What is LNT?

As part of my training with the Nutritional Therapy Association, I’m learning the lingual-neuro testing, also known as LNT. It’s not that something most people know about so I wanted to provide some information on how this works, what the process looks like and how it can help provide feedback on nutritional protocols to improve your health.

First, I want to emphasize that food is always the foundation I aim to support by looking at your food and using LNT is just another tool we can use to find out what will works best for your personally, That being said, using supplements without addressing proper nutrition practices is like applying a bandaid to a problem. It might help with the symptoms, but we really need to get to the root cause in order to see lasting change.

To understand how LNT works, you need to understand how our vagus nerve works. The vagus nerve is the longest and most complex cranial nerve we have, running all the way from our brain and spreading throughout our organs.

It has four major functions:

• Provides sensory information from the throat, heart, and lungs

• Provides movement functions for our muscles and limbs

• Provides taste senses from the tongue

• Connected to our autonomic nervous system, particularly our parasympathetic nervous system making it responsible for our digestive tract and heart function

One of the most important functions of the vagus nerve is its ability to provide information to the brain from the gut, especially when there is dysfunction or inflammation.

How the LNT Process Works

Lingual-neuro testing utilizes scientific reflex points along the rib cage and organs to provide feedback about what is happening internally with our digestion. These reflex points relate directly to certain organ function and light up the same part of the brain as the organ functioning. There is then a physical component to this testing that you should be comfortable with a practitioner’s touch to get this feedback accurately.

Once there is an indication of pain or dysfunction, supplements (in the form of vitamins and nutrients) are used to see if a deficiency exists.

For example, if your reflex point for stomach function is tested and returns a less-than-ideal response, then you could test a stomach acid or digestive support right away.

This is done by putting a small amount of the vitamin or nutrient on the tongue, which is sensed by the vagus nerve and relays a signal to that organ. If the organ is not functioning properly or deficient in that nutrient, when re-tested, the negative symptom will be reduced, or eliminated all together.

This tells us that the vitamin or nutrient tested would be beneficial for you to use to help restore normal digestive function in that organ. This means that rather than buying vitamins and supplements with an educated guess, you can know right away what your body needs and what really works for you individually.

Here’s a video of me describing this process.

So what can LNT detect and help resolve?

• Low stomach acid

• Leaky gut syndrome

• Liver dysfunction & detoxification

• Deficient pancreatic enzymes

• Gall bladder dysfunction & lack of bile

• Intestinal inflammation

• Adrenal dysfunction & HPA Axis Dysfunction

• Mineral needs

• Blood sugar regulation to support cholesterol and blood glucose issues

• Thyroid issues

• Hormonal support (men, women, insulin, etc)

• Immune support & allergies