The Test For High B12 Levels

Are you having ongoing elevated B12 levels and wondering what tests you can do or what you can do to figure out what's going on in your body? My name's Dr. Tara, and in this video we're gonna look at this newer type of test called B12 binding capacity, how it fits into elevated B12 levels, what it means, what a high result, a normal result. To help you understand what's going on with high D 12 levels in your blood tests.

Learn More In My Book "Don't B12 Deficient" (specifics on what to do with high b12 levels): https://geni.us/rTQTvd (amazon Link)

A lot of people want to know what is causing their high B12 levels on their blood test results. They also want to know what they should do about this elevated B12 level. So for most people, the answer is going to be really just need to retest when you've been away or haven't been taking the B12 or any kind of supplement that might have b12.

For a period of time could be three weeks, even three months, just to verify that there's nothing else causing the elevation in the b12. And it really depends how high the B12 level is.

now for those people with persistently elevated B12 levels or other circumstances where you really just want to know what could be going on with this elevation in your B12 levels. There is a fairly newer test that may help clarify what's going on in terms of, is the B12 getting trapped and not able to get into the cell, or what else could be going on with your elevated B12 levels?

This test might provide some additional context and give you a deeper understanding of what's actually going on. So we're gonna talk in detail about this test, which is called B12 binding capacity.

So I do go into some detail on elevated B12 levels in my book. Don't be deficient. Well, the book is focused on not being deficient. Sometimes people with high B12 levels are gonna be deficient in b12, as paradoxical as that may sound.

So if you want more information on elevated B12 levels and support this channel. Check that out. I'll leave a link in the description. So now back to our story on elevated B12 levels in your blood test. So test is called B12 binding capacity, and it's measuring the amount of transcobalamin molecules in any given sample.

If you have a lot of transcobalamin, you're gonna have a lot of binding capacity, typically speaking, but not always. Transcobalamin one of the binding proteins for b12. It helps transport it throughout the blood and it binds up B12 that's floating around in our blood.

So the test is measuring the capacity of your body to bind b12, and so in that sense, it's measuring the unbound or free transcobalamin molecules floating around in your blood. The bound versions will be bound to be 12. So, while your B12 levels may be elevated, you may also have a high unsaturated transcobalamin level or high B12 binding capacity.

So what does it mean if it's high in the context of elevated B12 levels? Well, if you have really high B12 levels and you have a really high binding capacity, it means that a lot of the B12 is not bound up and from that, I would conclude that you have a lot of transcobalamin molecules floating around in your.

The B12 is automatically gonna bind to transcobalamin in your body. So if you have high B12 level and. , there's a lot of binding capacity. It just means the overall level of those transco pollins are probably higher than the b12. Some of it for sure is gonna be bound up. Actually, a lot of it probably will be, but because there's so much more binding capacity than there are B12 molecules, the test typically would be normal or low if you have elevated B12 levels because there's not a lot of binding capacity left because there's so much B12 available.

So in the case that, you have high B12 levels in your B12 binding capacity is lower normal. It just means you're probably getting too much B12 in your diet. If your B12 binding capacity is elevated and you have high B12 levels, , that means you're probably making more transcobalamin molecules than you otherwise should be or would be. And this can happen from increased production of certain types of white blood cells.

Yes, it can be cancer, but it can also be from other inflammatory things, including infection because there's a lot of nuance to figuring this sort of thing out, and you don't want overreact or underreact. It's good to look at these test results in conjunction with your doctor. This video certainly isn't comprehensive on all the things that can be going on in your body, so make sure you check with your doctor before you make any decisions on what's going on.

So just so you know, two, there's basically three different types of transcobalamin molecules, and we'll illustrate that, with two lemons and one small orange. So basically the idea is that only one of the three allow the B12 to get into your cells, there're actually three different types of molecules.