Home > Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine > Saliva Sample Testing

Definition

Saliva sample testing is a technique used to collect samples of a person's saliva, or spit, to check for or monitor certain drugs, hormones (chemical messengers from one cell or group of cells to another), antibodies (substances in the body's blood or fluids that act against such foreign substances as bacteria), and other molecules present in the body. With a saliva sample, diagnostic data for such diseases or conditions as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hypogonadism (reduced or absent secretion of hormones from the sex glands, the gonads), measles, hepatitis (a liver disease caused by the hepatitis A virus), certain cancers, low fertility, menopause and others are available without having to draw a person's blood. Saliva can reveal use of alcohol and many drugs. With simple use-at-home kits, women can self-determine when they are...