Help me for my next 'round' of blood tests, which will either be the end of August or September....I'll probably have a comp panel + a short cancer panel done, possibly a Comp. Metabolic Panel as well, IF one doc is sharp and anticipates what another will need [one can always hope, can't one?}...IF any blood tests ARE to be done, I am assuming I should stop calcium supplements for [osteo issues] and the B-12...well, UMMM how many days before the tests?
Should I maintain my basic multi-vite for the 'duration'?
When should I stop taking each of: Calciums and B-12....how many days before the tests?
Even if the metabolic #'s are with in 'normal ranges', how do I get a handle of what my true asorbtion rates are? Somehow I fear that it's all totally hit and miss for each of us...I suspect that the 'timing' of all this is important?
Mrs. D, Rose, Consider....specific inputs/guidances in this quarter would really be of a help.
Thanks in advance! and, of course: 's - j

Regarding the nutrients in general, I would stop everything at least the day before. For instance, if you wanted to see how your body functions without some of the supplements you would have to stop a lot sooner. If you want to see whether your body seems happy with what you are doing, the day before would generally be the time, because it is usually best to fast for at least 12 hours prior to testing anyway.

Some things will probably be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Regarding the B12, I would stop at least three days before the samples are drawn. That will allow you to have some idea how strong your stored B12 is.

rose

My concerns were about the B-12 and also the calcium #'s, My last metabolic panel was done with my taking some very full doses of the calcium. While the #'s were just fine, with the 'dosing', it's just telling me how much calcium is actually circulating in the BLOOD and not necessarily being asorbed, correct?

Would I be correct in assuming that the only real way of assessing the asorbtion thru a dexa-scan? My next one will be scheduled for late winter. Sigh.

Thanks again - hope you do get a chance to enjoy some absolutely PERFECT weather! - j

Hi dahlek,

First calcium.... (Well, I wrote that and then sat here for several minutes... not knowing exactly what to put next).

Calcium is so tricky because we hear so much about how much we need it.

The thing is that years ago I subscribed to a Women's Health Newsletter that was really interesting because some of the authors were very keen on magnesium.

They wrote about magnesium a lot, saying that in other countries where people take far less calcium the rates of osteoporosis are actually lower than here in the US where people supplement quite commonly with calcium.

The authors said that our rates of headache and bone spurs were also higher, and that they were related to the high calcium intake without sufficient magnesium to balance it and make it go where it's needed.

So I started taking a magnesium tablet every time I had anything with calcium in it, and when I had a bone density test my bones were lovely and dense. (quite to the surprise of the people administering the test, who I think had anticipated selling me some drug to help with the bone density problem... only I didn't have it.)

Okay... B12. I don't know how much you are taking. But I bet that even stopping three days or a week before hand will not completely clear your blood of the B12 that is circulating due to supplementation.

I once read this really neat article about the only way to really tell how your B12 levels are, is to have a spinal tap.

Apparently the amount in our blood tends to be about 600 or so times more than in our spinal columns.... spinal cord... I forget the exact word.


Here's what I think about B12 tests... in the US the scale for B12 is pretty low. In the U.S. some labs show 180 as low "normal" -- but to me that's way to low to be normal.

In some other countries the low is 550, because at that level changes (for the worse) in mentation can be identified.

So to me, none of the tests we do here are particularly helpful because we don't have a well thought out national approach to B12 as tested in our labs...

Here's my favorite article:
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.co...B12-Level.html

While I wait for my computer to bring up the URL, I want to add that it's good to also remember that B12 tests are done on the basis of healthy people... so when we aren't healthy and need more B12, we need a LOT more in order for it to go into our muscles and into rebuilding our nerve sheaths.

It's such a good idea to keep some sort of Time Line that lists your daily (or when there's a change) symptoms, test results, supplementation. That way you have a record of how you are affected and you can use it to decide what is working and what is best.

(((((((((dahlek))))))))))

More critical for ME is about the CALCIUM? How many days before a test should that be well deferred? That and the 'd' and the 'mag' I really want to see if I do need some form of supplement in this quarter as I would certainly wish for something more definitive than blood tests? Maybe it's a overconcern due to an AI being taken for BC f/u. Since the AI, a total estrogen blocker...things have not only gone downhill...they are going down fast?
I am definitely taking more than adequate calcium, mag, vit-d and omegas....to do so, has become an all-day process, every pill[s] every hour, before/after/between what few meals I eat....
I guess I can say straight out...that this trying to be healthy stuff IS BECOMING ONE HECK OF A COMPLETE DRAG! ?
I AM NOT AMUSED - as Jarrett would say! GROWLL! - j

Wow, seriously, every hour?

That is a lot. And you aren't having major diarrhea?

I hate having to take things all day, I have to concentrate on it or I forget.

Do you just remember, or do you set your computer?

I still think that it's a good idea to keep a journal of symptoms, doses and test results... because quite honestly the tests are based on people who are well, and once we aren't well, I think a whole lot more of certain things can be in our systems, and still not be enough...

Sort of like the pain meds. If a healthy person took as much as someone in pain takes, it would be off the charts drug abuse... but when we have a need for something, then it's completely different.

So... for me the test for B12 is not a useful guide... (Did you already respond to that, and I forgot....????) I'm going to reread what you posted.

Oh, you know what, I don't know what AI is. Nor do I know what you mean by BC f/u.

Maybe with so little knowledge of what you wrote, I shouldn't have responded...

Dahlek this may not be answering your ? but when I got my calcium level tested and if my bones were still loosing calcium it was I think based over a period of time. She could tell with me that me levels in the blood were good but I was still loosing bone so my osteoporsis if not treated could get worse even though the blood levels were good. Sorry if not much help but maybe call your doc and see cause I know some tests are not just of current but the overall over a period. If that makes any sense

BC is breast cancer, AI is Aromatase Inhibitor [estrogen blocker - and really a form of chemotherapy].
I'd started the AI -the 'blocker' of estrogens as the sites in a person's blood and tissues are the favorite places for cancer cells to plug into as well. The concept is block the cancer cells...cancer can't take root and grow. But, in the process of blocking the cancers, the estrogens can't plug in and do THEIR job either. So post treatment cancer patients have to be super careful about maintaining the calcium levels. I thought I had been, supplementing enough [based on pre-AI testing] but obviously a drastic set of bone loss showed up on some x-rays this winter and my dexa-scan shortly after prompted a trip to an endo and a subsequent diagnosis of Hashi's to add to the list. Since the thyroid is the first of the endocrine systems to build and keep bone and other systems running happily...a dead thyroid [which may go back to my onset of PN-subsequently CIDP...even more remotely to the cancer -which could have been the catalyst as it can be there for up to 7 years before found and diagnosed....
Since some of my regular meds cannot be taken immediately next to each other in succession, nor a couple with calcium w/in 1-3 hours of each other,
The supplements are calcium carbonate w/D [chews- 2: 500mg Ca; 200IU D each chew], calcium citrate [2 tabs the two Equal:200 IU D; 325 Ca; and 190mg mag] plus FosamaxD weekly. Which all gets me to my 1200mg calcium intake and 500+ quota of D that should supplement the Fosamax..
7 required meds for AM & PM, 4 calciums, plus 2 pre-natal vitamins [onlything w/o B-6], b-12 and Omega Oil caplet. Plus the super pain meds [as needed]! If I sleep late, and then fall asleep early...I've skipped something critical!
I'd the CIDP for 2-1/2 years prior to the finding of cancer....As I'd been border osteo for many years and holding I'd not gone on steroids rather onto the IVIG therapy to 'save' bone.....Since others here have calcium issues, and they are on steroids [which have a documented history about bone loss], this is a very important issue, not only to me, but anyone on steroids long-term, for any reason.
Short term steroids I could buy into, but long term with the 'cancer' meds, it's not a consideration...at all. Calcium for us all, is a BIG issue, to me and should be to others. Oh, did I forget to mention that anti-seizure meds are notorious for bone loss as well? Thanks all for bearing with me and my frustrations... Just seems that the meds we take to help or 'cure' us also damage us in other ways as well...no matter how hard we try. - j

Dahlek, thanks for explaining.

Boy, it is so hard to have to take medicines (and vitimins) with such attention to the time...

When I was first told about Serrapeptase I was keen to take it because the periodontist had just told me that all the Ibuprofen I'd been taking was weakening my jaw bone.

(As an aside, the periodontist, who I think is about the best one here in Santa Fe, said that Fozimax... I forget how you spelled it.... also was known to weaken the jaw bone. Which astonished me since I thought it was supposed to strengthen bone. But people on another forum I go to reiterated that yes, Fozimax is bad for the jaw...)

Anyway, you have to take Serrapeptase on an empty stomach or else it works on the contents of your stomach instead of on the things it's supposed to be "eating" up... I think it's getting rid of these bumps I have on the side of my legs... but what I'm taking it for is my back pain and some other pain I had from the tetanus that was the reason I was taking so much Ibuprofen.

Well, I'd wait the requisite three hours to take it, and then instead of taking it I'd eat a cracker... which was exactly the opposite of what I was supposed to do. That was because of this infuriating brain damage.

Now I take it during the night when there's no chance I'm going to eat something.



Calcium -- I took a great newsletter some years ago that explained that to get calcium we had to take MORE magnesium than calcium... otherwise the calcium was apt to do things we weren't wanting, like forming bone spurs and causing headaches...

The newsletter said that in other countries where people take a lot less calcium and eat less dairy, that there is actually LESS osteoporosis. The reason is that in those countries there is a more natural (and good) ratio of magnesium to calcium.

So ever since then I've tried to remember to take magnesium when I eat any dairy... only I forget when there's a lot of stress, and there's a LOT of stress.

As I understand it, if you begin taking more magnesium the bone can grow back...

The teeth I have left are not so loose since I've started having more magnesium again...


Now if I could just beat this infection around my old dental implants... and win back my condo, I'd be ... healthy and not so poor.