I didn’t start Quantify because of some complicated, multivariable analysis that indicated an increasing total addressable market for advanced biomarker tests.
I started Quantify because specialty tests helped me to identify the causes of my chronic symptoms, when all other tests were normal, and I want everyone with chronic illness to have access to these tests and the opportunity to get the data they need to recover their health.
For context, when I developed chronic chest pain, heart palpitations, air hunger, joint pain, and fatigue in my mid-twenties, I first turned to conventional medicine, and my practitioners effectively told me that there was nothing wrong, and therefore nothing that I could do, because all my test results were normal.
What I didn’t realize then was that my practitioners had exclusively ordered conventional tests, to evaluate whether I met the criteria for a diagnosis, but they didn’t order tests to investigate the causes of my symptoms, which, it turns out, is a critically important distinction.
When all of my test results were normal, the implication was that nothing in my physiology was abnormal, but this couldn’t have been further from the truth. There were actually a significant number of abnormal factors present that were compromising my health, manifesting as chronic symptoms, but I didn’t know about these factors because my practitioners hadn’t tested for them.
Seeking answers, I eventually discovered specialty tests, which had been developed specifically to investigate the causes of chronic illness. And the results—which I detail below, in the order in which I received them—not only demystified why my symptoms developed, but, more importantly, provided the actionable information I needed to recover my health.
Immune system
A total immunoglobulins test showed that IgG and IgM antibodies—the antibodies responsible for protecting me against parasitic, bacterial, fungal, and viral infections—were abnormally low, which indicated that there were factors compromising my immune function and thus overall health. The test didn’t indicate what, specifically, was contributing to a loss of immune function, but it clearly highlighted that my ability to fend off infections was impaired and validated the need for further exploration.
Viral infections
Despite low antibodies overall, a viral panel showed that IgG antibodies specific to the Epstein-Barr virus were significantly elevated—more than 300% of the minimum value needed for a positive IgG result—suggesting active infection.
The majority (>90%) of the global population are infected with the Epstein-Barr virus, but only in the minority, typically the immunocompromised, does it actually become active and cause issues.1 It appeared that I was in this minority, and that my immune system was exerting substantial effort in attempt to keep the otherwise dormant virus under control.
Although the test indicated active infection, Epstein-Barr was likely not the upstream cause, but rather a downstream result, of compromised immune function, which was caused by something else. There were clearly other immune-suppressing factors that would need to be investigated.
Tick-borne infections
A tick-borne infections panel was positive for Borrelia burgdorferi IgG antibodies, Babesia microti IgM antibodies, and Bartonella henselae via qPCR, which indicated that I had been exposed to the Lyme bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, and its two most common co-infections.
Although testing positive for Borrelia burgdorferi, Babesia microti, and Bartonella henselae wasn’t an unequivocal indication that my chronic symptoms—chest pain, heart palpitations, air hunger, joint pain, and fatigue—were caused by these infections, the probability was high, as my symptoms strongly correlated with the infections, my immune function was compromised, and I likely had significant exposure, having grown up in Maine, a state with some of the highest rates of tick-borne infections in the country.
Being exposed to such infections doesn’t necessarily lead to the development of symptoms, as most people are able to mount an effective immune response that prevents the infections from proliferating. Like the Epstein-Barr virus, many people have been exposed to tick-borne infections, but only a subset will develop symptoms if immune function falters.
In my case, it’s quite likely that I had contracted and harbored these infections prior to the onset of my symptoms, but that they were activated when some other factor suppressed my otherwise healthy immune function. I suspected that tick-borne infections were a significant, perhaps the primary, underlying cause of my symptoms, but that something else was underlying the infections. Further investigation was clearly warranted.
Mold
A urinary mycotoxins test revealed the most likely factor that caused the tick-borne infections to activate: mold. The test showed high levels of Aspergillus and Stachybotrys—two particularly virulent genera of toxic mold—which strongly correlated with the environment I was living in when my symptoms started.
Just a few months prior to the onset of my symptoms, I had moved into a building that I would eventually realize was water-damaged and had poor ventilation, which created the perfect environment for mold. The constant exposure to mold likely disrupted my immune function to such an extent that allowed the dormant tick-borne infections to activate, proliferate, and cause physiological dysfunction and ultimately symptoms, whereas had I not been exposed to mold, the infections would likely have continued to stay dormant.2 3
Although I was no longer living in this building when I conducted the mycotoxins test, Aspergillus and Stachybotrys were still present in my system at high levels, suggesting that mold had colonized, perhaps in my nasal passages, and continued to affect me despite having moved to a building with better construction.
To address the tick-borne infections, I would first need to address my endogenous exposure to mold by taking compounds effective at eliminating and detoxifying mold from the body.
Oxalate
High levels of oxalic acid on an organic acids test indicated another important factor underlying my symptoms that needed to be addressed.
Oxalic acid, or oxalate, is an organic acid present to varying degrees in foods, produced by fungi, and a product of human metabolism. If an individual’s diet includes foods that are high in oxalate, if certain fungi, such as candida, are overgrown in the gastrointestinal tract and producing oxalate at high levels, or if oxalate is inadequately metabolized and excreted, oxalate crystals can accumulate in tissues throughout the body and cause significant chronic pain and inflammation until the source of oxalate buildup is addressed.4
In my case, I suspected that it was my diet that primarily contributed to the accumulation of oxalate, given the diet I had followed for years included foods with abnormally high oxalate content, such as kale, spinach, almonds, cacao, sweet potatoes, and quinoa. Despite the popular opinion of the healthfulness of these foods, if consumed regularly and in great quantity, the benefits are often outweighed by the damage that oxalate crystals cause to tissues and overall health.
Removing these and other foods high in oxalate from my diet would significantly reduce my exposure to and the resulting accumulation of oxalate that was likely one of the underlying causes of the chronic pain and inflammation that I experienced.
Digestive system
Abnormal markers on a qPCR stool analysis and intestinal permeability test indicated increased intestinal permeability, which provided an additional clue as to why my health had become compromised, and why I was not recovering.
The digestive system has two major functions: to absorb nutrients (useful substances), and to protect the body from pathogens, toxins, and antigens (harmful substances). The small and large intestines, the primary organs responsible for performing these two functions, are lined with a single layer of cells—intestinal epithelial cells—that provide a selective barrier to control what substances can and cannot enter the bloodstream.
If the junctions between intestinal epithelial cells are intact, intestinal permeability is normal, and useful substances will be absorbed, and harmful substances will not be absorbed. If the junctions between intestinal epithelial cells become compromised and widen, however, intestinal permeability is increased, and harmful substances will be absorbed into circulation. Certain stressors, such as parasitic, bacterial, fungal, or viral infection, can cause these junctions to widen, result in chronic exposure to harmful substances, and, in turn, cause or contribute to various chronic conditions, including immune suppression or dysregulation.5
The tick-borne infections, mold exposure, and high levels of oxalate in my diet likely contributed to the development of increased intestinal permeability, which further inhibited my immune function and ability to effectively deactivate the infections. Given that immune function is significantly influenced by the integrity of the intestinal epithelial barrier, restoring normal intestinal permeability would be as important to my healing strategy as addressing the infections, eliminating mold exposure, and reducing oxalate levels in my diet.
Detoxification
Genetic testing indicated that I was born with the potential for compromised detoxification pathways. The tick-borne infections, mold exposure, high levels of oxalate, and increased intestinal permeability likely shifted my gene expression to create an environment in which cells were not being repaired and toxins were not sufficiently being released, which further contributed to immune and physiological dysfunction.
While addressing the infections, mold exposure, oxalate levels, and increased intestinal permeability, I would also need to ensure that the primary channels of detoxification—namely, my liver and kidneys—were functioning optimally, by taking certain vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and enzymes that upregulate the function of these organs and promote detoxification of harmful substances that would otherwise accumulate.
Metals
A metals test revealed high levels of lead and mercury in my system, which further emphasized the importance of implementing a targeted strategy to support detoxification. Despite years of diligently filtering drinking water, consuming an organic, whole foods diet, and avoiding the use of products with toxic ingredients, lead and mercury had still accumulated at levels that were concerning, likely due to compromised detoxification pathways that the genetic tests indicated the potential for.
My efforts had certainly reduced my exposure to toxic metals, but the results highlighted that I would also need to remove the metals from my body that had unknowingly accumulated.
The takeaway
If I hadn’t pursued answers outside of the medical system, and had instead accepted the myopic views of my conventional practitioners that there was nothing I could do to resolve my symptoms, I wouldn’t have discovered specialty tests. And if I hadn’t discovered specialty tests, I would’ve been limited to conventional tests, and I wouldn’t have identified that impaired immune function, mold exposure, tick-borne infections, oxalate toxicity, increased intestinal permeability, compromised detoxification pathways, and lead and mercury toxicity were the underlying causes of my symptoms. Without knowing the causes of my symptoms, I wouldn’t have been able to develop an effective strategy to address the causes, and my symptoms would’ve likely gotten worse over time.
Instead, my symptoms didn’t get worse over time. They improved, gradually, as I took steps to address the causes, and ultimately resolved. And I owe it all to data—to the actionable information contained within my physiology that I accessed with saliva, blood, urine, and stool tests—and to the researchers and scientists and technologists who developed these biomarker tests to investigate the causes of complex chronic illness.
I wouldn’t have recovered if it weren’t for these tests, because I wouldn’t have known what to do. In my desperation, I might have thrown in the towel, surrendered to conventional medicine, allowed my practitioners to convince me to take medication to suppress my symptoms, and joined the millions of other people with chronic illness who never recover.
That could’ve been me, because the most likely outcome for people with chronic symptoms is to be prescribed medication, and to be told that, other than taking medication, there’s nothing you can do.
I think, I hope, my story suggests otherwise. That there’s always something you can do. That all symptoms have causes. And that you should keep testing, keep investigating, until you’ve identified the causes of your symptoms, because you can’t address the causes unless you know what the causes are, and you can’t know what the causes are unless you’ve tested for them with the right tests.
If you have chronic symptoms that conventional medicine doesn’t have answers for, and you’re interested in investigating the causes of your symptoms with specialty tests, you can schedule a call to learn more about Quantify, the infections, toxicities, deficiencies, and imbalances that we test for, and how we can help you to get the data you need to recover your health.