Vitamin & mineral blood tests interpretation

[LPR12]

Hi everyone,

I've had nutritional blood tests taken for the 1st time and am confused about the results.

I wonder why the vitamin B results are arranged like this. Dificient >1.25 and <1.15 normal . I would have thought it would be the other way around so the highest amount would be normal and lowest dificient. But anyway these are my results

Vitamin b1 1.29 dificient

Vitamin b2 1.48 deficient

Vitamin b6 1.36 normal

I've now got myself a vitamin b complex supplement but not sure if this could cause problems as it contains 100% rda of B6 so I'd end up with too much.

My other results read like this

Calcium 2.46 reference interval 2.10-2.60

Chromium 9.9 " 6.2-33.4

Copper 12.50 " 12.5-25.0

Iron 15.3 " 10.7-32

Magnesium 1.01 " 0.70-1.00

Manganese 10.5 " 9.0- 40.0

Selenium 1.83 " 1.0-1.90

Zinc 12.2 " 11.5-20.0

These results don't specify if you're deficient or not. I'm wondering if these are meant to be read like the vitamin b results . So the higher the amount the more deficient you are .

Anyway sorry for the long post. I'm very gratefulto anyone who reads / replies . Thank you

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

LPR12

I wonder why the vitamin B results are arranged like this. Dificient >1.25 and <1.15 normal

I don't understand that at all I'm afraid. Logic tells me that if you have a high result then you have too much, not too litle.

These results don't specify if you're deficient or not. I'm wondering if these are meant to be read like the vitamin b results . So the higher the amount the more deficient you are

As long as you fall within the reference interval then the result is classed as "normal". However, it's a low and high thing. If your result falls at the low end of the reference interval then you are low in that vitamin. You can see that your copper is right at the very bottom of the range, zinc is very low in range, chromium quite low. You can see that selenium is very close to the top of the range so you wouldn't want to supplement that. Magnesium is a touch over range but magnesium isn't a particularly reliable test from what I understand.

I have no knowledge of where optimal levels of these are mean to be but I believe I've seen that zinc should be about half way through it's range. You might want to do some research.

Which B Complex have you got and how much B6 is in it?

[LPR12 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Hi Seasidesusie, thank you for your reply : ) Yes i would always assume low figures means a low amount and high figures means higher amount but the b vitamins didn't seem like that. I wish I'd taken a picture and posted it with my post now. Anyway the vitamin b complex i got was Boots own brand . The amount of B6 is 1.4mg . Thank you again

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to LPR12]

Looking at your results sheet those tests aren't measuring the amount of the B vitamin in your blood, it says it's a "ratio of activated to basal activity". This is a Biolab test then? They say - just taking the B1 test as an example:

In our tests for vitamins B1 we measure the change in enzyme activity (erythrocyte transketolase[ETK]) before and after the addition of excess vitamin.

Did you know they were measuring this ratio rather than the amount of vitamin in the blood? Did you take "excess vitamin" before the test?

Do they explain what the result means - other than deficient or normal I mean.

Was there a specific reason you chose this type of test rather than one that measured the amount of the vitamin in blood? Is this test better than one that does that?

I'm trying to understand what help this test is. Presumably you were wanting to know your levels so you'd know whether to supplement, and at what level?

Anyway, looking at the Boots B Compex, the amount of B1, 2 and 6 is 1.1mg, 1.4mg and 1.4mg respectively. Compare that to my Thorne Basic B which has 110mg, 10mg and 10mg respectively.

It's recommended that if taking B6 regularly then it should be 10mg daily (unless prescribed for a medical condition), as long term high dose B6 can cause nerve damage. The 1.4mg contained in the Boots complex is the approximate RDA which we would get most of from food.

Unfortunately, most high street and supermarket own brand supplements aren't worth buying, they are cheap for a reason - cheap ingredients and usually the least absorbable form. The Boots complex contains 200mcg folic acid - methylfolate is the recommended form as that is the converted form. It also just says "B12" and you can bet that is cyanocolbalamin which is cheap and not methylcobalamin which is the recommended form.

If you want to continue taking a B Complex then you might want to buy a better quality one once you've finished the Boots one.

The vitamin tests recommended for us Hypos are

Vit D

Ferritin

B12

Folate (B9)

[B12 and Folate work together]

and then supplement accordingly where necessary. I personally haven't seen any other posts on the forum where B vitamins have been tested individually.

[LPR12 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Oh my goodness. Thanks so much for clarifying what this test is actually for seasidesusie. I didn't know it what it measured. It was ordered by a private gp / nutritionist i saw. He was extremely expensive and didn't give me any helpful advice so I really wanted to avoid seeing him again , but it looks like I'll have to in order to interoperate the results. I wanted a range of nutritional tests as have had lots of different health problems. I went with the boots b vitamins as the amounts were quite modest. I always worry about taking vitamins over the rda. I will look at the ones you've recommended. Thank you so much again

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to LPR12]

Ah, I thought you may have ordered this test yourself. So maybe your private GP/nutritionist knows what he's doing and the test is useful. It would be really interesting to know what it all means so if you do get an explanation I'd love to know so perhaps you'd be kind enough to post a follow up

[LPR12 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Hi , yes I'll definitely update if i speak to the nutritionist again . Thanks again for your help x

[soppysokes]

Can you clarify those B vit guidelines with the company that did the test. They do seem strange!

[LPR12 in reply to soppysokes]

Hi soppysokes, thank you for replying and glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's strange. Yes i must message them and clarify.

(I've now added a picture of the actual results for anyone else reading this post as couldn't work out how to do it originally)

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

As I read it, the tests are "how much effect is this sample having".

They take your sample and measure its effect on something.

Then they add an excess of the substance (e.g. vitamin B1). The ratio between the two indicates that if you had more B1, it would have an effect.

biolab.co.uk/print.php/cmsi...

[LPR12]

Hi helvella, thank you for your reply. Yes i only realised this once seasidesusie messaged. It's too confusing for me to work out. Wish it just clearly stated if you were deficient or not. I'll have to pay to see the nutritionist again unfortunately. Thanks again for the reply.