On a slight tangent, if people are unaware, you can pay for and get just about any lab test without a prescription in the United States.

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jvican 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, and to be concrete, you can do so at economical prices at https://requestatest.com (it's a lifesaver in many occasions, I've used it 4 times with great success).

	▲	nostromo 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And you can use a HSA or FSA to pay for it.

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nomel 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is how I found my 10k IU of vitamin D a day, based on modern recommendations for indoor workers, that I modulate based on how much I'm outdoors, was perfectly on the mark!

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Aurornis 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Also an indoor worker. 10K IU daily would have put me far into hypervitaminosis D range.

Make sure you test after a very long time, such as a year of steady supplementation. A lot of the excess Vitamin D cases were taking less than 10K IU daily.

	▲	nomel 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> such as a year of steady supplementation. This is the entire issue. You get vitamin D from the sun. The concept of "steady supplementation" of vitamin D is not logical, unless your sun exposure is also steady, which is where the not-so-useful guidelines come from: some mean of some distribution of some skin tone of sun exposure, leaning on the "less" side of things, with current recommended values based on means from over 50 years ago. I would never take 10k steady, because I don't live in a cave!

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lemonberry 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This is the amount I shoot for in the winter - I live in New England - it's made a huge difference in my life. I'm totally open to it being placebo though and I don't care. I don't supplement with it during the summer.

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Tangurena2 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My PCP uses Quest Diagnostics and a vitamin d test is, I think, about $50. No fasting needed for it, nor prescription.

	▲	cj 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Direct link to buy: https://www.questhealth.com/product/vitamin-d-test/17306M.ht... Definitely not the cheapest place to order the test from, but it will get the job done.

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petesergeant 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You can get most tests (although often not genetic) in many countries, with Canada being an outlier in forcing you to get a doctor’s note for just about everything.