discount, $363.60 with code CAMERON applied automatically. Individual markers add a one-time $10 draw fee. Ordered through Marek Diagnostics and drawn at any Quest Diagnostics location in the US.
No. These are ordered direct-to-consumer through Marek Diagnostics — you order online, walk into a Quest location, and results are emailed to you in about two weeks. No physician visit or insurance required. Not available in NY, NJ or RI.
Fast 9–12 hours. Stop all supplements 3–7 days before or you're measuring your morning pills, not your stores. Off biotin 72 hours.
Where this goes next
This page is how to read the panel. What to DO about each result — the dosing, the order to correct things in, the week-by-week schedule and what to retest — is a lesson inside Skool.