Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 testing measures the level of vitamin B12 in your blood. Having a vitamin B12 deficiency, or a low level of this essential vitamin, can cause a range of health issues, including anemia and nervous system problems.

Tests Included (1+)

Vitamin B12 testing measures the level of vitamin B12 in your blood. Having a vitamin B12 deficiency, or a low level of this essential vitamin, can cause a range of health issues, including anemia and nervous system problems.

Vitamin B12 levels may be low for a number of reasons, including inadequate dietary intake, the use of certain medications, advanced age, or conditions that make it harder for the body to absorb vitamin B12 from your food.

Testing for vitamin B12 requires a sample of blood. Measuring your vitamin B12 level helps your health care provider to diagnose a possible deficiency and recommend appropriate treatment, if needed.

Purpose of the Vitamin B12 test

The purpose of vitamin B12 testing is to determine whether you have a deficiency or a lower-than-normal level of B12 in your body. Sometimes a vitamin B12 level will be tested by itself and other times it will be measured along with other tests for the purposes of diagnosing or monitoring certain health problems.

Diagnosis

Vitamin B12 testing may be ordered to determine the cause of a patient’s symptoms. It may also be ordered after an abnormal result on a different blood test to learn more about an individual’s health. Diagnostic purposes for vitamin B12 testing include:

• Evaluating symptoms of anemia, a blood disorder marked by a loss of normal red blood cells.
• Following up after an abnormal blood test that suggests megaloblastic anemia, a type of anemia where red blood cells are unusually large and function abnormally.
• Determining the cause of symptoms related to the nervous system, including mental changes, weakness, loss of balance or numbness, pain, and tingling in the arms and legs.

Monitoring

Vitamin B12 testing may also be used for monitoring a patient’s health over time. Checking blood levels of vitamin B12 may be done:

• To evaluate how well-nourished a person is, especially if they have a disease that makes it harder to absorb nutrients from food.
• To monitor people who are being treated for a previously diagnosed vitamin B12 deficiency.

Screening

Screening is testing that is performed before there are visible symptoms of a health problem, like a vitamin B12 deficiency. At this time, there are no guidelines regarding screening of asymptomatic people for vitamin B12 deficiency.

However, doctors may choose to check vitamin B12 levels in people with certain risk factors that put them at a higher risk of a deficiency, such as the elderly or people who follow a vegan diet, which does not include any foods from animal sources.

What does the test measure?

Vitamin B12 is a nutrient that is important for many aspects of human health. Adequate levels of vitamin B12 are needed for your body to maintain a healthy nervous system, make red blood cells, and create DNA, the genetic material present in all of our cells.

Vitamin B12 occurs naturally in animal proteins, such as red meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy. Other foods, like breakfast cereals, nutritional yeast, and some plant milks, may be fortified with vitamin B12. This vitamin is also available as a supplement and as a prescription medication.

In food, vitamin B12 is bound to protein. In order for your body to absorb it, the vitamin must be released from the protein. As your body digests food, enzymes in your digestive tract separate vitamin B12 from these proteins. The freed vitamin B12 then combines with a protein made by your body called intrinsic factor, which is secreted by cells in the stomach. Together, vitamin B12 and intrinsic factor are absorbed in the lower end of the small intestine.

When should I get vitamin B12 testing?

Vitamin B12 testing is usually performed when you have symptoms of a vitamin B12 deficiency, such as anemia or nervous system problems. Some people are at a greater risk of having a vitamin B12 deficiency due to their age or preexisting health conditions and may undergo regular vitamin B12 testing to check whether their B12 levels are normal.

The following information describes several circumstances in which vitamin B12 testing may be recommended by a doctor.

Anemia

Anemia is a condition in which your body does not have enough healthy red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen to your body tissues. When you don’t have enough healthy, properly functioning red blood cells, you may have symptoms like:

• Fatigue
• Difficulty concentrating
• Pale skin
• Shortness of breath
• Diarrhea
• Nausea or vomiting
• Loss of appetite

A vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to a type of anemia known as megaloblastic anemia. In megaloblastic anemia, the red blood cells are large, underdeveloped, and abnormally shaped. These abnormal red blood cells, called megaloblasts, do not function normally.

Megaloblasts may be detected through routine blood testing before a person develops symptoms of anemia. When this happens, follow-up testing is typically performed, including a vitamin B12 test.

Nervous system symptoms

Your health care provider may recommend a vitamin B12 test to determine if a low level of vitamin B12 is causing nervous system symptoms. These symptoms may include:

• Neuropathy, which is a nerve problem that causes pain, numbness, tingling, and muscle problems
• Weakness
• Poor balance
• Confusion
• Changes in the way a person walks
• Dementia, a condition that affects mental functions such as memory and language skills

Risk factors

Certain factors make an individual more likely to have a vitamin B12 deficiency. Your doctor may order vitamin B12 testing for you if you have one or more of the following risk factors:

• Age over 75 years
• Decreased intake of animal proteins, including vegetarian or vegan diets
• Medication interactions with drugs that interfere with vitamin B12 absorption, including histamine blockers, proton pump inhibitors, metformin and nitrous oxide
• Decreased nutrient absorption due to stomach or intestinal surgery, including surgery for weight loss or cancer
• Decreased absorption due to diseases of the stomach and small intestine, such as celiac disease or Crohn’s disease
• Pancreatic insufficiency, a condition that can affect how well enzymes are able to separate vitamin B12 from food proteins

Booking Procedure:

• Fill the booking form on right side with Name, Address, Mobile no.
• Blood/Urine samples will be collected from your Home address. 10-12 hrs fasting is required.
• You need to make the payment by cash to Thyrocare when Technician comes to pick up the samples OR Pay online after confirmation of booking.
• Reports will be couriered at your residence in 3-4 working days if hardcopy is opted. We will email the reports within 48-72 hrs on your email address mentioned while booking.

• Sample pickup at home
• Online reports within 48 hours