Testing for vitamin deficiencies

[craziedaisy]

I would be really interested to see if I am deficient in any vitamins at all. Not sure that my GP would be interested in this so wondered where I could go to get tested. Any suggestions please.

Are you earring a healthy balanced diet? Getting some sunshine (or possibly taking a vitamin D supplement)?

Then you're not deficient in any vitamins.

That'll be £25, please.

Seriously though, why do you think you might be? Do you have symptoms that are worrying you?

Well sometimes lacking in energy. Hair seems to be thinning. I cannot eat much dairy due to intolerance and yes I do worry about vitamin D as worry about over exposure to sun so wear high factor suncream.

There is a thread on Vitamin D.

Generally if you aren't in an at risk group you definitely won't be tested. This is so the NHS can save money as most people in the UK are deficient or insufficient.

You can pay for a private Vitamin D test. Google city assays who are part of Sandwell and Birmingham NHS. The test is £25.

If you are severely deficient then take the results to your GP and get him/her to prescribe you a high dose of Vitamin D3.

While I'm BME so at high risk, my GP decided to ignore my symptoms and tell me there was nothing wrong with me because I kept going to the surgery about once a month for about 2 years complaining of illnesses.

However 3 months later I got lucky and saw one of the recently qualified Nurse Practitioners and got tested. I was severly vitamin D deficient. I also have an inherited issue with my white blood cells that has bothered me on and off for 30 years.

However once I got my prescription I had to wait 10 working days for the tablets. The pharmacist explained due to the increase in deficient people in the area all prescriptions are checked as there is a shortage of high dose supplements. The supplements are 20,000 IU per tablet. The dose you see on vitamin tablets is 400IU which is too low for most people in the UK.

Wow blue bug, that's a massive dose compared to the rda, have you found it making any difference to you yet? Have other family members been tested since you got the results? What about kids? I do worry about my dark skinned kids getting enough vitamin d.