Test results advice appreciated

[sharonlow]

Hi

I have hashis, and a fatty liver with the following blood test results,

VITAMIN B12 248 pmol/L 140.00 - 724.00

FOLATE (SERUM) *2.89 ug/L 2.91 - 50.00

FERRITIN *233 ug/L 13.00 - 150.00

could some advise if I need to take B12, if so how much, my worse symptom is tinnitus, drives everyone in my house mad as I dont hear whats going on, (maybe that's good).

any suggestions on folate also would be good,

GP says all within range.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

are you using an iron supplement? if so I'd be inclined to stop given the ferritin result - or discuss that with GP if the iron was on prescription.

Symptoms of B12 and folate overlap considerably because the two are used together and you are falling off the bottom in relation to folate.

Serum B12 is quite difficult to interpret - as it misses 25% of those who are deficient but also picks up 5% who aren't - so needs to be taken in a context which would include a full blood count and an evaluation of symptoms - though overlap with thyroid is going to make that difficult.

If you can get your GP to listen then MMA might clarify if you are B12 deficient as well as folate deficient - it will be raised if your cells don't have enough B12 (other test would be homocysteine but this will probably be raised anyway because of the folate deficiency).

If your diet doesn't have a lot of B12 in it (meat/fish/dairy/egg) then would suggest trying an over the counter B12 supplement of around 20-50mcg and see if that makes a difference

other thing would be to monitor/review how B12 serum has varied over time.

Basically B12 is not clear cut at the moment. Using high level supplements can cause problems - including problems getting a reading to support absorption problems - so wouldn't recommend it at this stage - and not until you have really exhausted all possibility of getting your GP to look into it as a possibility and you are absolutely sure that you have an absorption problem.

[sharonlow in reply to Gambit62]

Thank you gambit62 for your advice, forgot to put no iron supplements. Will try gp again.