Thanks to all who have advised me recently - Its been very helpful. It was suggested I post my blood test results here. Can anyone advise what they mean as far as rls is concerned?
Ferritin 260
Iron 20.9
TIBC 40.9
% Saturation 51.1
Haemoglobin 149
Thank you!
Your ferritin is fine. Your percent saturation is on the high side so don't take any iron.
Great news! Thank you Sue. Much appreciated.
Hi GaryHB,I'm sure this blood result you received is reassuring, I'm gonna show my ignorance now and ask you,was this just a routine blood test at your gp surgery or a specific test to show these results. I'm making an appointment to have a bloods done.
Morning. Yes it's very reassuring and at least it rules out an iron deficiency. It was members of this forum who recommended I get my iron levels checked, so i phoned my local GP surgery and asked if they could check my iron levels and they agreed it was good to do. I hadn't had them done before. So yes it was a specific test for iron, although it looks like they did a bunch of others alongside it too.
Thankyou Gary,I'm ringing my gp today.
Make sure that they're going to include serum ferritin and transferrin saturation in the test. (They should do this routinely, but it's worth checking). And make sure that they give you the actual numbers from the test, not just tell you 'normal': what may be normal for a non RLS sufferer can be wrong for us. You're looking for ferritin over 100, preferably higher, and saturation between 20 and 45.
Agreed - be sure to ask them for a printed copy of the results - that is what I did. Only if you get a copy will you get the actual figures.
Being in England, I got my GP surgery to link my GP Health Record to both the NHS App and to the Patient Access app: I can therefore see detail on all my test results automatically (as well as all my other medicine records, prescriptions etc etc). I'm not sure whether ALL English surgeries fully cooperate with this, or whether the same service or similar is available throughout the rest of the UK. It's well worth doing where it's available!
That is impressive. I am in Scotland. No idea if it works like that here??
Thankyou ChrisColumbus,I will.
You need to ask for a full panel iron test. Stop taking any iron supplements including in a multivitamin that have iron in them 48 hours before the test, fast after midnight and have your test in the morning. When you get the results, ask for your ferritin and transferrin saturation (TSAT) numbers. You want your transferrin saturation to be over 20% but less than 45% and your ferritin to be at least 100. If they are not, post them here and we can give you advice.
Thankyou SueJohnson
Hi Gary,
„The main difference is that iron is a mineral (present in red blood cells that carries oxygen) whereas ferritin is a protein that stores iron and releases it when the body needs it.“ That is from Google. Anyway, your Ferritin seems to be good. It should be much higher than 100, according to what I learnt recently. It seems, that especially for us who suffer from RLS, a higher level of Ferritin helps to have the problem under control.
Iron levels.. Again!
Iron levels - feedback
Target iron levels
Iron / ferritin levels
Iron ferritin levels
