Taking good care of the body is a crucial part of living a good life. And if you want to be the healthiest version of yourself, then you need to make sure that you’re getting enough nutrients to maintain your well-being. This means that vitamins and minerals are an important part of your everyday diet for being at optimal health. However, if you don’t get enough of these nutrients, you can put yourself at risk of a deficiency. The easiest way that you can tell whether there’s a drop in your nutrient levels is decreased energy, hair loss, thin or brittle nails, and headaches.
We get vitamins from the food we eat, so having a vitamin deficiency is something that you should keep track of on a regular basis.
Continue reading to learn how vitamin tests work, when you should consider using them, and our particular brand recommendations for vitamin tests.
How do I know if I have a vitamin deficiency?
Testing is the only sure method to know whether you have a vitamin shortage. However, if you have a deficiency or insufficiency, you might experience tiredness and dizziness, skin that bruises easily, dry skin, and brittle nails.
What happens if you have a vitamin deficiency?
While the specific health risks differ depending on the kind of nutrient deficiency, you might feel more than just tired if you have a vitamin deficiency.
For example, not having enough iron in your diet can result in anemia, while a long-term vitamin D deficiency may impact bone health and cause general inflammation in the body. You can check our blog post on how to increase iron levels at home if you have an iron deficiency.
Which vitamins should you look for?
Many persons in the United States are at risk of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, especially for:
- Iron
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin B6
If you have a history of iron deficiency, follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, or have symptoms like dizziness, exhaustion, or shortness of breath, you might consider evaluating your iron levels either at a doctor's office or from home.
Similarly, if you don't get enough sunlight or are predisposed to vitamin D deficiency, there’s advantages to monitoring your blood levels.
People who follow a limited diet or have health problems like celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease that raise their risk of nutrient deficiencies should also be conscious of their nutrient levels.
A dietitian may offer more thorough suggestions on the nutrients you may be deficient in and how you can change your diet to suit your body’s nutritional requirements.
Introduction to vitamin deficiency tests
Vitamin tests are perfectly safe and easy. You can either have them done at a laboratory or check your vitamin levels at home using urine tests. But overall, it’s a lot more convenient and simpler to take these tests at home. You might think about taking a vitamin test from home if you are starting to experience some of the symptoms of vitamin deficiencies.
On the topic of symptoms, there are several symptoms that point to low levels of vitamins in the body. You might consider taking a vitamin test if you are experiencing any of the following:
- Lack of energy and constant dizziness
- Blurry thoughts and lightheadedness
- Constant headaches and overall tiredness
Having these symptoms on a regular basis over time means that it’s time to visit your healthcare provider or take an at-home vitamin deficiency test. If you choose to go to a healthcare provider, then you will likely take atest in a laboratory after a referral, where you will have your blood drawn for analysis. The results generally reach your health professional within the day, after which point you’re contacted about your results and a plan on how to move forward.
On the other hand, checking your vitamin levels at home is also perfectly easy! Like so many other things in this day and age, these tests are available at the tips of our fingers! You can purchase at-home vitamin test kits on your own, and take them by youself!
Let’s look into some of the most used at-home vitamin test kits.
How Do Vitamin Test Kits Work?
If you’re following a healthy diet plan, then you probably are getting enough vitamins, right? Well, in some cases, this does not happen. Believe it or not, vitamin deficiencies are one of the leading cases in the US alone, with thirty-one percent of the total population having a vitamin deficiency.
The main cause of vitamin deficiencies is not getting enough nutrients from the food you consume. If your diet revolves around processed foods that don't have a high level of nutrients, then you are bound to suffer from a vitamin deficiency. With vitamins, this is even more critical because your body can’t naturally produce it on its own, and instead relies on the food you eat throughout the day for the vitamins it needs.
If you think you aren’t including enough vitamins into your dietary plan and want to check your body’s vitamin levels, the best thing to do would be to get a vitamin test kit and find out!
Types of vitamin test strips
There are a couple of vitamin and mineral test kits that first come to mine when it comes to quality and convenience. Here are the best brands of test strips for testing vitamin deficiency:
At-home vitamin deficiency blood test strips
At-home blood tests are a type of vitamin test that helps you check whether you are getting enough of a variety of vitamins and minerals. It involves pricking your finger for a blood sample and shipping this to a lab for testing. You typically get your results in a 1-2 week period by email. You might not want to take a blood test if you do not want to experience the pain of pricking yourself or if you are scared of needles. If that’s the case, then you can check out another method to checking your vitamin levels - y – at-home urine test kits.
Vivoo
If you’re looking for a way to find out your body’s vitamin levels from home as well as get advice on how to improve your vitamin levels, then Vivoo tests are the perfect choice for you! Vivoo is an at-home urine test that works with an App that helps you improve your body’s wellness based on real-time data on 9 key wellness parameters: vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, sodium, water, oxidative stress, urine pH, ketones, and protein. After urinating on the strip, you can scan your strip to the App to get results in 90 seconds. There’s no need to ship samples to the lab, making it simple and effective!
And the best part is that you can get personalized nutritional and lifestyle advice prepared by dietitians to boost your wellness, as well as order personalized supplements through the Aapp as well to boost your levels of low-scoring parameters!
Take a look at the Vivoo site to see all of the things we have to offer! If you are keen on checking your body’s levels of a number of nutrients and parameters, then you’ve landed on the right site!
Have you ever tested your body’s vitamin levels? Did you do it through a laboratory or take a home test? Did you try using Vivoo? What was your overall experience? We would love to hear your thoughts and experiences, so feel free to leave a comment in the section below!
