Identifying small changes in your blood and addressing niggling health symptoms before they start to impact your day-to-day life is the epitome of preventative healthcare. For this reason, getting your blood tested every year is essential. It allows us to closely keep track of small changes that may be occurring in your body before they start to worsen and begin impacting your health.

A poorly planned vegan or plant-based diet can easily give rise to nutrient deficiencies, which is why it is especially important to get yearly blood tests as a vegan. It is usually not until these nutrient deficiencies become chronic that they start to show as symptoms such as fatigue. This is why assessing your blood tests for changes in nutrient levels is essential before they begin to have long-term effects on your health.

 

I am always asked what tests you should ask your doctor for. As not all health practitioners are educated on vegan nutrition, they won't always know what tests are best for you. Here is a guide on vegan blood tests I recommend next time you go for a blood test.

 

VEGAN BLOOD TESTS

Full Blood Count

This testing is essential as it gives us the most information on how your red and white blood cells are performing (which can tell us a lot about your overall health and nutritional status!).

 

Iron Studies (including serum iron, transferrin, transferrin saturation and ferritin)

Vegans are at a higher risk of iron deficiency and especially if you menstruate due to the regular iron loss through periods. It is incredibly important that if you suspect an iron deficiency that you are testing your iron levels before your start supplementing. This is because excess iron levels can negatively impact your health and you don’t want to be supplementing if you don’t need to. I always recommend clients ask for a full Iron Studies that test all markers of iron status and not just ferritin (iron stores).

 

CRP & ESR (inflammatory markers)

I always recommend testing inflammatory markers such as CRP and ESR especially when looking at iron status as inflammation will impact our iron levels. Getting these levels tested every year can help to identify and manage any inflammation in your body.

 

Serum Vitamin B12, Active B12 & Folate

As a vegan diet is a very poor source of vitamin B12, supplementation and regular testing is essential. Vitamin B12 deficiency does not always show symptoms until your levels are very low so it is very more important that we are testing these levels regularly. When levels get too low, this can permanently damage nerve cells so supplementation and regular testing is a must. I always recommend testing serum B12 (which looks at all of the B12 in your blood) as well as active B12 (the activated form of B12 in our blood) along with folate.

 

Vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiency is incredibly common worldwide, but especially common when eating a plant-based diet due to low dietary intake of this nutrient. It is essential for immune and bone health and should be tested every year. I usually recommend getting this tested a few months after summer to avoid a falsely elevated reading due to recent sun exposure.

 

Fasting Blood Glucose

With diabetes being so prevalent, getting your fasting blood glucose levels tested every year can help identify the very early stages of type 2 diabetes before symptoms start to arise.

 

Liver Function Tests

A liver function test measures different enzymes and proteins made by the liver and is used to assess the overall health of your liver. As the liver has the very important job of detoxifying waste products from our body, it is essential that we are testing every year to make sure that it is functioning optimally.

 

Kidney Function Tests

Identifying kidney disease in its early stages is essential which is why I recommend getting your kidneys tested every year.

 

Lipid Profile

A lipid profile looks at the levels of cholesterol and other fats in your blood. This test can assess cardiovascular disease risk so is essential that we are testing regularly to identify the risk of heart disease.

 

Thyroid Function (TSH)

Thyroid issues are very common on a vegan diet due to the lower iodine intake. Iodine is essential for thyroid hormone production and when deficient can lead to underactive thyroid symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog and weight gain amongst many others. Testing your Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) is the first place to look for any issues with thyroid function.

 

You can download your Yearly Vegan Blood Tests Checklist here.

NORMAL VS OPTIMAL RANGES

When you get your blood tested with your GP, they will read them using the labs reference ranges to assess whether you are above or below these ‘normal’ ranges. However, there is a big difference between being ‘within normal ranges’ and being in an ‘optimal’ range. This can be the difference between having answers to the symptoms you are experiencing and being told that everything is ‘normal’ and that you are fine.

 

I assess all of my client's blood tests using optimal ranges because I don’t just want you within the ‘normal’ ranges and feeling ‘fine, I want you feeling your best and in an optimal state of health! Reading between these normal ranges and assessing your results using optimal ranges is the key to detecting the early signs that your body may be out of balance and they should not be ignored until they worsen.

 

As a naturopath, I am trained in looking at the finer details of your blood results to find you the answers you deserve. I acknowledge that everyone's biochemistry is different and unique and take into account all aspects of your health to assess what your body is trying to tell us through your blood. I would be doing my clients a huge disservice if I was to bunch them all together under the same standard ‘normal’ levels without addressing if these levels are in fact ‘normal’ for you.

 

If you have had your yearly vegan blood tests done recently and would like to have them assessed by some trained in looking at the finer details of your health using optimal ranges, check out The Vegan Blood Test Analysis Package.