What It Measures
44 elements, read where they actually live
OligoScan uses visible-light spectroscopy — built on the Beer-Lambert law, the same optical principle used to measure concentration through how light passes through a substance — to read intracellular levels of 44 elements without a needle. A practitioner places a small sensor against your skin (usually the palm), and the device and laptop generate a reading in minutes.
Minerals
The cofactors that run Exchange and Transform inside the cell — magnesium, zinc, selenium, and more.
Heavy metals
Elements that can displace mineral cofactors and interfere with normal cell function.
Vitamins
A, B6, B9, B12, C, D, and E — read at the tissue level, not just in circulation.
Minerals are the cofactors that run two of the six cellular functions in particular -- Exchange (moving nutrients and signals across the cell membrane) and Transform (converting energy and matter the cell can use). Heavy metals can occupy the same binding sites those minerals need, displacing the cofactor and interfering with the function it was meant to run. Reading levels intracellularly, rather than in blood or urine, shows what is actually available to the cell where the work happens.
See all six cellular functionsWhat Lab Tests Will This Improve?
Which measurements move, and how
Lab tests are not diseases. They are measurements of how your cells and organs are functioning. These nutrients do not treat any disease — but they influence what these lab measurements show, through a specific mechanism. Here is which measurements each one moves, and how.
Magnesium
- Magnesium → RBC / serum magnesium: OligoScan reads intracellular magnesium directly, which matters because serum magnesium reflects less than 1% of total body magnesium and can look normal even when tissue stores are low.
- Magnesium → HbA1c / fasting glucose: Magnesium is a required cofactor for insulin-signaling enzymes; meta-analyses of RCTs show magnesium repletion modestly lowers fasting glucose and HbA1c in magnesium-deficient or diabetic populations.
- Magnesium → Blood pressure: Magnesium supports vascular smooth muscle relaxation and healthy vascular tone; a meta-analysis of 38 RCTs found magnesium supplementation lowered systolic blood pressure by about 2.8 mmHg on average, with larger drops in people who were magnesium-deficient.
Selenium
- Selenium → Thyroid panel (TSH, Free T3/T4, TPO & thyroglobulin antibodies): Selenium is required for the deiodinase enzymes that convert T4 into the more active T3 and for the enzymes that protect thyroid tissue from oxidative stress; RCTs in autoimmune thyroiditis show selenium repletion can lower TSH and antibody titers.
- Selenium → Glutathione peroxidase activity: Selenium is a direct structural component built into the glutathione peroxidase enzyme itself, so intracellular selenium status is a direct input to how much of this antioxidant enzyme the body can produce.
Zinc
- Zinc → Zinc:copper ratio: Zinc and copper share intestinal absorption pathways and compete for the same binding sites, so a shifted intracellular ratio reflects relative status of one against the other.
- Zinc → Immune markers (WBC differential, infection duration): Zinc is a required cofactor for normal immune cell development and function; deficiency impairs neutrophil and lymphocyte activity, and repletion is linked in trials to shorter common-cold duration.
Iron
- Iron → Ferritin: Ferritin is the body's iron-storage protein, so intracellular iron status is a direct input to how much of it circulates — though ferritin also rises with inflammation, so it isn't an iron-specific marker on its own.
- Iron → CBC / hemoglobin (MCV, RDW): Iron is the structural core of hemoglobin; deficiency classically produces small, variably-sized red blood cells (low MCV, elevated RDW) that normalize as iron stores are repleted.
Iodine
- Iodine → Thyroid panel (TSH): Iodine is a direct building block of thyroid hormone; both deficiency and excess raise TSH as the pituitary adjusts stimulation to compensate for how much hormone the thyroid can actually make.
Copper
- Copper → Ceruloplasmin: Ceruloplasmin is the main copper-carrying protein made by the liver, so intracellular copper status is a direct input to how much ceruloplasmin the body can build and load.
This is education about how nutrition influences function measurements — it is not a diagnosis, and not a substitute for your provider or standard labs.
The destination, not the delivery route
Blood, urine, and hair all measure something real — but none of them measure what is actually sitting inside the cell. That is the gap OligoScan is built to fill.
Blood
Shows what is circulating right now — tightly regulated and can look normal even when tissue stores are low.
Urine
Shows what the body is actively excreting — useful for output, not for what has been retained or absorbed.
Hair
Shows a slower excretion history over weeks to months — still an output measure, not a destination measure.
OligoScan (intracellular)
Reads roughly 4mm into tissue — the destination where minerals and metals actually do their work, for better or worse.
OligoScan is a complementary measurement, not a replacement for blood work, urine testing, or any diagnostic your provider has ordered. It is one more honest look at the picture, not the whole picture by itself.
Two Ways In
Get scanned, or own the device
Find a practitioner near you
OligoScan has been in use for over a decade, and most major cities have at least one practitioner offering it — often alongside functional medicine, naturopathic, or wellness services. This is the fastest way to get a reading: no device to buy, no training required, results the same visit.
A local directory is on the way. In the meantime, tell us your area and we will help you find a practitioner who offers OligoScan.
Own your own device
Practitioners and clinics who want to run OligoScan in-house can purchase the device outright. It is a larger upfront investment — the unit itself, tests bought in bulk, and training to read and explain results — but it removes the per-visit dependency on a third party entirely.
Free tool: OligoScan Reading Helper
Own a device or got tested? Enter your minerals and learn what each one does in the body and where to get it in food — education, not a diagnosis of your results.
Open the toolWorth Saying Plainly
OligoScan measures and describes — it does not diagnose heavy metal toxicity, and it is not a "detox" protocol on its own. Elevated readings are a starting point for a conversation with a qualified provider, not a verdict. Mineral and metal physiology is genuinely complex, and this page keeps to what the test measures, not what any single number means for you personally.