Advice needed re Vitamin D testing

#1

I am considering getting tested for vitamin D levels.

Can anyone help me with deciding whether to go for the vitamin D test or the D3 test.

Both are available where I live. I will be paying out of pocket so cannot afford to do both, but the D3 is slightly more expensive which isnt an issue if it’s a more useful test.

The background is I live in a very sunny climate but have very fair skin and have avoided sun exposure with an almost pathological fear for many many years. I have just been given the ok by my doctor to stop blood pressure meds, and am aware that blood pressure and vitamin D have studies linking them. I am keen to get a baseline of my levels so I can gradually expose my skin to give it some narural protection and maximize my vitamin D levels.

So what’s thw best test? Should I go for a vitamin D or a D3? Many thanks for any insights!

(Tom) #2

I’ll have to refer to my notes, but I believe the most commonly used test is a 25-OH vitamin D level, aka calcifediol. It’s not the active form of vitamin D (which if I recall, is calcitriol), but it’s got the most data behind it and it’s the test most commonly used when looking at things like rates of cancer and all-cause mortality. Unless you have some weird enzymatic issue that necessitated a calcitriol level, the 25-OH vitamin D should suffice.

(Jo Lo) #3

Yes, Ted Naiman prescribed the Vitamin D 25-OH, Total test for me.

#4

@trekkin1 Ted Naiman as your doc? Lucky you! :heart_eyes:
Thanks for your reply that is the test I’ll go for!

#5

Thanks very much for your response. I’ll go for that one then. Will be interesting to see where I’m at. I watched an Ivor Cummins video on YouTube and it was super interesting but got very technical and it left me with a few questions! Cheers