Phosphate contributes to energy handling and bone
Biomarker library
Kidney Health
Phosphate
Phosphate partners with calcium to build bone, and every cell uses it to store and spend energy as ATP.
Measured in your health assessment, with a doctor to explain your result. Book yours
Why it matters
The kidneys, parathyroid hormone and vitamin D regulate it, and it is read alongside calcium because the two tend to move in opposite directions.
What a result can mean
Lower than the range
Low phosphate can follow poor nutrition or heavy drinking, an overactive parathyroid, vitamin D deficiency or rapid refeeding after starvation, and can cause muscle weakness.
Higher than the range
A raised phosphate is most often due to reduced kidney function, and less commonly to low parathyroid hormone or excess vitamin D. A delayed sample can falsely raise it.
What can help
Most people get plenty of phosphate from food. Abnormal levels are managed by treating the cause, and people with kidney disease may be advised to limit high-phosphate foods such as processed meats and cola.
Read it with
NoteGeneral educational illustration. Colours, sizes and movement are simplified. This is not a scan or a simulation of your body. General information, not personal medical advice: a doctor reads your own results with your history.
Know your phosphate.
Measured in your health assessment and explained by the doctor who reviews your results.