Advanced Restrict Access to Page

I've created a CMS website using a content table and I'm calling the new pages using the content table and echo $row_pageRS["fieldName"] calls residing in div tags. Navigation is called in standard.php page using link names stored in a field with the standard.php?recordID=$row_navRS["id"] as a link in my href to control navigation. This is typical master detail page workflow. The navRS is just a Record Set created from the content table that calls the link name and the ID.  All is well with the website. Everything works perfectly.

Now I want to add some protected pages. There is a field in the content table called access.

I've also created a page called protected.php and I can add restricted access to that page using the normal PHP code. Inside the code you'll get this field when you add user name and password + access levels. Let's say that my access levels are 5 and 10.

if (!isset($_SESSION)) {
  session_start();
}
$MM_authorizedUsers = "10,5";
$MM_donotCheckaccess = "false"

This also works perfectly but I need a bunch of protected pages with different access levels.

Instead of creating a new protected page for every level of access I'd like to call the access levels from the access field in the pageRS (current page Record Set) with code looks something like this:

if (!isset($_SESSION)) {
  session_start();
}
$MM_authorizedUsers = $row_pageRS["access"];
$MM_donotCheckaccess = "false";

This would pull the access levels for the page from the access field in the database and greatly simplify my automatically generated navigation system. I can't seem to find a way to make this call and have it work. I've tried declairing a variable, putting the call for the page record set before the page protection.

Any ideas about how to do this? Would addin an if else argument at the head help?

Thanks.