Monitor My Health Ranges (Active B12)

[HealthStarDust]

I hope my message finds you all as well as can be on your thyroid health journeys.

I have a quick question regarding the above and their Active B12 range. Does anyone happen to know what it is?

[helvella Administrator]

Available on their website!

What are your reference ranges?

Our anaemia tests do not have reference ranges. Instead, we have cut-off values below which a measure can be considered low. These cut-off values follow the recommendations of the British Society for Haematology.

Haemoglobin: below 120 g/L for females and below 130 g/L for males indicates anaemia

Ferritin: below 15 ug/L suggests iron deficiency

Transferrin Saturation: below 16% suggests iron deficiency

Folate: 3 ug/L or below suggests folate deficiency

Active vitamin B12: below 38 pmol/L suggests vitamin B12 deficiency

monitormyhealth.org.uk/anae...

Screenshot from Monitor My Health website

[HealthStarDust in reply to helvella]

Thank you. I had seen those and was of course left unsatisfied, so I had a look at the lab website for the ranges. I could find everything but the Active B12. exeterlaboratory.com/catego...

Why does it have to be so hard?! For years I have been left with the impression that paying for any sort of health care would be easier.

[helvella Administrator in reply to HealthStarDust]

Could be that under NHS they do not do Active B12!

It has not been usual for NHS labs to run Active B12 but I can imagine that private test purchasers expect it. (All speculation, of course.)

[HealthStarDust in reply to helvella]

It could be, and wouldn’t surprise me. Thank you again.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to HealthStarDust]

On a positive note, I'm personally very, very thankful that we are able to access private home testing so easily. Once upon a time, these tests were unheard of. Many years ago, I paid a ridiculous amount for private blood testing at a BUPA hospital, and when I asked for the details of the results, was told in no uncertain terms that I couldn't have this information and that I wouldn't understand it anyway!

[HealthStarDust in reply to RedApple]

WOW! That’s very awful.

I am still a bit unsure of private tests on my journey with private finger tests at least. Particularly for the thyroid, but for others too e.g. ferritin. This is when I have the finger prick test draws on the same day and hour as venous tests ones via GP, even after accounting for different ranges the results are starkly different from one another.

While I appreciate one can not do a direct comparison between different labs, I would at least expect that results correlate in percentages through range from different labs. This however has not been my experience.

I am not sure I have much faith left on any of the tests finger, venous, private or public since we just don’t know if what they show is what’s happening at the cellular level. I think that realisation has been the biggest and most disappointing eye opener for me.

[RedApple Administrator]

Here's a screenshot of the MMH Active B12 graph, which is what you see your result on if you take the test.

MMH Active B12 graph

[HealthStarDust in reply to RedApple]

Thank you! I don’t have a graph on my result. Thank you so much.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to HealthStarDust]

If you're looking at your results on a narrow screen, you may not see the graph. On a wider screen, you should be able to see it.

[HealthStarDust in reply to RedApple]

Ahhh! Thank you!