New and Better Test for vitamin D
Vitamin D is produced in the human body under direct exposure to sunlight in response to UV irradiation and it is also found in dairy products or as a dietary supplement, regulating the calcium and phosphorus levels in the blood, maintaining bone strength.
Resulting from inadequate alimentary intakes coupled with inadequate sunlight exposure, vitamin D deficiency could cause a series of diseases ranging from osteoporosis, rickets and other bone diseases to cancer and cognitive impairment in the elderly. In the conditions of growing awareness of the fact that this condition is becoming more and more present, developing an accurate, reliable set of standards for measuring vitamin D levels in blood proved to be a high priority, since there is no standard laboratory test for measuring vitamin D levels in humans and no universal agreement on what are considered “normal” or “optimal” vitamin D levels, although recent advances were made in this way.
A three year research, involving and funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) Office of Dietary Supplements of the US, recently came up with a standard for measuring vitamin D. Set to be revealed to the public later this year, this development could prove to lead to a better understanding of vitamin D in health and disease.
The main difficulty in developing an accurate testing method being the fact that there are more types of vitamin D of clinical significance (such as 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3) than the 25-hydroxyvitamin D which is the most commonly used indicator of a person’s vitamin D status, NIST developed Standard Reference Material 972 (SRM 972) to account for them.
The material consists of four pools of human blood serum as reference points, each containing different amounts of 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 and D3 to represent vitamin D profiles normally seen in a clinical setting:
1. “normal” serum, containing mostly 25-hydroxyvitamin D3;
2. vitamin D deficient individuals, containing about half as much 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 as the “normal” pool;
3. elevated levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D2;
4. high levels of 3-epi-25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (the form of vitamin D typically found in the blood of small children).
All samples, collected from a wide cross-section of blood donors, were carefully measured using a combination of highly sensitive analytical chemistry tools and by using them as reference points, clinical laboratories can now do more accurate and reliable measurements and patients can be better informed about their vitamin D intakes.
In a development that could help fight osteoporosis, rickets and other bone diseases, scientists are reporting an advance toward an accurate set of standards for measuring vitamin D levels in the blood. Milk (image) is a well-recognized source of the vitamin. (Credit: Max Rubner Institute)
the only activated vitamin D test that matters is is a 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Get your levels above 50 ng/ml year-round.
i tboggles the mind just how many people- especially the elderly, are vitamin D deficient in the extreme. The AMA in its infinite arrogance effectively labled the sun- or direct exposure to sunlight, as dangerous and even evil. Nothing could be more further from the truth. Within 5 years, and hopefully sooner, the entire planet will be informed just how important activated vitamin D at levels of 50+ ng/ml serum level is. Nothing in regards to human health is more important- not quitting smiking, dieting, exercising, eating the right foods, or other supplements in total. Vitamin D provides protection against every major “modern” disease common to the first world. Sell your stock in the drug companies as once the info is out to the general public at least 1/2 of all prescription drugs will be usless and without a mission.
See the vitamin D Council and Vitamin D3 World web sites for the details. by the way the people who run these sites are THE EXPERTS, not some family physician who knows NOTHING about the facts. One way to judge a doctors competence re: vitamin D is to ask him about doseage. If he warns of toxicity then run! His information may kill you! Vitamin D tocicity is a non event and not even remotely possible unless someone has a fetish in the extreme for swallowing pills- tens of thousands at a time.
Read up on vitamin D3 and save your life.
I read that, technically 25-hydroxyvitamin D is not an active form of vitamin D. It is the storage and delivery form. It activates in the regions where it is required. However, it is important to have a high 25-hydroxyvitamin D level to stop the body rationing vitamin d and only using it to control calcium levels.