Since November last year I have been supplementing my diet with vitamin D tablets – initially 20µg daily, and more recently 50µg. For the full story, click on these links to my earlier posts:
Vitamin Pills - they're a no-brainer
Despite the recent grotty weather, I live in hope that I will soon be blessed with some sunshine that will enable my body to produce more vitamin D for itself. It therefore seemed a good time to test the amount of vitamin D in my blood.
Some companies sell simple home test kits. With these I would have placed a few drops of blood on a test strip, waited for 20 minutes or so, then used a mobile phone app to scan the strip. Having seen Dr John Campbell's Youtube video of this method, I wasn't convinced about its accuracy, so I chose a service that carries out laboratory testing of blood samples.
The Monitor My Health service costs £29 – a small price, I judged, to find out what my vitamin D blood level really was.
The instructions were quite clear and easy to follow, though there were a couple of omissions that would have helped this medically ignorant individual. Firstly, the pack included a cleansing wipe and an alcohol swab, but no hint on when to use them; secondly, there were no suggestions on what to do if my blood flow diminished before I had collected a full sample. For my answers, read on.
Here's the test kit; a sample bottle and container, two prickers, an alcohol swab, a cleansing wipe and a couple of small plasters.
I first had to soak my hands in warm water for a couple of minutes to encourage blood flow, then press the pricker against the side of one of my fingers. I judged that it would now be wise to cleanse my finger with the alcohol swab before pricking it.
I was required to collect 600ml of blood. However, I'd barely collected 200ml when the blood flow from my finger almost stopped. Fortunately, I had two prickers, so I repeated the process on another finger - ouch! Again, the blood flow soon diminished, long before I'd collected enough. Wondering what to do, I had the idea of wiping my finger with a clean tissue... and, lo and behold, the blood started flowing again. Two more wipes and I had my 600ml in the sample tube... but now the blood wouldn't stop! Time to use one of those plasters.
All I had to do now was to put the yellow cap back on the sample tube, insert the tube in its plastic packaging and post it off to the laboratory in Exeter. I popped the unused cleansing wipe and the remaining plaster in our medical box.
Two days later I had my result.
98nmol/L – an excellent result. Indeed, I had almost too much vitamin D in my blood. So, despite the recommendation to "keep doing what you're doing", and taking into account the fact that there ought to be more sunshine about, I've decided to cut my daily vitamin D dose from 50µg to 25µg. At the end of the summer I'll probably repeat the blood test.
That looks like a proper result. Good to know that you have the right level. One would have to wonder, given the dismal weather for much of the first half of 2021!
ReplyDeleteLucy