Why don't doctors give patients a choice? Some people may wish to pay for more extensive testing.
1. Doctors don't appear to even think about lead poisoning unless you give them big fat clues like "My job is scraping lead paint off a bridge." What they don't think about, they don't ask about, just like everyone else.
2. The patients presenting with psychiatric symptoms that could be caused by lead poisoning are much more likely to be near the poverty line than a random sampling of people with stress and depression. Insurance companies are not likely to pay for lead blood tests unless they see a good reason to do so, and poor people are much less likely to have insurance in the first place.
> And when you’ve answered that, what about copper? Omega-3/omega-6 ratio? Vitamin D levels? Cortisol? Magnesium balance? The methylation cycle? Cortisol? Mitochondrial function? Inflammation? Covert viral infections? Covert autoimmune disorders? Paraneoplastic syndromes? Allergies? Light exposure? Circadian rhythm? Selenium? Lithium levels in your local water supply? Insulin resistance? Gut microbiome? PANDAS? FODMAPs? Structural brain abnormalities? And that’s not even getting into the psychosocial stuff!
I want my doctor to tell me what tests have what probability of being positive, and the cost, so I can make an informed decision.
Water sample is less useful as many people use enough bottled water and diffuse sources (out of home) to make test at any one location pointless. Leave it to epidemiology. Just ask if the person is taking lithium.
Insulin resistance is done with the standard metabolic and blood panel. These are best done as screening regularly. (But nobody wants to pay for that.) Since you will be checking thyroid why not extend.
Gut microbiome is speculative. We do not even have tests. Brain abnormalities? Either it is in history (major surgeries, seizures) or we don't even know what they are.
Vitamins and microelements are also speculative.
I'm not saying to replace doctors with ML, but it seems like a great opportunity to provide a list of potential illnesses with associated confidence %s for the doctor to then follow up as potential leads.