Tics and TS: Lab tests to do

Typical lab tests I would do to figure out why a person may have tics or Tourette syndrome

Blood tests

• Plasma Homocysteine (blood, fasting)
• Ferritin (blood)
• Active B12 / Transcobalamin II (blood)
• Complete Blood Count (CBC)
• Folate (blood, fasting)
• Vitamin D (at least the active 1,25-OH-D3. Ideally both active and inactive forms)
• Plasma amino acids (blood, fasting)
• Essential Fatty Acids (finger prick at home, mailed to the lab)
• Plasma (or serum) total porphyrins

Urine

• Organic acids test (morning urine)

• Metals in urine (urine)

Hair

• Hair Mineral Tissue Analysis (hair)

These allow to check several things: mineral deficiencies, heavy metals presence, status of amino acids, vitamin deficiencies and state of iron and methionine cycle.

Ideally you should avoid Great Plains Laboratory - I think their OAT panel is somewhat controversial and reference ranges look misleading (it’s my personal opinion; as seen in 2020-2022).

I personally like the OAT panel provided by Teletest.es - they provide several glycine species, which helps to assess biotin/b12 deficiencies much better.

Another good provider of OAT test “NutrEval” is Genova Diagnostics.