Would a blood test for low iron detect any other ailments?

[LeoLeah77]

I had a blood test on Tuesday. It was for b12 (iron). My question is if something else that wasn't right showed up on my blood test would they tell me or would they only test for iron levels? Worried I may be diabetic. Would I have to go back for another test?

 

[calm]

When I have blood tests that check my b12 (as its often too low) the usually look at other things such as glucose. I'm pretty sure they would tell you if they thought you had high sugar XXXX

 

[LeoLeah77]

Thank you! I thought diabetes was low sugar? So it's high sugar? X x

 

[calm]

Well as far as I know it goes either way, it goes very high, which is dangerous, but can also drop to low levels making you feel shaky and needing to eat or drink something sweet.

 

[aimee-lou]

Well as far as I know it goes either way, it goes very high, which is dangerous, but can also drop to low levels making you feel shaky and needing to eat or drink something sweet.

Diabetes is the lack inability to control sugar levels due to insulin production being hampered. They can go up or down dependent on diet, and it has a lot of other complications associated with it.

If you're lethargic and showing signs of aneamia, you may also be suffering from hypoglycaemia which is where the body can't process sugars properly and they tend to be washed through the body. You need to do things like up your protein intake and try to increase your activity levels so your body can compensate for it.

If you've had a blood test for anaemia it's likely your Dr ticked the Full Blood Count box so that all your vital levels will be checked. If this comes up negative for anything they'll start looking at more complicated stuff like your thyroid, pituitary, things like that, but the FBC shows up things like sugars, iron, hb so should show up if it's diabetes/sugar related if that's what he or she has done.

 

[FAR]

Hi. As has already been said, if it was a full blood count then it should show up on the test you have already had, and they would contact you if any of the levels were worrying. But if you are not sure exactly what they tested for, then you could give them a call and check. Someone I know recently had his iron levels checked, but still needed to go back [a couple of days later] and get a specific blood test to check for diabetes.

 

[Mrs Eleflump]

A full blood count will not include testing for sugars. Neither will a B12 test. You need to ask for this separately. A lab will not add on other tests if they've not been requested. Some tests are done by 'reflex', e.g. if a basic test shows positive, like ANA, they will test further to see what's making that positive, but if your doctor has asked for FBC and B12, the lab will not do blood sugar levels or HB1Ac. It's partly an issue of not enough money to test everyone for everything, and partly that you haven't actually given your consent to be tested for these other things, so it'd be illegal for the lab to do it.

A good resource for understanding what your blood tests are for and what the results mean (to a limited extent) is LabTestsOnline, e.g. their entry for FBC: https://www.labtestsonline.org.uk/understanding/analytes/fbc/tab/test

and B12: https://www.labtestsonline.org.uk/understanding/analytes/vitamin-b12/tab/test

Obviously this website comes with the caveat that the information it contains in no way is a substitute for a conversation with your own doctor.