Medichecks have a special offer for an ACTIVE B12 blood test —£29.00 . Combined Active B12 and folate blood test £59.00

[wedgewood]

Thought this might be of interest .

[Sharon75]

Why cannot GPs test for active b12? What is the difference here? 🤔

[wedgewood in reply to Sharon75]

They can of course . But the usual serum blood test is cheaper,( but that reading can contain up to 80% inactive B12 ). The serum is done more often , but one could always ask for the active B12 test .

[fbirder in reply to Sharon75]

They can. But it's more expensive than the serum test and not often much more useful.

The active test is more precise and more accurate, so it may be worth having if you're in the grey area for the serum test.

I often say it's like counting sheep. You can count the legs and divide by four (the serum test) or count the heads. Counting heads will be easier when the sheep are in a flock. But they'll both give you a sensible result if all you want to know is if you have a lot of sheep or just a few.

Rather than spending money on a test that may not return useful results, I think that doctors should give a trial of B12 injections in doubtful cases and see if that reduces symptoms.