Anaemia Test timing

Hi, I have an anaemia test kit from Monitor My Health.

Does it matter what time of day I do the fingerprick? What about eating or drinking, does that matter? I know I need to get it in the post asap.

Thanks for any help from those more expereinced with these tests 😊

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Test early Monday or Tuesday morning

Only drink water between waking and test

Don’t eat iron rich dinner night before

If taking iron supplements stop 5-7 days before test

Stop any vitamin B complex 5-7 days before test too

[Hidden in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you for replying. Can you explain why it needs to be early morning before eating or drinking anything but water?

I know that applies to thyroid testing but why anaemia?

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Hidden]

accuhealthlabs.com/blog/why....

mountsinai.org/health-libra....

[Hidden in reply to SlowDragon]

Thanks so much!

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

As quite a number of tests need to be done in the morning (obviously thyroid tests are particularly in my mind), it seems sensible simply to adopt that for everything.

Imagine that these iron-related tests don't change at all by time of day. Doing them in the morning makes no difference.

But if they do change, and if you are having more than one test some might go up while others go down, then doing them always at the same time of time makes sense simply for comparison purposes.

And if ever you do thyroid AND iron tests at the same time, you have already found yourself doing them in the morning because of the thyroid test issues!

In fact, iron and transferrin saturation do vary by time. Whereas transferrin and ferritin do not. (This paper is pretty poor but I haven't got the time to look for better right now.)

Influences of sleep and the circadian rhythm on iron-status indices

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/208...

[Hidden in reply to helvella]

Thank you for your thinking, I can see where you're coming from. I'd already had breakfast when I posted, so will have to delay doing the test until tomorrow now!

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

Better to leave it til next Monday. If you post it tomorrow it could lie around untested until Monday. The labs don't work over the weekend.

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

Thanks but I'd rather not put it off for another week, plus the instructions with the kit say post Monday - Thursday so I guess as tomorrow is Wednesday it will be ok.

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

Oh yes! It's Wednesday tomorrow, isn't it! Keep thinking it's Thursday! lol