What is a vitamin deficiency, and what causes them?
A vitamin deficiency is when your body doesn’t get enough of a particular vitamin or mineral to function optimally, either because you’re not consuming enough of that vitamin or your body can’t process it properly to be used by your various organs and systems.
Vitamin deficiencies, in general, are very common in today’s world, and external factors, like where you live and the food you eat, can directly affect how much of a particular vitamin you get. For example, if you live in a cloudier city, you may be more likely to be deficient in vitamin D. But, most people assume that vitamin deficiencies can only be caused by lack of consumption, when, in fact, it may be your body’s fault that you’re deficient in some vitamins.
Methylation is the process by which your body processes raw materials, like vitamins and minerals, and turns them into usable forms. It’s a core bodily process and one that is often less efficient than it could be due to genetic mutations.
Do blood tests show vitamin deficiency?
Yes! In general, most blood tests will test nutrient levels in your blood, and the 10X Health blood test is no different. We want to know exactly how much of each essential nutrient your body has and, more importantly, is able to use.
At 10X Health, we test for three essential vitamins through our blood test: calcium, vitamin B12, and vitamin D. These three vitamins are some of the more common deficiencies we see, and they are some of the most important to supplement when a deficiency is present.
What a blood test does is pinpoint the current level of that vitamin in your bloodstream and compare it to an ideal value to determine if you’re deficient. If the level in your blood is less than the ideal for your age, weight, and gender, then we know a deficiency is present and can recommend a precise supplementation plan to help get you to that optimal level.
What else can you learn from the 10X Health blood test?
The blood tests we offer at 10X Health are much more comprehensive than the blood test you get from your doctor during your annual wellness exams, and we look at over 60 unique biomarkers to paint a complete picture of your wellness.
Other than nutrient levels that help identify deficiencies, we also focus heavily on hormones and blood sugar, which provide additional context when evaluating the state of your wellness and help us more effectively pinpoint areas of opportunity to optimize.
Your blood sugar, more specifically glucose levels, helps us identify risks of developing symptoms like brain fog or fatigue. And, if you’re already suffering from these symptoms, measuring glucose levels can help identify the cause. Along those same lines, an imbalance in hormones can cause a variety of symptoms, and knowing your hormone levels can help treat symptoms or lessen the risk of developing them over time.
Overall, a blood test can pinpoint the underlying cause of any specific symptoms you’re seeing or make supplementation and wellness regimens more effective by addressing what your body uniquely needs directly.
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Conquering vitamin deficiencies begins with genetic and blood testing
A large portion of the population has at least one vitamin deficiency, but many don’t know what vitamins they’re deficient in, making it harder to supplement effectively and give your body the supplemental nutrients it needs to thrive.
Through genetic and blood testing with 10X Health, you can pinpoint deficiencies and start taking supplements that will actually move the needle in optimizing your well-being. Learn more about our blood testing process and schedule your test today.
