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Comment by nabla9 | Hacker News Reader

Be aware that this study is about vitamin D deficiency. It's not start for some crazy health trend. You can go and check you vitamin D levels and if you don't get enough, use supplements to correct the situation.

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Can any HNers recommend a cheap and accurate vitamin D test I can do at home? I asked my doctor for a vitamin D test at my last checkup and he warned me that my insurance probably wouldn't pay for it since "many people are asking for one these days without any symptoms of deficiency". Since I had no idea what the lab might end up charging me for it (in the U.S.) I decided against getting the test.

I asked for a vitamin D test on the NHS in the UK. I was not offered one, but I was offered a blood calcium test. Because I had been supplementing already for several months, when I tested normal blood calcium (with normal diet including dairy), this ruled out vitamin D overdose, and I was recommended to continue supplementing. This might be a cheaper option.

If you don't have symptom of illness, it's cheaper to buy a lifetime supply of supplements than worry about getting tested.

Would they cover it if you did have symptoms? If so, here are some vague symptoms to "have" for your doctor: difficulty thinking clearly, bone pain, unexplained fatigue.

In my experience, no. When I was first tested for Vit-D deficiency the test was not covered, period. I had every symptom in the book (largely because I was extremely Vit-D deficient). My insurance even went so far as to relabel it as emergency bloodwork and tried to charge/fine upwards of $3,000 for it. The doctor's office then retracted the claim and just ate the cost, so I ended up paying nothing. The whole affair was absurd.

3k for just a single test? wow glad I am in the UK

The test my doctor recommends is the 25-hydroxy Vitamin D test and I think is under $100 the last time I had one done however a blood sample is needed. I think only a physician can order it for you.

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003569.htm (25-hydroxy vitamin D test information) http://www.questdiagnostics.com/home/physicians/testing-serv...

Vitamin D deficiency is no joke and as we spend more time indoors we need to pay attention to this. If you search for "Vitamin D deficiency cancer" you will find many sources linking deficiency to cancer and other diseases.

Last time I checked my vitamin D levels (or some precursors/metabolites of) the test was pretty expensive and not covered by my insurance. I asked about the price and was told that the test needs to detect those substances in very low concentrations and thus requires more precise and expensive reagents & equipment.

I recently came across an article discussing the relationship between vitamin D, K, A, magnesium, and calcium levels. I can't vouch for it's accuracy but it does provide a number of references if you want to go further down the rabbit hole.

[1] http://www.precisionnutrition.com/stop-vitamin-d

its accuracy

Just take it.

You need to consciously take a very high dose to have an excess Vit. D amount

"according to some research, the tolerable upper intake level (UL) is 4,000 IU/day for ages 9–71,[51] while other research concludes that, in healthy adults, sustained intake of more than 1250 μg/day (50,000 IU) can produce overt toxicity after several months"

Common supplements are 5ug/10ug per day

You can also take cod-liver oil, like people did in the old days.

That will give you vitamins A and D, and the essential omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA.

Yeah, but the utility of taking those other supplements is not well substantiated. That's not to say that the utility of taking vitamin D is very well substantiated either, but at least there is some good evidence that suggests that it is.

Well, as the article shows, we don't know everything about nutrition yet. So, the wisest thing to do might just be to eat what our ancestors ate (if science does not tell us it is harmful of course).

Hope this isn't considered spammy by anyone, I certainly have no incentive (financial or otherwise) to recommend it, but there's a company called "Life Extension" that allows you to order blood tests online.

They email you paperwork, you take that to a local lab and then get your results online. It looks like Vitamin D is $47.

I used it for a while when I was suffering from a health issue that required regular blood tests, since it ended up being cheaper than a doctors visit + co-insurance for the lab fees.

The biggest downside is there's nobody to explain the results to you, although the report they provide does show if you are outside the normal range of whatever they are testing.

http://www.lifeextension.com/vitamins-supplements/blood-test...

I second this. I use Life Extension. However, I've been paying out of pocket. I'm interested if there's a way to get it covered at all.

By the way, this is really just using LabCorp, and you can order similar tests directly via LabCorp. Might be worth price shopping between them, and checking out their different test options.

I've used WellnessFX and been very happy with it. Not sure what cheap means to you but the Baseline Diagnostics only is $198.

https://www.wellnessfx.com/baseline

Here in Canada it is not covered either. I pay $30 each time I want to have it tested.

www.directlabs.com has it for $59 They also run promos time to time. I have no affiliation. Though I would expect this test to be covered as part of your physical but check your insurance etc.

In certain parts of the world (but I would guess not Australia), huge segments of thr population are Vit D deficient

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