Vitamin D Question for DesertBloom and others - Osteoporosis Message Board

montesflus · 03-19-2008, 06:50 PM

Back in September of last year I had some blood tests done. One of them was for Vit. D. My result for the Vit. D. test was as follow

VITAMIN D, 25-HYDROXY

Vitamin D, 25-OH, Tot - 69 (range 20-100) ng/mL

Vitamin D, 25-OH, D3 65 ng/mL
Vitamin D, 25-OH, D2 4 ng/mL

Therapy is based on measurement of Total 25-OHD, with levels <20 ng/mL indicative of Vitamin D deficiency while levels between 20 ng/mL and 30 ng/mL suggest insufficiency. Optimal levels are >30 ng/mL.

Question: If optimal levels are ''30 ng/mL'' how come my doc told me my test was normal. Yes, the normal range is noted as being in the range of 20-100, but if THAT'S THE CASE - why are ''optimal levels'' at 30 ng/mL?

Thanks to anyone who can straighten this out for me

DesertBloom · 03-19-2008, 07:45 PM

Hi Monte: Your results were 69 correct?? Optimal D 25-Hydroxy is any number "greater than" 30 and under 100. If you look at what you typed you'll see that you say your lab claims: "Optimal levels are > (greater than) 30 ng/ml", and your score is 69.

I'm not sure if that answers your question, but 69 is a great Vit D reading. Some labs say that any number > (greater than) 50 is optimal, but evidently yours doesn't. In either case you are above both numbers which is fantastic. With Vit D they don't use just one number for optimal and here's an example from my lab.

Interpretive guidelines for Vitamin D (25-Hydroxy):
> (greater than)100 ng/ml = Potential toxicity
32-100 = Sufficiency
2-32 = Mild insufficiency
10-20 = Moderate insufficiency
7-10 = Marked insufficiency
< (less than) 7 = Deficiency

So my lab doesn't use the word optimal but uses what you see above. According to my lab: normal, optimal, or sufficient (whatever you want to call it) is 32-100 which means any number between 32 and 100.

Let me know if that helps, because I'm not sure if that answers your question.

montesflus · 03-19-2008, 07:58 PM

Thanks, DB. Maybe I just didn't understand the '' >30 ng/mL'' as meaning ''anything above 30''. Perhaps it was the ''>'' that confused me

DesertBloom · 03-19-2008, 08:06 PM

Hi Monte: After reading your question I thought that you didn't realize that ">" means "greater than". No problem, hope it's cleared up. Maybe you can send me some D since mine is too low