Vitamin D--A Response to the Recent Recommendations

Vitamin D has been in the spotlight more and more in the last several years. "Now with vitamin D" has become one of the latest catch phrases for different products. Sometimes the justification is bone health, sometimes it's because vitamin D has been linked to reductions in breast cancer. The list goes on, and the research keeps mounting. Recently the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report detailing their recommendations on the amount of D one should be supplementing/consuming every day. Those recommendations were a baby step in the right direction, and although their suggested levels will probably keep you from getting rickets, they are woefully short of what the most current research has to say about the subject.

The IOM recommends 600 IU a day, with a safe upper limit of 4,000 IU a day. Just for a reference, I easily take 10,000 IU a day and have for over a year. Before that it was 6,000 for around a year, and before that it was 2,000 for several years. The reason I've changed the amount over the years is based on the fact that I measure my blood levels with some regularity, and I've moved from Florida, where I surfed in the Atlantic as much as I could (and we lived very close to the beach), to Rhode Island, where the sun never hit my skin for months. From there is was back to Texas to open Green Chiropractic, where I happen to spend the majority of my day indoors and out of the sun.

For a white boy like myself, ten to twenty minutes in that Florida/Texas sun in the middle of the day is enough for me to generate over 10,000 IUs. For my much darker skinned children (they're from Haiti), it takes at least double that amount of time. They take 2,000 IUs a day (in the form of a cinnamon flavored chewable that they really like). To round out the household, my wife takes between 5,000 and 10,000 daily. And I've gotta tell you, our record for avoiding the illness de jour around the flu season is nearly batting a thousand. One of our boys has been sick one day since we picked them up over a year and a half ago. He was fine the next day. The other boy lurches right through flu season with the unwashed hands of a 5 year old like he's bullet proof. How many four and five year olds avoid the funk that successfully?

I've been shooting to get my levels between 40-80 ng/ml of blood. When I was taking the 10,000 in Rhode Island my levels went down from my Florida levels, even though I nearly doubled the amount I was supplementing. I use the test from Grassrootshealth.net, in case you're interested. Getting your blood levels measured is really the best way to know how much you need.

The IOM is a quasi-government organization, so I'm actually shocked that they even moved in the right direction at all--they are now recommending maintaining blood levels at 20 ng/ml. That's still less than half of the recommended level coming from John Cannell, MD, who is one of the founders of the Vitamin D Council, an organization that does nothing but research the mighty D. I'll let him finish this post, so it won't  look like a crazy chiropractor ranting about the newest fad in nutrition (and one that I happen to sell, at that):

I, my family, most of my friends, hundreds of patients, and thousands of  readers of the Vitamin D Council newsletter, have been taking 5,000 IU/day for up to eight years. Not only have they reported no significant side-effects, indeed, they have reported greatly improved health in multiple organ systems.  My advice: especially for pregnant women, continue taking 5,000 IU/day until your (OH)D] is between 50 ng/ml and 80 ng/ml (the vitamin D blood levels obtained by humans who live and work in the sun and the mid-point of the current reference ranges at all American laboratories).  Gestational vitamin D deficiency is not only associated with rickets, but a significantly increased risk of neonatal pneumonia (2), a doubled risk for preeclampsia (3), a tripled risk for gestational diabetes (4), and a quadrupled risk for primary cesarean section (5). 

Yesterday, the FNB failed millions of pregnant women whose as yet unborn babies will pay the price.  Let us hope the FNB will comply with the spirit of "transparency" by quickly responding to our freedom of Information requests.

John Cannell, MD

The Vitamin D Council

1241 Johnson Avenue, #134

San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

(1) Cannell JJ.. On the aetiology of autism. Acta Paediatr. 2010 Aug;99(8):1128-30. Epub 2010 May 19.

(2)Karatekin G, Kaya A, Salihoglu O, Balci H, Nuhoglu A. Association of subclinical vitamin D deficiency in newborns with acute lower respiratory infection and their mothers. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009;63(4):473-7.

(3) Bodnar LM, Catov JM, Simhan HN, Holick MF, Powers RW, Roberts JM. Maternal vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of preeclampsia. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007;92(9):3517-22.

(4) Zhang C, Qiu C, Hu FB, David RM, van Dam RM, Bralley A, Williams MA. Maternal plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and the risk for gestational diabetes mellitus. PLoS One. 2008;3(11):e3753.

(5) Merewood A, Mehta SD, Chen TC, Bauchner H, Holick MF. Association between vitamin D deficiency and primary cesarean section. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009;94(3):940-5.