how to find out what vitamins and minerals you are deficient in

Vitamin and minerals are micronutrients you demand in tiny amounts. If yous don't become enough of these information technology can lead to a nutrient deficiency. A blood test can be done to diagnose a deficiency. If you know you're deficient in something yous might need to take a supplement.

What are vitamins and minerals?

Vitamins and minerals are types of micronutrients — something your body needs in tiny amounts. They influence about every procedure in your trunk and are essential for your health.

Yous can check your vitamin wellness with a vitamins blood test.

Causes of vitamin and mineral deficiencies

A varied and balanced diet usually provides you with plenty vitamins and minerals for optimal health. But deficiencies can happen for a number of reasons. Some mutual causes include:

• poor absorption of nutrients — for example, if y'all have coeliac or Crohn'south disease
• a diet lacking in fruit or vegetables
• a poorly planned vegan or vegetarian nutrition
• drinking excessive amounts of booze
• medications — like proton pump inhibitors (PPIs)
• pregnancy — as your body has additional nutritional demands

And so it's a skilful thought to bank check your vitamin and mineral levels, particularly if you're more than at adventure of a deficiency or have whatever symptoms.

Symptoms of vitamin and mineral deficiencies

As in that location'due south such a wide range of vitamins and minerals, the symptoms of a deficiency can vary. Here are some of the near common signs of vitamin and mineral deficiencies outlined beneath.

Iron deficiency
Iron is a mineral that your body needs to make carmine blood cells — these carry oxygen effectually your torso. If you don't get enough iron y'all might:

• experience weak
• experience tired
• feel dizzy
• feel short of breath
• go heart palpitations
• get headaches

Blood loss is a cause of iron deficiency so women are more than at take a chance due to periods and pregnancy. If you follow a vegetarian or vegan nutrition you might too be at an increased risk considering constitute-based sources of iron are harder for your trunk to absorb.

Vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D is used by every prison cell in your torso and is essential for your bone and muscle health, besides equally supporting your allowed system. If you don't get enough vitamin D you might:

• feel tired
• get sick oft
• take weak bones — putting you at risk of osteoporosis long-term
• accept muscle pain
• feel anxious or depressed

Y'all go most of the vitamin D you lot need from sunlight just it's likewise found in foods like eggs, oily fish, liver, and dairy — although it's hard to get enough from diet lonely. In the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, low vitamin D levels are mutual because you don't get enough sun exposure during winter.

Folate (vitamin B9) deficiency
Folate is a B vitamin that'southward required to make reddish blood cells and to make and repair your Dna. It'due south sometimes called folic acid — the constructed (man-fabricated) version of this vitamin. If you don't become enough folate you might:

• experience tired
• feel weak
• experience short of breath
• get heart palpitations
• get headaches
• feel irritability
• have difficulty concentrating

Folate isn't stored in your body and so y'all can become deficient in a matter of weeks if you lot don't become plenty from your diet or a supplement.

Vitamin B12 deficiency
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) plays a really important part in red claret cell production and helps your nervous organisation to function properly. If you don't go plenty vitamin B12 you might:

• feel extremely tired
• feel weak
• get pins and needles
• become oral cavity ulcers
• have a bloated and sore tongue (glossitis)
• take blurry vision
• take difficulty remembering things
• feel depressed

The virtually mutual cause of vitamin B12 deficiency is a lack of a stomach protein called intrinsic factor — which you need to absorb vitamin B12. Medications, like PPIs, can affect the corporeality of intrinsic factor that you produce. You might too produce less in one case you're over 50 years. Vegans and vegetarians are likewise at risk of a deficiency since vitamin B12 isn't naturally constitute in plant-based foods.

How to test your vitamin and mineral levels

Most vitamin and mineral deficiencies tin exist picked upward with a blood test, similar:

• a finger-prick blood test — using a lancet, y'all tin prick your ain finger and collect a small blood sample.
• a venous blood exam — if you don't desire to collect your own sample, we tin can suit a trained nurse to exercise this for yous at a clinic.

Where to get a vitamin and mineral deficiency exam

Dwelling vitamin and mineral tests
It's possible to order vitamins claret exam and practise information technology yourself at home. For this test, you'll use a lancet to collect a finger-prick claret sample. Your results will be reviewed by a GP and are available for you to view on your account dashboard within 48 hours.

Common vitamin and mineral outcome ranges

Iron ranges
There are several tests to cheque your iron levels. The ideal ranges for each test are:

• serum ferritin — xiii-150 ng/l for women and 30-400 ng/fifty for men
• haemoglobin — 120-160 chiliad/L for women and 130-170 one thousand/Fifty for men
• transferrin saturation — 20-55% for both women and men (the % of transferrin in your claret that's complimentary to behave fe)
• total fe-bounden capacity (TIBC) — 45-72 umol/L for both women and men
• unsaturated fe-bounden capacity (UIBC) — 24.2-70.1 umol/L for women and 22.iii-61.7 umol/L for men

Vitamin D ranges
Vitamin D reference range:

• between 50-175 nmol/L is normal
• between 75-100 nmol/L is optimal

Vitamin B12 ranges
An active B12 test measures the amount of vitamin B12 that's available for your body to utilize. You lot tin can likewise practise a total B12. Vitamin B12 reference ranges:

• active B12 — between 37.v- 188 pmol/50 is normal
• total B12 — between 300- 569 pmol/L is normal

Folate (vitamin B9) ranges
Folate (vitamin B9) reference range:

• betwixt viii.83-60.8 nmol/L is normal

When to have a supplement

Most people can go the nutrients they need from diet lonely. And then if you don't take a nutrient deficiency, yous shouldn't take a supplement just for the sake of it. Synthetic nutrients don't always match upwardly to those constitute naturally in foods.

A adept approach is to monitor your vitamin and mineral levels with a blood test. If you're low in a certain nutrient, y'all can up your intake of foods rich in these nutrients. However, supplements are definitely necessary in some cases.

Vitamin D supplements
During autumn and winter, Public Wellness England advises that anybody should consider taking a 10 mcg daily vitamin D supplement from October to March. And if you're more at-risk, they recommend taking them twelvemonth-round.

If you're someone who doesn't get much sunlight during the summer months, clothing sunscreen top to toe, or have darker skin, so information technology's recommended that yous take a supplement all year.

Vitamin B12 supplements
If you're a vegan or vegetarian then you're more than at risk of vitamin B12 deficiency. If a blood test shows that you're deficient or if you follow a strict vegan diet then it's recommended that you take a supplement.

A cyanocobalamin supplement is a good choice as it'southward a form that your body tin can easily apply. It's likewise possible to get a vitamin B12 injection — this is especially useful if your deficiency is acquired by absorption problems in your stomach. The form of hydroxocobalamin tin be given every 3 months.

Folic acrid supplements
If you're a adult female, information technology's recommended that you take a 400 mcg folic acrid (constructed folate) supplement before and during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. In some cases, you might demand to have a college dose — information technology's a skilful idea to work with a wellness professional person to figure out the right dosage for you.

Information technology's also really important to make sure your vitamin B12 levels are normal when starting a folic acid supplement. Folic acid supplements can mask the symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency, which if left untreated tin can cause irreversible harm to your nervous system.

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Source: https://thriva.co/hub/vitamins/vitamin-and-mineral-blood-tests

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