New info re having active b12 assayed

[Withattitude]

Hi. I wanted to let you all know that Viapath laboratory at St Thomas hospital now offers active b12, homocysteine and MMA tests by post. You need someone to take the blood, but the samples don't need to be spun. You post the blood tubes back to the lab. They have to be posted on Mon, Tues or Wed, so that they don't sit in the post over the week end and you have to pay, but they are cheaper than a lot of other private labs. Here's the link

viapath.co.uk/nutristasis-d...

I hope that's helpful to some of you.

[Jose651]

Hi Withattitude,

Great link, Thank you for sharing .

J 🍀

[Foggyme Administrator]

Thanks for posting Withattitude. Really good information to have 😀.

[fbirder]

Good find.

Just to remind people. Treatment with B12 will interfere with results for all three tests.

[Frodo in reply to fbirder]

fbirder, can you tell me if it's worth having the homocysteine re-tested after having B12 jabs to see if it has normalised?

I had a homocysteine test via NHS before having B12 treatment, and the result was high. My GP said I should have it re-tested at some point but that I would have to arrange and pay for it myself as it's an expensive test (!) Obviously I didn't do that - I wasn't sure how to go about it and I don't have much money.

Since then she seems to have forgotten about it.

But I would like to know if it has come down.

TIA

[fbirder in reply to Frodo]

Frodo If your symptoms are improving then I wouldn't bother getting it retested.

Did you have your folate measured? Are you taking supplements? High homocysteine can also be caused by low folate.

[Frodo in reply to fbirder]

Thanks.

I had folate tested at the same time but there was no range given so I couldn't tell where it was in the range. Useful to know - so if Hcy remained high despite lots of B12, then low folate might be the reason?

Supplements are tricky due to chronic migraine. All kinds of folate supplementation seem to make it worse. Niacin (B3) will bring on a really severe migraine quite quickly. I tried B6 (in the form that doesn't cause side effects - forget its name) as someone (Gambit I think) said it helped her migraine along with the B12, but no change. Therefore a B complex is tricky. I was advised to take high doses of magnesium and B2. Stopped taking them recently for a trial period to see if there's any change: no change.

What sometimes makes a positive difference is supplementing iron. I thought my ferritin was at the low end of normal, had usual discussion with GP re. what is normal "normal is normal no treatment needed" and so on.

I suppose one reason for the Hcy re-test would be if I had to provide evidence other than anecdotal that the B12 was helping which may well happen in future.

[shambles]

I can see the test under 'new tests' but can't figure out how to order it? Can you point me in the right direction please. Sorry brain fog!

[Jose651]

Hi shambles,

Click on 'View and buy Tests'. This will take you to a page with all the tests available, when you decide which one(s) you want, Click on Select and go from there.

Hope this helps,

J 🍀

[calrie67]

Hi, I have just sent my blood pack off to be tested but I'm not sure how I get the results? Do they email/post or send them to your G.P.?

[Withattitude in reply to calrie67]

They post them and I think they also send your GP a copy.

[calrie67 in reply to Withattitude]

Thank you