Vitamin D

[Karen-Eleanor]

Does anyone have evidence (for a questioning GP) about vitamin D levels? Mine was 172nmol/L and GP says it’s too high. However optimal is stated as 250-350.

[waveylines]

250-350 what? It maybe a different value.. I think the NHS vit D test in my area goes up to 150. My level is 120 and am happy with that.I would cross check the measurement values. 172 is high on the NHS vit D test. You can have too much of a good thing. You can't excrete out vit D so important to stay in range. Sounds like you could stop taking for the summer then go onto a maintenance dose of around 1000iu of D3 with k2. But do a blootest again before restarting to check. Depends on the level you are at then.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Karen-Eleanor

However optimal is stated as 250-350.

Which lab states that 250-350 is optimal and are they using nmol/L?

I only know of two units of measurement for Vit D - ng/ml (not very often used in the UK) and nmol/L (usual UK unit of measurement.

There are three dedicated Vit D websites that I refer to - Vit D Council, Vit D Society and Grassroots Health and they all recommend a level between 100-150nmol/L or 40-60ng/ml:

vitamindsociety.org/

grassrootshealth.net/

web.archive.org/web/2019070...

The NHS lab which offers a dried blood spot fingerprint test to the general public (based at City Hospital, Birmingham) says that a level above 220nmol/L is considered high and increases the risk of Vit D toxicity.

Your level of 172nmol/L seems to be higher than is necessary and as it's now summer and most of us can make Vit D from the sun then you could stop your supplement, retest at the end of October and that will tell you whether you need to take D3 through the winter months, you can then work out how much you need by referring to the tables included in the link to the Vit D Council's website.

If your result is in nmol/L and you want to change it to ng/ml then you divide it by 2.5, ie

172nmol/L = 68.8ng/ml.

[Karen-Eleanor in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you very much that’s really helpful. It was the Vitamin D wellness / osteoporosis group on FB.

[userotc]

Yes the NHS does get its knickers in a twist over vitamin D even though your figure is likely only around 60% through THEIR normal range! A similar "warning" for my sister at a significantly lower level prompted my investigation with NHS private provider, concluding that they assume people at higher levels must be taking mega-doses without testing!

That said, we generally aim for around 125 nmol/l, retesting regularly to check.