To think it odd my doctor won't give me a blood test

[ImStillMe]

I did an e-comsult asking for a blood test for two things. Firstly I have been taking OTC vitamin D as I read this may be beneficial if you catch Covid (although I have also read this is debunked). I wanted my vitamin D level checked so I know whether or not to continue with this.

And secondly my hair has become very dry so I wondered if I am deficient in anything, or if it ok to try OTC biotin or zinc.

The surgery replied to say it's up to me if I want to continue with vitamin D supplements or not as they are OTC, and that I should talk to a pharmacist about my dry hair.

So no blood tests for me.

Rheumatology, cardiology and orthopaedics have all tested my Vit D over the past few years (most recently at the start of the year). It's always low, when it was orthopaedics, they put me on 50,000 units a week, but the other times they told me to buy supplements (I did, but it was still low on retest, so i'm not sure it makes any difference). They wouldn't test my thyroid when I was bedbound with exhaustion though.

The GP tested because you had unexplained tiredness though, not just because you wanted to check if you should continue to buy supplements.

Also deficiencies of those tested for could cause more serious medical issues like anaemia, peripheral neuropathy and hypothyroidism, all of which require medical treatment where the OP is asking for very trivial reasons

In my experience biotin and zinc don’t help with dry hair. Omega 3s and iron were more helpful for that. You could use Medichecks to keep track of vitamin D and iron levels if you need/choose to supplement.

OP just to bring you down to earth I've just had to pay £250 for a private neurology appointment for my adult severely disabled DD. She suffers from a genetic life limiting syndrome and got up one morning to find she had lost the ability to walk unaided. I was offered a call back from a nurse by her surgery. It took me 2 weeks to get her G.P. to see her and she agreed to a neuro referral but simply did not understand the urgency and said it could take months. I requested a private referral and was seen within a week but the consultant I saw was bemused to say the least and referred DD straight back to the NHS for 3 urgent scans of her brain, spine and chest. She fears something sinister is going on. This is the current state of the NHS OP and you're wanting a blood test to check your Vit D and minerals?

On what planet would a blood cost the NHS 8 grand? Ffs.

I paid £99 through Thriva recently for a test covering Vit D, B12, Diabetes, Advanced Iron profile and advanced thyroid profile. Would recommend.

Why so much? You can do it privately for a couple of hundred

OP for about £50-£100 (depending on what you want to check for) you can get your own private blood test from numerous reputable companies. They send you out the vial and you prick your finger, collect the blood and send it back. Really simple. If you can afford to and you want to know then do that.

I do occasionally do this myself for vitamins and thyroid. Ill do another post below to say which companies I’ve used because I’m not sure if I’m allowed. It’s late and my brains not functioning well.

Thriva
Medichecks

^^ those are the two I’ve actually used. There are many more but can’t obviously recommend if I haven’t used them.

I don't think the OP gives a wild rat's are about the NHS horror stories on here.

What did I just see about £8k for a blood 'panel' (what is that? I used to take bloods never heard that before) but where on earth does that figure come from?

I disagree with the common view here, about the Vit D anyway. Most of us in the UK have low vitamin D levels, which can lead lots of problems and it'd be good to know where you are before winter kicks in so you can take steps accordingly. But you can overdose on vitamin D, hence the need for a test. £8k, my arse.

For goodness sake, if you think you may be deficient in something that is causing your dry hair, then take a supplement at recommended dose. If your body doesn’t need it, you will wee it out basically. If you still have dry hair then that’s not why. Your Dr won’t care about your dry hair. A further piece of them will just die inside though having to deal with you and your dry hair.

If you get clinically relevant symptoms that you have an actual problem, then they will be happy to deal with you accordingly and appropriately.

So you want a blood test to check the impact of self medicated vit D and to see why your hair is frizzy and dry?

Yeah, I don't get out in the sunshine much and my hair's a bit dry and frizzy.
Me and a zillion others. Heck. I need to get this checked out.
Or maybe not.

Yep, I live in the US now. We get a yearly health check with full blood panel. Keeping an eye on issues that might arise is a good thing.

on the dryness front, my whole life I’ve had extremely dry skin, my mother used to hassle me about it. It turns out its caused by an autoimmune disease in my case. Blood test would have picked it up. I also suffer low b12, would have kept on being knackered ans nor knowing why without a blood panel

I take vitamin D (and complex B) everyday for an issue I have, I’ve just caught Covid and I’m not too bad, basically a very snotty cold, but I did also only have my booster three weeks ago.

Whoops I pressed the wrong button - but yes of course YABU. If you are taking vit D you will have high levels. If your hair is dry, that’s cosmetic but can be helped by nutrition. Just eat the best food you can and take a multivitamin. You don’t need blood tests as there’s nothing wrong with your health.

No one is this ridiculous, surely this can’t be real?

It might be. I know a person who came here from Oz, signed up with A GP practice and wanted all her levels of everything tested right off.
Nothing at all wrong with her except she felt she'd put a couple of pounds on in the past year and wanted a weekly check of her thyroid and all other stuff like zinc levels and potassium and magnesium ad infinitum.
GP told her we don't really do that on the NHS. We don't investigate people who don't feel ill but gain a 4lbs in a year. It can be quite normal to lose or gain 4lbs
in a day or a week or a month.
But please don't hesitate to come back if you are unwell.

My GP friend tells me that folks who come here from other countries hear all good things about the NHS, and how it's an excellent service. Which it really is
if you are having a a heart attack or appendicitis or a shattered bone

Or sometimes a low level of potassium or magnesium, which can reduce you to staggering around and being non compos mentis. But that is easily fixed.

But to just to treat the NHS as a monitoring service for every person in the UKs Magnesium/Potassium levels is ludicrous.

I'm truly grateful to the NHS. They've seen me through numerous operations

Appendectomy, 2 c sections. ovarian cystectomy, treatment for a broken wrist.

Never checked my vit D levels though. That's not their job.

A basic blood panel does NOT cost the NHS 8K... someone is talking out of their bottom.

A Vit D test costs around £25 ish. Some of the tests on a BMP will cost a few pence, some 20 to 30 quid ish (hard to say as it will vary by area and recorded figures are some years out of date by the time the public can see them, hence the 'ish').

The cost of the individual test isn't the issue - the cost of millions of people all wanting one because they feel better if a Dr has taken bloods and sent them for testing - that is the issue!

And so PCT's get pretty pissy if GP's go ordering blood tests for no obvious reason.

Particularly if the patient is self medicating, and so as in the OP's case, there's no useful result to be gained from such a test (are those readings because the OP is dosing enough, too much, not enough, are they getting enough naturally, is their body utilising it correctly, are they taking it properly alongside calcium and high fat foods.... The more unknown variables you add, the less use the results will be!).

I self medicate B12 injections, I understand this means my GP's won't run a B12 test unless I can state its been 3 months since I injected any B12 and I have symptoms of a B12 deficiency. Otherwise, the results will be meaningless!

Dry frizzy hair? Buy some conditioner. You do NOT need a blood test on the NHS.

Op from a doctor,if your are in the uk it is advised from around now to take vitamin d every day over the colder months.

I hope you're joking- of course it doesn't.

Public health guidance is that everyone in the UK should take OTC vitamin D for life as we get so little sun, so the blood test won't change that. NICE advise not to test unless there are medical reasons.

Dry hair? As an NHS issue? Buy some zinc OTC if you want to (there are plenty of hair branded supplements out there) or see a trichologist privately. Have you not been reading the newspapers about how much stress the NHS is under?

You don’t need a blood test, that’s why they don't want to do one.

My daughter had low vitamin D discovered when they did a blood test in A&E. Which was the cause of her increase in siezures. She was given 6 weeks of vitamin D tablets that she took once a week. On the 7th week she had a blood test which confirmed her levels were back to normal. I have been giving her lots of food rich in vitamin D as well. Liver and oranges so she absorbs it. Also switched to organic milk it's only about an extra 25p in aldi and tastes much better.

YABU. Does not sound like these bloods are clinically indicated at all. Good on your GP saying no!