Overview of vitamin D testing
- Low-cost Vitamin D Blood tests cost $40 - $70
- Several governments no longer give free vitamin D tests
- Beware - hospital/govt tests often cost $150-$250
- Blood is typically drawn at a lab or hospital
- Low-cost Vitamin D testers (two yes-no tests for 11 dollars) - 2024
- Tests can also be made at home - blood spot is mailed in
- Test results from both are available in 1-5 days
- Test results from both have a reliability/repeatability/consistency of plus or minus 5 percent
- Example: 30 ng it could really be 28.5 ng to 31.5 ng
- The primary purpose of a blood test is to make sure you are getting enough vitamin D
- Rarely will the test find that you are getting too much vitamin D
- You may want to have a loading dose followed by 3 months on maintenance dose, then get a vitamin D test to confirm that you are taking enough
Test Vitamin D at a lab: for less that $50 (probably more accurate than a home test)
Primarily in the US
UltraLab - $47 Aug 2023
Tripment $42 Aug 2023
Study of accuracy and repeatability of vitamin D blood spot test Sept 2014
Results There was good agreement between measurements of 25OHD from DBS and plasma; R2 = 0.73 from a regression of plasma concentration on DBS concentration. The within-batch and between-batch intraclass correlations from the 500 replicate measurements were 0.82 (95% confidence interval, 0.80, 0.85) and 0.73 (95% confidence interval, 0.68, 0.78), respectively.
FREE Vitamin D deficiency test, which does not need your blood
Quick self test of vitamin D deficiency is not quantitative, but free and extremely easy to do
Home blood spot tests $35 to $80 2022
Review of 4 by Medical News Today - Dec 2022 $50-$80
Review of 4 by Testing.com - Jan 2022
2 for $70
$17 - Qualitative 1 of 4 levels: 0-10, 10-30, 30-100, and >100 ng/ml
Provides results in 10 minutes instead of several days
Life Extension
They mail out a coupon which you bring to a Labcor location to get your blood tested.
Life Extension will send you the results within a week - your choices include mail, FAX, e-mail ...
(I have used LEF many times and have gotten results in an e-mail the next day. Henry Lahore)
Cost of test: Non-members $62.67, members $47.00 (as of Feb 2013)
The $75 Life Extension membership fee is applied to any product they sell!
Thus, you can get a free vitamin D blood test by paying their membership fee. Such a deal
Note: many of their great supplements are available at lower than member cost on Amazon.
Private MD also uses Labcor for $63 (confirmed Nov 2014)
Description: The Vitamin D 25-Hydroxy test is primarily ordered to measure the amount of 25-hydroxy vitamin in the bloodstream to rule out Vitamin D deficiency.
A significant deviation from the normal range may require further evaluation by your physician.
Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy: AKA = 25-Hydroxycalciferol. 25-OH-D, Cholecalciferol Metabolite, Vitamin D, Vitamin D3 Metabolite
ZRT $75
Grassroots $70
Facebook for Grassroots
GrassrootsHealth is sponsoring the use of blood spot test kits (laboratory analysis done by ZRT Labs)
The tests are to be done twice a year by each individual, along with the submission of some basic health data.
The kits are not available as a ‘stand alone’ without health data.
You have to fill in some information on the amount of vitamin D you are taking, etc
They provide a quantity price discount. I suspect all kits are shipped at the same time)
1 test - $65 + $5 shipping
2 tests - $63/test + $5 shipping
10 test - $60/test + $5 shipping
Video of use of GrassRoots home test kit similar to other home tests
A group of 6,000 people have vitamin D levels higher than 50 ng – GrassrootsHealth many charts
Here is the GrassRoots Chart as of April 2012
$57 with lowest cost shipping
Money-back guarantee, but not available in Canada or New York.
Test results are currently mailed, not e-mailed. Test type is EIA by Diasorin (Liason).
Home test kits sold for UK and the world As of Sept 2022 $34
£29 UK and £33? overseas. - overseas customers have to add airmail return postage
It is a service by a hospital in Birmingham, England. which has been doing vitamin D tests for 20+ years
CLICK HERE for a Video showing the use of their test kit
Orders are placed over the phone, not online. Results are sent by email, however.
Here is a copy of their test results (- in nmol, not nanograms)
Note: UK considers > 10 ng to be adequate.
See also VitaminDWiki
The TOP articles in Test and Vitamin D are listed here:
- Low trauma bone fractures in seniors – considering Vitamin D loading dose for all, without testing – Nov 2019
- Vitamin D levels observed to vary by 20 percent during a day – Feb 2019
- Vitamin D compliance 3X higher when children with fractures actually knew their low vitamin D level – March 2019
- How should Vitamin D be tested – a changing landscape – June 2016
- Big differences (~10 ng) in vitamin D test results, even when using the same type of tester – Aug 2015
- Vitamin D measurements vary with the same sample of blood – March 2014
- Warning – Medicare will pay for just 1 vitamin D test PER LIFETIME (if not related to a few diseases)
- No longer debating vitamin D supplementation, now debating need for testing first – April 2013
- Instant vitamin D Yes-No test now available
- VA showed increased vitamin D associated with lower health costs - Lancet May 2012
- All items in category Test for D
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Many on variations between tests: different days, different testing methods- No vitamin D test needed before supplementing (typically) – April 2014
- Low-cost Vitamin D testers (about 13 dollars in quantity) – Feb 2018
- 50,000 IU monthly safe to take without any vitamin D testing – RCT Dec 2013
- Vitamin D test statistics: recent increase, esp. middle age, most under 30ng – Nov 2013
- 80 X increase in Vitamin D testing in Australia in a decade - June 2013
- VA showed increased vitamin D associated with lower health costs - Lancet May 2012
- After 245,000 vitamin D tests 121,000 supplemented but only 5,400 had 2nd test – Oct 2011
- Vitamin D testing continues to have lots of varition between systems – Nov 2012
- Vitamin D measurements vary with the same sample of blood – March 2014 chart follows - 1090 tests of the same blood sample
See also web
- Vitamin D blood test: Past and present debates, difficulties, and developments Vitamin D Council Jan 2013
Review of Vitamin D Assays: Past and Present Debates, Difficulties, and Developments. Calcif Tissue Int. 2013 Jan 13.
16 types of tests for vitamin D
85% use Immunoassay methods - About 10% of adults have a fear of needles Wikipedia
So would be reluctant to get a vitamin D blood test - Quest Diagnostics - Vitamin D
lots of details, such as comparing standard and active (Calcitriol) vitamin D tests
Vitamin D testing from a Canadian viewpoint – Jan 2014
Vitamin D Testing NutriStart Canada Jan 8, 2014
Highlights- Provinces restricting tests – “except in selected patients with advanced renal failure, mineral and/or bone diseases”.
- Restricted: Alberta, B.C., Labrador, Manitoba, Newfoundland, and Ontario.
- Your cost in Canada ranges from $93 to $32
- BC 2013 “Routine serum vitamin D testing or screening for vitamin D deficiency is not recommended…
- An author in BC found that they would have needed to get a referral and then pay $61.32.
- US: not need a doctor:
mymedlab.com $80
healthcheckusa.com $95 Labcorp
privatemdlabs.com $63 Labcorp - The Life Extension Foundation is $47 for members and $63 for non-members. Labcorp
- The Vitamin D Council home test - ZRT Labs, $65
- Grassroots Health home test kit $65 ZRT
- Update How Alberta Canada restricts Vitamin D testing – May 2016
The results of the Vitamin D test can be good, but Active Vitamin D might not get to the cells
Due to low Magnesium, Low Omega-3, Genes, Kidney disease, etc.
Category Calcitriol contains
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