How relevant are serum vitamin tests?

Gustav3Y

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I see people doing Vitmain D and B12 test.

What about Retinol (A), Tocoferol (E) testing?
And what about B1, B2, B6, etc being tested?

Why is no one testing them but often there are suggestion that someone might be low in B1, B2, even B3, etc?
There are usually supplemented without testing

Is there any reason why not to take a serum Retinol or a serum B2 test for example? Or it is just status quo to test only D and B12?
 
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Gustav3Y

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So are B1 B2 B6 tests irrelevant? Vitamin A, etc?
Or they are worth being tested?
 

Belsazar

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Vitamin A is a tricky one. Ive read that serum levels only are useful in deficiency or in excess (found no reference so far), since both seem to be associated with disease. But consider there are cases described where Vitamin A serum levels where insufficient despite hypervitaminosis A in the liver (storage vs utilisation mode?). Additionaly, RBP (retinol binding proteins) and its saturation should be considered, but which doctor will order that test / which labs do even offer it? It seems also high RBP seems to be associated with disease.

Vitamin E seems to be useful. B Vitamins aswell. Most doctors, if testing any at all, mostly consider B12 and Folic acid. Except in alcoholism (some are aware of Thiamine depletion). Do you speak german by chance? (https://www.labor-bayer.de/laborinf...r-Sinnvolle-Mikronaehrstoffdiagnostik-web.pdf). Amino acid and lipid profile could be interesting (i am curious why no one measures lipid profile before/after/during PUFA depletion).
 
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Gustav3Y

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Thanks for the reply.
They do test RBP locally, actually it is cheaper than retinol testing.
B12 and Folic acid tends to be 3 times cheaper than other vitamins, actually cheaper than any I see locally.
 

Belsazar

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Thanks for the reply.
They do test RBP locally, actually it is cheaper than retinol testing.
B12 and Folic acid tends to be 3 times cheaper than other vitamins, actually cheaper than any I see locally.
Couldnt find RBP in any labs nearby. For Vitamin K I have seen most labs only test for K1.
Planning on getting some parameters tested?
 
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Gustav3Y

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For K2 what I see they have only Matrix-GLA-Protein, marketed as K2 deficiency marker.
This marker is pretty expensive, especially when added to a lot of other non cheap tests.
 
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Belsazar

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For K2 what I see they have only Matrix-GLA-Protein, marketed as K2 deficiency marker.
This marker is pretty expensive, especially when added to a lot of other non cheap tests.
Do you know if Osteocalcin would be a good marker aswell? I really cant find any labs offering Matrix-Gla-Protein and I would like to assess my K2 status somehow.
 
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Gustav3Y

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I do not know if that would be a good marker for K2 status, Osteocalcin is pretty cheap locally, that would mean it is automatically tested by the machine they have.
Even if I am in a rather smaller place most of the vitamin tests are shipped big centers in Germany and tested.
 

IVILA

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The only one that I will only probably test for is vitamin a and d. Vitamin e is not relevant since it's all stored in the tissues.
 

Belsazar

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The only one that I will only probably test for is vitamin a and d. Vitamin e is not relevant since it's all stored in the tissues.
Same can be stated for Vitamin A, where most is in the liver. Still it can be useful, but one needs to be careful with interpretation.
 

Daniil

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These analyzes are not informative. Vitamins can be high in serum, for example, because they cannot be used. For example, because you do not have enough other vitamins to use them. I would not trust the tests for vitamins at all, so as not to deceive myself. I'm not sure about vitamin D. There are acid tests. For example, with a deficiency of B6, xanthurenic acid accumulates, with a deficiency of B12, methylmalonic acid, etc.
 

Belsazar

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These analyzes are not informative. Vitamins can be high in serum, for example, because they cannot be used. For example, because you do not have enough other vitamins to use them. I would not trust the tests for vitamins at all, so as not to deceive myself. I'm not sure about vitamin D. There are acid tests. For example, with a deficiency of B6, xanthurenic acid accumulates, with a deficiency of B12, methylmalonic acid, etc.

Methylmalonic acid - Wikipedia .... Does not seem to be so straightforward. Ive checked my labs, it can be measured from urine but it is quite expensive. I could not find Xanthurenic acid at all.

Ofc it needs to make sense to test things from serum, certain things need to be tested in an indirect way. Nevertheless you want things to be in a certain range, not too high not too low. If some turn up to be too high, it can still be a useful piece of information (is a pathway not working right?).
 

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