Reading your results
Total Protein by Age: The Chart Stops at Two
Reviewed by a qualified clinician · analysed at UKAS-accredited UK labs (ISO 15189)
Last reviewed September 20266 min read
Every Helvy guide is written by our health editors, then checked by a qualified clinician before it goes live and re-checked as the science moves. We name clinical roles, not individuals, until each reviewer has agreed to be credited publicly. This is wellness guidance to help you understand your own data, not a diagnosis.
QUICK ANSWER
UK labs use one total protein range, 60 to 80 g/L, for everyone over the age of two. There is no adult chart by age. Research in people over 60 finds the number drifts down by roughly 0.2 g/L a year, which is small next to a 20 g/L range.
Not sure which markers you need? Build your test →Your total protein comes back at 78. The range printed beside it says 60 to 80. You are 64, and you want to know whether 78 means something different at 64 than it would at 34.
Here is the honest answer. UK labs do not think it does. They publish an age chart for total protein, but it runs out long before you get to adulthood.
1. What is a normal total protein level?
Total protein is one number covering two things. Albumin is the protein that keeps fluid inside your blood vessels and ferries hormones and drugs around. Globulins are the rest, mostly antibodies and transport proteins. Add them together and you have total protein.
Three UK labs, three identical adult ranges. South Tees Hospitals publishes 60 to 80 g/L. North West London Pathology gives the same figures for adults. Gloucestershire Hospitals agrees.
So the first thing to notice about your result is simply whether it sits between those two numbers. Most do.
2. Is there a total protein chart by age?
Yes, and it is shorter than you expect. Gloucestershire Hospitals publishes one of the few age-split ranges in UK pathology for this marker. It has four rows, and three of them are about babies.
| Age | Range (g/L) | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Under 7 days | 44 to 76 | Antibodies are still mostly borrowed from mum. |
| 7 days to 1 year | 51 to 73 | The immune system starts making its own. |
| 1 to 2 years | 56 to 75 | Climbing toward the adult band. |
| Over 2 years | 60 to 80 | One range, for the next hundred years. |
Read that last row again. A toddler, a 30-year-old and a 90-year-old are all measured against 60 to 80 g/L. No UK lab we could find publishes a separate range for older adults.
That is not laziness. It is a judgement that the change across adult life is too small to bother splitting. The next section shows the size of that change, so you can judge it yourself.
3. What happens to total protein after 60?
It falls, slowly. The clearest measurement comes from a study of 14,453 adults aged 60 to 101, published in PLOS ONE. The cohort was Chinese, so read it as a direction of travel rather than a UK reference range.
| Group | Fall per year | Over 20 years |
|---|---|---|
| Everyone over 60 | 0.21 g/L | About 4.3 g/L |
| Men | 0.13 g/L | About 2.7 g/L |
| Women | 0.30 g/L | About 6.1 g/L |
Put that against the range. The adult band is 20 g/L wide. Two decades of ageing moves the average by a quarter of it, at most. Your own result can swing further than that between two Tuesdays.
The same study found women start higher than men between 60 and 79, then lose the gap by 80. Which is interesting, and still not a reason to read your number against a different chart.
4. Why a high result is often the tourniquet
Before you read anything into a number above 80, check how the blood was taken. Gloucestershire Hospitals puts the warning on its own test page, directed at the clinicians ordering it.
“Increases in serum or plasma proteins may be caused by prolonged application of a tourniquet.”
— Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust pathology
The mechanism is simple. A tight band left on the arm too long squeezes water out of the vein. Protein cannot follow it, so what is left is more concentrated. Nothing in your body changed.
Being short of water on the day does the same thing for the same reason. Both lift albumin and total protein together, which is a useful tell.
Two other notes from the same lab. Above 95 g/L, the sodium result on the same sample can read falsely low. And an unexplained high protein is not left alone. The lab says such results “should be further investigated by protein electrophoresis and immunoglobulin investigations”.
That second step is a separate test your GP arranges. It is not something a home blood test replaces.
5. What a low total protein points to
A result under 60 g/L usually means the albumin half has dropped. Albumin is made in the liver and lost through the kidneys, so those are the first two places a clinician looks.
- Liver strain, since the liver builds most of your albumin.
- Kidney leak, where protein escapes into the urine.
- Poor absorption, including coeliac disease and Crohn's.
- A long stretch of eating very little protein.
- Ongoing inflammation, which pushes albumin down for months.
Notice what that list has in common. Not one of them is read from the total protein number alone. It is a pointer, not an answer.
Our guide to albumin levels by age takes the bigger half apart properly, and the liver function test guide covers the enzymes read beside it. For a result under the range, see low albumin levels.
6. Which blood test reports your total protein
The marker is total protein, reported in g/L. Helvy's General Energy & Wellness panel (£149) reports it with albumin, urea, creatinine, CRP, magnesium, cortisol, thyroid and the cholesterol set. The Thyroid & Vital Organs panel (£159) reports it with albumin, ALT, ALP, urea, creatinine and eGFR.
Both put albumin on the same report, which is the part that matters. Total protein on its own tells you very little. Total protein next to albumin tells you which half moved.
One honest limit. Neither panel includes protein electrophoresis, the follow-up test a lab asks for when a high protein has no explanation. That is a GP referral, not a home test.
If you want to see how any range is built, our reference ranges guide explains it. To pick your own markers, the build-my-test tool walks you through it.
READY TO TEST?
See total protein next to the albumin that explains it
Helvy's home blood tests report total protein with albumin and the liver and kidney markers read beside it, and say what each one means. Samples are processed by UKAS-accredited UK labs.
Frequently asked questions
What are normal total protein levels by age?
UK labs split the range only in early childhood. Gloucestershire Hospitals gives 44 to 76 g/L under 7 days, 51 to 73 g/L up to a year, 56 to 75 g/L to age two, then 60 to 80 g/L for everyone older. There is no separate adult or elderly range.
Does total protein go down with age?
Slightly. In a study of 14,453 adults aged 60 to 101, total protein fell by about 0.21 g/L a year, faster in women at 0.30 g/L than in men at 0.13 g/L. Twenty years of that is under a quarter of the reference range.
Is a total protein of 78 too high?
It is inside the 60 to 80 g/L range that UK labs publish, near the top. Check the range printed on your own report first, since labs vary. If your albumin is also near the top, being short of water on the day is a common explanation.
What does a high total protein mean?
Often the sample rather than your body. Gloucestershire Hospitals notes that a tourniquet left on too long raises serum proteins. Where a high result has no explanation, the lab asks for protein electrophoresis and immunoglobulin tests, which your GP arranges.
What does a low total protein mean?
Usually that albumin has dropped. Liver strain, protein leaking through the kidneys, poor absorption and long-running inflammation all do it. The number points somewhere rather than answering anything, so it is read with the liver and kidney markers beside it.
What is the difference between total protein and albumin?
Albumin is part of total protein, and the larger part. Total protein is albumin plus the globulins, which are mostly antibodies. Subtract one from the other and you get the globulin figure, which is why the two are printed together.
Can dehydration raise total protein?
Yes. Less water in the blood leaves the same protein in a smaller volume, so the reading goes up. It lifts albumin at the same time. Drinking normally in the day before a test removes the question.
Which blood test includes total protein?
In the NHS it usually arrives on a liver profile, beside albumin and the liver enzymes. Helvy reports it in the General Energy & Wellness panel and the Thyroid & Vital Organs panel, both with albumin on the same report.
Related guides
Albumin Levels by Age UK
The larger half of total protein, read on its own.
Total Protein Blood Test UK
What the test measures, and high and low results.
Liver Function Test UK
The enzymes printed next to your protein figures.
Dehydration and Blood Test Results
Why a dry day lifts protein, albumin and urea together.
Blood Test Results by Age UK
Which markers genuinely shift with age, and which do not.
Blood Test Reference Ranges UK
Why normal on a lab report is a population range, not a target.
Related panels
Keep reading