Vitl at Home Cholesterol & Vitamin Blood Test Kit | Easy to Use | Get Detailed Results W/Personalized Dietary & Lifestyle Recommendations from Qualified Nutritionist

I've been looking into blood and DNA tests for a while, I've never had one and I know you can get one for free at your GP, so that overrides the usefulness of this if you are simply trying to detect potential problems.The Vitl blood test allows you to skip the queue and hassle of a GP blood check, but the process isn't exactly easier. There are 3 spring loaded finger pricks to draw blood, they are quite painful at the moment of the prick, and sore for up to 2 days afterwards. It's worse than a simple injection. Then you have to get past the blood collection, the tube is small and so is the hole, whilst trying to fill the tube I managed to get blood all over the table and had to prick multiple fingers for more blood. It wasn't a pleasant or convenient experience whatsoever.The instructions are simple, but the execution is difficult. It's a tricky task to complete yourself so this is understandable, but you must consider this prior to ordering. If you have a fear of needles, blood or anything related, this is not for you.After posting, I recieved my results online very quickly, within a day or two I recieved an email and logged into the website to see my results. I had fairly normal results with some deficiencies and high cholestorol. It's nothing to majorly worry about but Vitl did recommend visiting my GP. It gave me my levels of 5 Vitamins including:B12B9DIronZincIt also gives you a short summary of your results, it seems premade and generic rather than typed by someone just for you.For cholestorol I also recieved 5 different measurements, they provided basic insights as with the Vitamins. They seemed fairly vague, I don't know what to do with this information. They give basic advice like eating healthier and exercise but I would appreciate more specific and targeted recommendations. Nevertheless, it is definetely handy to know.Overall, I think a visit to the GP to detect problems is a more convenient and easier option for those who struggle with needles and blood. If you can handle that and want very quick results then Vitl is great. They also offer personalised supplements to cater your needs.

Really easy kit. On arrival you prod your fingers, collect a few millimetre of blood in the tube. Activate the barcode online and then simply stick your name on the barcodes sheet. Using the pre payed envelope, send you sample off and you’ll get your results back fairly quick, they also tempt your with vitamins and supplements recommended ! Pretty useful kit if your not one for the docs !

I had high hopes for this test but sadly it was not to be. I read the instructions and peered at the little bottle and was surprised how high up the line was, that was going to take a lot of drops of blood was my first thought. But I wasn't deterred. So I followed the somewhat complicated instructions, washing and warming and massaging my fingers before pricking one fingertip with the supplied lancet. I've done this before, more times than I would like to have as I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant, so I wasn't braced for pain, I didn't expect much to come, but it did. What did come though was blood, well, some came, but not enough and I squeezed and I squeezed and I squeezed a bit more and held the little bottle up convinced that I would be nearly at the line. But in fact, I was nowhere near it so with a sigh I carried on squeezing and massaging and wondering who the blood was not flowing. I tried another lancet and pricked another finger and that got a few drops out too but I was still well below the line but my blood pressure was surely significantly higher than when I started. I took a short break, during which I moved about in an attempt to get my blood flowing and I ran my hand under warm water before returning and giving myself one final prick, again this hurt but again it didn't produce the blood required to reach the line, it felt so close and yet so far. Why they need so much blood I am not sure, but the bottle, despite being small, really does take a fair bit of blood to get to the line, this might be fine if you were cutting yourself open or if someone was putting a needle directly into your vein to remove it, but if you are squeezing every drop out of your sore pricked finger it is not so easy. I have to admit that I gave up, I decided that I wasn't that desperate to know my cholesterol levels and if I was I would ask my GP to do a blood test. My poor fingers are now recovered thankfully and from reading other reviews I can see that I am not the only one to struggle to get the blood required.

NO PRICKS========This very much reminds me of Theranos (blood test scam)! That was also a finger prick test -- but at least Vitl uses a real lab to do tests, so it's NOT a scam and the tests are real.The trouble is that finger tips are full of nerve endings and PAIN RECEPTORS. It would be less painful to go to a doctor or nurse and have them use a syringe!ABOUT VITL=========-VITL is a company that deliver expensive nutritional supplements straight to your door-VITL is playing on the idea that busy people can only meet their nutritional requirements by consuming supplements- WRONG!-It provides daily supplements that claim to “fortify, focus, protect and replenish”-No particular food or nutrient will do any one of these things. BUT the good news is a balanced and healthy diet will!Source: FightTheFads, Elisabeth Cresta and Caroline Day