You will have recently received notification from the Practice informing you of your cholesterol level. This information also advises a potential risk of having a heart attack or stroke over the next 10 years, given as a percentage:
Risk less than 10%
- if you have received information that your risk is less than 10%, click here for further information about managing your cholesterol levels. Risk more than 10%
- if you have received information that your risk is more than 10%, click here for further information about managing your cholesterol levels, which also has information about cholesterol-lower medication called statins.
Your recent blood tests have shown that you are lacking an essential vitamin called folic acid.
We have arranged a prescription of folic acid supplements for you to collect from Reception or from your usual Pharmacy of choice.
In most cases, this 3 month course is all that is required to bring levels back to normal.
* Please book an appointment with the Treatment Room for a repeat set of blood tests after this course is finished to recheck your levels *
Please click here for a fact sheet about folic acid.
Your blood tests have shown that you are a carrier of one gene for haemochromatosis.
Being a carrier for the haemochromatosis (HC) gene is very common. About 1 in every 10 people (or 10%) carries one copy of the HC gene. There is no need to worry about this from the point of view of your own personal health because you need to have 2 copies of the gene before you are at risk of problems with iron overload.
It would be a good idea to get your iron stores checked again in 6 months and this test has been added this to your notes. Please make an appointment at the Treatment Room nearer the time.
Family Implications for Carriers
There is a small but significant risk that your children will have 2 copies of the gene and therefore be at risk of iron overload. This is because everyone in the population has a 10% chance of being a carrier for HC and therefore your partner could be a carrier too.
If you AND your partner both happen to be carriers, then each of your children has a 1 in 4 chance (25%) of having 2 copies of the gene.
The simplest way to make sure that your children are not at risk of iron overload is to ask your partner to have the same blood test to see if they are a carrier. Please ask them to discuss this with their GP.
Please see https://www.haemochromatosis.org.uk/haemochromatosis-carriers for more information.
Your recent blood tests have shown that you are low in Vitamin D
We have arranged a prescription of Vitamin D supplements for you to collect from Reception or from your usual Pharmacy of choice. The initial 6 or 7 week course will be a once-weekly high strength preparation, to quickly raise your Vitamin D levels.
Please arrange a set of blood tests 4 weeks after the initial course.
After this initial course, you should start taking a once-daily Vitamin D supplement, which can be bought from your Pharmacy, health food shop or online.
Please click here for a fact sheet about Vitamin D.
These websites all have comprehensive and up-to-date information that you may find helpful in navigating this, sometimes challenging, time of life.
Click on the logos to take you to the sites.