Four lab names get thrown around in the same breath here in the Tri-Cities, and they are not four versions of the same idea. Spinal Fitness Health and Wellness Center in Kennewick offers Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis, Dried Urine Hormone Assessments, 1000-pass Medical Genetic Testing and HPA Urine Amino Acid Testing. Most people call and ask which one is best. That is the wrong sort of question: none is a better version of another, because each is pointed at a different question. The useful first step is working out which question you actually have.
So this is not a general explainer about lab work. It is written for somebody in Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, West Richland, Benton City or Walla Walla who is deciding whether to pick up the phone, and it sticks to two things: the question behind each of the four tests, and the local logistics of getting one done at 214 E. Albany Ave, Building E101. For wider background reading on measurement and equipment, look at EileenDurfee.com and CreatrixSolutions.com. What follows is strictly the Kennewick side.
Start with the question, not the panel
The four tests do not compete with each other, because they look at different material. One works from a hair sample. Two work from urine samples collected differently and read for different things. One is genetic, and is about background rather than anything current. Choosing between them by price, or by whichever name you happened to hear first, tends to produce a report that nobody quite knows what to do with.
A more productive way in is to finish this sentence out loud before you call: “The thing I keep wondering about is ___.” Minerals. Hormones. Inherited background. Amino acids. That one blank usually points straight at the right starting test, and it is the first thing sorted out when you call or text 509-670-9713. It is also perfectly normal for the answer to be “start with one and see” rather than all four at once.
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis: the mineral question
Of the four, hair tissue mineral analysis in the Tri-Cities is the one people have usually heard of already, generally shortened to HTMA. The name carries the whole description: a hair sample, minerals, an analysis returned to you as a lab report. Eileen Durfee, who founded the center and has been in the health field since 2010, lists Nutritional Balancing with HTMA among her areas of expertise, which is why it is usually the first of the four to come up here.
One thing has to be said plainly, and it is the most important sentence on this page. HTMA is a screening tool. This is not a diagnostic test. It does not diagnose, and a hair report is not a verdict about anything. It is information, and information is only worth having if you intend to sit with it and think, rather than react. If you are looking for something that will settle a medical question, the honest answer is that a lab report from a wellness center is not the right instrument for that job.
Dried Urine Hormone Assessments: the hormone question
Dried Urine Hormone Assessments are the second of the four, and collection is the part people ask about most, because a dried sample is not the single cup on the spot they are picturing. The instructions for it come from the lab, and following them correctly is most of the work. They are deliberately not written out here, because they are gone over with you when the assessment is arranged, which is a far better way to get them than half-remembered off a web page weeks beforehand.
What is worth knowing before you call is simply that this is a different question from the mineral one. If your sentence was about hormones, this is the assessment pointed there. If it was about minerals, HTMA is. Running both at the same time is a decision that should have a reason behind it, rather than being the default.
1000-pass Medical Genetic Testing: the background question
The third is 1000-pass Medical Genetic Testing, and it is the one where the wording has to stay careful in both directions. Genetics is background information: inheritance and long-run context, and it does not shift week to week the way other results can.
Here is the part to hear before you book it: any conversation about a genetics report at this center stays general. Nobody here reads a genetic result back to you as an instruction, and nothing in a genetic report should be turned into a medication change, a supplement bought in a hurry, or a conclusion about your medical future. If a genetic finding raises a medical question for you, that question goes to your own licensed provider, who has your full history in front of them. A general discussion of the report can give you context, and context is genuinely worth having. It is simply not the same thing as direction.
HPA Urine Amino Acid Testing: the fourth question
HPA Urine Amino Acid Testing is fourth on the list and gets the least airtime, largely because the name does not explain itself the way “hair tissue mineral analysis” does. It is a urine test read for amino acids. It is a separate question from the hormone assessment, even though the sample type sounds similar, and it sits in the same Nutritional Balancing toolkit Eileen works with. Like the other three, it is information rather than an answer, and it is worth running when a specific question points at it.
Booking, samples and the results conversation in Kennewick
The access model surprises people, so it is worth stating exactly. Visits are by appointment. This is not a walk-in gym. You call or text 509-670-9713 to arrange a visit, and evenings and weekends can be arranged. The door code you may have heard about is a separate matter: it is issued once a person has completed their training, and monthly members have 24/7 facility access. For lab work you need none of that. You need an appointment.
Practically, one phone call sets up three things at once. Which of the four fits the question you came in with. How the sample for that particular test is collected, and what the lab’s own turnaround looks like. And a time to come back and go through the report properly, instead of receiving a PDF and staring at it alone. Ask about turnaround when you book: it belongs to the lab rather than to the center, and it is not the same for all four.
The address is 214 E. Albany Ave, Building E101, Kennewick, WA 99336, and the center is locally owned. Alongside lab testing it publishes a list of 10+ therapies and states 15+ years of experience, 300 happy clients and 2k+ sessions completed. Those are the center’s own published figures: they describe the practice, not the performance of any test.
One last thing, and it is not fine print. This is a wellness service. Lab testing here is not medical care, and anything medical, whether that is a symptom that worries you, a medication question or a decision about your care, belongs with your own licensed provider. This article is provided for educational purposes only. If your question is a wellness one and you want to know which of the four is pointed at it, call or text 509-670-9713 and ask.
Each of the four tests is described in more detail on our lab testing page.
