Homocysteine

[Steap]

How long do you need to be free of supplements to do a homocysteine blood test ?

I'm intreagued after watching the episode of doctor in the house last night.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

The case in the programme was around genetic problems affecting ability to use B vitamins at the cell level rather than absorption problems and it was far from clear whether it was B12 or folate that was really causing the issue - there was a snippet that implied B12 but that was before the genetic testing and results of that so a long way from being a complete presentation.

I am afraid that I don't know how long you would need to stop supplementing to get a reasonable measure after supplementation - likely to depend on what exactly the cause was for the raised homocysteine. Time to recover is likely to be much shorter than the time taken to revert.