Vitamin D 50: Optimal or deficient? How one wrong unit can trigger unnecessary panic

Vitamin D report that says "50" can mean two completely different things. One is excellent and the other is worryingly low. The only difference is the unit. That's the entire message of Dr Arjun Sabharwal's reel and it's a mistake that quietly fuels panic, over-supplementation and endless Google searches about "severe deficiency". Blood levels of Vitamin D are measured as 25‑hydroxyvitamin D, and labs can report these in either ng/mL (nanograms per millilitre) or nmol/L (nanomoles per litre). Many Indian labs use ng/mL, but most online charts, international articles and even some social media posts show values in nmol/L. When someone sees “50” on their report, they often compare it with a chart in some other unit without realising it.[ods.nih] Here is where things flip. Roughly, 1 ng/