Iron deficiency
Iron deficiency: tiredness, restless legs and hair loss are described with it, but often you notice nothing for long. See what a ferritin below 30 µg/L means.
Complaints & symptoms
Blood values for complaints and deficiencies.
Iron deficiency, anaemia, a vitamin B12 shortfall, an underactive thyroid or insulin resistance: each leaves its own pattern in your blood.
Per topic you’ll read which blood values belong to it, which reference ranges Dutch labs use, and what it is often confused with.
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10 conditions
Iron & blood count
Shortfalls that reach your oxygen transport, from the store to the red cell itself.
Vitamins & minerals
What you get from food or sunlight, and where it falls short.
Vitamin B12 deficiency
Vitamin B12 deficiency: tingling, poor balance and tiredness are the best-known complaints. Treatment is usually a tablet of 1000 micrograms a day.
Vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency usually gives no complaints; only a severe deficiency shows in muscles and bones. Below 30 nmol/L your vitamin D is too low.
Thyroid & hormones
The thermostat of your metabolism, running fast or slow.
Underactive thyroid
Underactive thyroid: tiredness, feeling cold, weight gain and constipation are among the complaints. A high TSH with a low free T4 points to it. See your TSH.
Low testosterone
Low testosterone: less desire for sex, tiredness and irritability are among the complaints. It only counts below 11 nmol/L, measured twice before 10 am.
PCOS
PCOS: irregular periods, acne and excess hair are the best-known features. About 6% of women have it. This is how to read your blood values.
Sugar & metabolism
How your body handles sugar, years before a diagnosis is made.
Liver & uric acid
Two metabolic pictures your blood gives away before your body does.
Fatty liver
Fatty liver usually gives no complaints and shows up as a slightly raised ALT. Losing weight helps: 5 to 10% less weight takes fat out of your liver.
Gout
Gout is a sudden, severe inflammation of one joint, often the base of the big toe. With a uric acid of 0.35 mmol/L or lower, attacks usually stay away.
Also without complaints. A quiet course is just as real: underactive thyroid, vitamin D deficiency, insulin resistance and fatty liver often cause nothing you would notice for a long time. That too is a finding: how you feel says little about where your values stand.
Can a blood test explain my complaint?
Not on its own. A blood test shows where your values stand; it does not say which complaint they cause. Fatigue is described at five of the ten conditions here, and each of those four is measured with different values. What a test does give you is the direction: which values are outside the range four Dutch laboratories publish, how far outside, and which of the conditions on this page that fits. The reading, and the diagnosis, belong with your GP.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. An underactive thyroid, a vitamin D shortfall and insulin resistance often cause nothing you would notice for a long time, because the body compensates until it cannot. That is why a value can already be outside the range while you feel fine, and why how you feel says little about where your values stand.
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