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Vitamin D Blood Test
We provide the most extensive and affordable Vitamin D tests available in the UK, find a full list of why it is important to get it checked, and more.
- At the comfort of your own home
- Quick and Easy Process
- Understand your Body
What is Vitamin D?
The overall health and maintenance of your bones and teeth rely on a steady vitamin D intake. This vitamin is fat-soluble, features the properties of a hormone, and can be found in several foods and over the counter supplements. Vitamin D can also be created by the body through a healthy level of exposure to direct sunlight. Vitamin D is crucial in bone growth and bone tissue repair.
Why is Vitamin D important?
A vitamin D deficiency can be severely detrimental to your body’s overall health and can lead to a plethora of problems. These problems include susceptibility to broken bones, osteoporosis, rickets in younger people, and a long list of other deformities. Vitamin D has a lot of secondary benefits to the functioning of the body, including helping to prevent the growth of cancerous cells and increasing immune system strength. The two most beneficial forms of vitamin D are vitamin D2 and vitamin D3. Vitamin D2 is mostly found in foods of the fortified variety, including bread, cereals, and dairy products. Vitamin D3 – known as the ‘sunshine vitamin’- is created through sunlight contact with the skin.
Why should I get it checked?
In the U.K., one in five individuals suffers from a vitamin D deficiency. Taking a vitamin d home test, now available from Harley Medic Global, is the easiest way of checking up on your vitamin D levels and checking to see if you may be suffering from a vitamin D deficiency.
In this article, we’ll detail the signs of a vitamin D deficiency, value the importance of a vitamin D home test, and how to interpret test results.
Importance of Vitamin D
The primary job of vitamin D is to regulate calcium and phosphorous blood levels. In doing this, vitamin D ensures that calcium is healthily absorbed, ensuring that bones remain healthy. Without a regular intake of vitamin D, bones will become malformed and unable to repair broken tissue, resulting in unhealthy, soft bones. A vitamin D deficiency in young people may result in rickets and osteomalacia in fully grown adults. A healthy level of vitamin D, therefore, is also vital to ensure muscle and joint comfort.
Vitamin D also plays a role in instigating the production of antibodies and is a key ingredient to a healthy immune system. Prostate, breast, heart, and colon health is also reliant on a healthy consumption of vitamin D. The vitamin is also linked to mood swings, depression, and weight gain.
Although not proven medically, vitamin D intake is also hypothesised to be linked to such maladies as diabetes, flu, chronic pain, heart disease, and high blood pressure.
Therefore, it is of paramount importance that you take a vitamin D test whenever you suspect that you may be suffering from a deficiency.
How a Vitamin D deficiency occur?
A vitamin D deficiency can occur through consuming a diet that is lacking in the food groups that feature vitamin D.
Foods that feature a lot of vitamin D include:
- Eggs
- Fortified foods – i.e., cereals, bread, etc.
- Oily fish – i.e., herring, mackerel, salmon, and sardines.
- Dairy products.
A vitamin D deficiency can also occur due to a lack of sunlight exposure on the skin. If you live in areas of the country that don’t receive a lot of sunlight, or experience particularly long winters, you are much more susceptible to some level of vitamin D deficiency, so it’s worth having a vitamin D home test handy for whenever you feel like you’re not getting enough of the vitamin.
If you have a darker skin tone, you are far more likely to have a lower vitamin D3 intake level than someone with a lighter skin tone.
Other causes of a vitamin D deficiency include:
- Air pollution.
- Wearing too much sun cream.
- Overcast weather.
How a Vitamin D test work?
Like most other Harley Medic Global at-home test kits, the vitamin D test kit only requires a simple blood sample, extracted using a finger prick, to work. Send your blood samples out to the Harley Medic Global labs, and there the level of vitamin D in your blood will be determined, and you will receive your results.
When should I get tested for Vitamin D deficiency?
Vitamin D not only has the properties of a hormone, but your body also treats it like one, which makes vitamin D stand out, as it is the only vitamin that your body responds to in such a way. Every cell has the potential to react to vitamin D – a deficiency in the vitamin can therefore manifest in several different ways.
You should try a Harley Medic Global vitamin D test kit if:
You’re regularly experiencing fatigue – Experiencing daily tiredness is one of the clearest signs of vitamin D deficiency, although it is often overlooked. A healthy level of vitamin D is said to be 20 ng/ml and over, and many people, who have complained to doctors about feeling constantly fatigued, have often found their vitamin D level to be far lower than 20 ng/ml
You’re feeling regular bone ache – Giving how closely linked vitamin D is to the maintenance of bone health, if you’re feeling a perpetual ache in your bones, you may be suffering from low vitamin D levels. The bigger the bone ache, the larger the vitamin D level. Your spine, legs, ribs, and joints are said to be the most susceptible to low-vitamin D related pain.
You’re experiencing hair loss – Although hair loss is often associated with other issues – mainly stress – it can also be a clear sign that your body is not getting enough vitamin D. Hair loss can also be a sign that you are suffering from such maladies as alopecia areata, which is brought on by insufficient vitamin D levels. For this reason, it’s highly recommendable to take a vitamin D test if you are experiencing hair loss.
You’re depressed – Unaccountable bouts of depression could point towards vitamin D deficiency.
If you’re regularly sick – You may have a vitamin D deficiency if you’re finding yourself susceptible to infection, as it is a sign of a weak immune system, which, in turn, suggests that you’re not getting enough vitamin D.
What does it test for?
A vitamin D test kit is used to establish how much vitamin D is in your blood. The Harley Medic Global at-home test kit will provide you with two separate results: vitamin D2 and Vitamin D3 levels. The D2 results show how much vitamin D you are receiving from food, vitamins, and supplements. The D3 results highlight how much vitamin D is being produced by your body from contact with direct sunlight.
The method for determining whether you have a vitamin D deficiency from the results is the same for both D2 and D3. If either of the results is below 20 ng/ml you are suffering from a vitamin D deficiency. A result that reads 20 ng/ml or above would be considered, by medical standards, to be a healthy level of vitamin D.
If you get a low result, it would mean that you are either not taking in enough vitamin D in food or supplements, your body is having difficulty absorbing vitamin D, or you are not getting enough direct sunlight.
A healthy level of vitamin D is between 30 ng/ml and 80 ng/ml. If your test results exceed 80 ng/ml, you should aim to cut down on vitamin D if possible. Anything over 100 ng/ml can be extremely detrimental to your health and can permanently damage your organs. An excessive level of vitamin D is likely caused by taking too many supplements, so an easy way to bring your ng/ml level down would be to reduce your intake or cut the supplements out completely.
HOW OUR SERVICE WORKS
1. Order Online Now
Place an order online using our secure checkout and receive a confirmation email with your order information.
2. Get Tested in 10 Minutes
We send the test directly to the comfort of your house. Here you will take a simple finger prick .Send back the sample with our secure packaging.
3. Get Results
Your sample is analysed and you’ll receive your results by email. Take control of your health, and find out what your body is telling you!
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We have partnered with a UKAS accredited lab to provide the best and most accurate blood tests available on the market, giving you peace of mind knowing you are using a private blood test provider you can trust.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Harley medic team, I had suspected that there was something wrong with my body but I could never find out what. With such quick and efficient service, I was able to reassure myself.
Answers to Your Questions
Can you take test Vitamin D levels at home ?
You can take a blood sample at home to be sent to the Harley Medic labs, where your vitamin D levels will be determined.
When should you take a Vitamin D test?
Whenever you notice that you’re regularly suffering from illness, fatigue, bone ache, hair loss, mood swings, anxiety, or joint pain. Of course, these ailments may be linked to something else, but it is worth using an at-home vitamin D test kit to rule vitamin D deficiency out.
Why would your doctor order a Vitamin D test?
Doctors often order patients to take a vitamin D test if they suffer from chronic illnesses, including autoimmune disorders and asthma.
How Can I Increase my Vitamin D Levels?
There are several means of increasing your vitamin D levels, including spending more time in direct sunlight, wearing less sun cream when you go out, and fitting more oily fish, mushrooms, and fortified foods into your diet. You could also try vitamin D supplements, many of which are available over the counter, or by using a UV lamp.
How long does it take to receive my results?
Results will be issued within 24 hours of the sample reaching the lab.
How Long Will It Take to Fix a Vitamin D Deficiency?
This depends entirely on what your level of vitamin D is currently, how old you are, your body weight, as well as several other significant factors. Most commonly, it takes around two months to fix a vitamin D deficiency.