Guest guest Posted March 22, 2010 Report Share Posted March 22, 2010 Is it possible to be deficient in B12 with a ferritin level of 237? MacG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 22, 2010 Report Share Posted March 22, 2010 Absolutely. Ferritin is a measure of stored iron. You need a separate b12 test. Many Hypothyroid patients are deficient in b12. It may be useful to get your folate tested at the same time as your b12, as they two deficiencies often occur together. I have always found it annoying that doctors use the term " anemia " non-specifically; because iron-deficiency anemia is a very different thing than B12 anemia (and the treatments are very different, too). B12 anemia is sometimes called pernicious anemia, and a severe b12 deficiency can show up as megaloblastic anemia (MA). If your b12 test comes up low, this may be useful, it's a link to how I fixed my own b12 deficiency (it's the only medical problem I've ever had that was both cheap and easy to fix!) http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/RT3_T3/message/35726 And a post about MA http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/RT3_T3/message/36724 More about MA: An MCV may also be useful, although I think it is at little limited, I feel it is most useful to help diagnose long-standing and/or severe b12 deficiency. Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) is a measurement of the average size of your RBCs. The MCV is elevated when your RBCs are larger than normal (macrocytic), for example in anemia caused by vitamin B12 deficiency. from http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/cbc/test.html Hope this helps. > > Is it possible to be deficient in B12 with a ferritin level of 237? > MacG. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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