A new report, released today by the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, says that few people are vitamin D deficient. The scientific research says otherwise.
The new Institute of Medicine (IOM) report says that persons between the ages of 1 and 70 do not need more than 600 IU of vitamin D daily—and makes the outrageous claim that few people are actually vitamin D deficient. This is especially troubling considering we’re moving rapidly into the thick of flu season, when people need more vitamin D, not less.
This is the government’s first official vitamin D recommendation since 1997. Despite raising the new vitamin levels by 300% for most Americans, the IOM guidelines are still in contrast to overwhelming scientific evidence that confirms the significant medical benefits of higher vitamin D levels, and that one-third of Americans are vitamin D deficient.
Changes in US lifestyles mean that many people in the US get less exposure to the sun and often inadequate dietary levels of vitamin D. The New York Times reports that a number of prominent doctors have advised vitamin D supplementation for a wide variety of illnesses, including heart disease, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. Their research shows that more and more people know their vitamin D levels because they are being tested for it as part of routine physical exams.
The IOM is wrong in its findings, wrong in ignoring the bountiful scientific research that indicates the need for higher levels of vitamin D in our system, and wrong for not educating folks about the ability of vitamin D to combat the flu. Our campaign to end the silence on vitamin D is one attempt to educate the public and get the government to listen to the clear scientific findings.
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thanks for this! as i commented on the reuters version of this story this morning, many people in the pacific northwest have chronic vitamin d deficiency issues. i know i have. the reference range is 30-100, and the first time i had mine tested here, my level was 4.
i thought it was irresponsible to put out a blanket statement saying americans and canadians get plenty of vitamin d. both of the primary physicians i’ve had in seattle have told me that lots of their patients have vitamin d problems, and lots of folks i’ve spoken to here have confirmed that with their own experiences.
i hope you’re able to shed some light on this problem!
I have vitamin D deficiency and have to take it continously, my levels were so low that I was put on a 50,000 units weekly for six weeks. after I have to take a supplement of 1000 daily. It is very painful when your vitamin D levels are low. How can they say such things. Isn’t it up to the doctors that are treating the patients to make these calls as to what is needed for a patient?
I need 5000IU of Vit D3 to be ok…less than that I cry for no reason. I has SAD my whole life and now I am ok….it was hell. People have no idea why they are sad. It affects their immune system. How many people go outside in the cold/sun/recess. Nursing homes….are very low. Kids seldom play outside. Air conditioning…people stay indoors. The U.S. people suffer…the whole nation is sick/depressed etc. and could be fixed fast if they only knew. Also 2000mg of fish oil…stopped my colds/flu for 20 years…this is another thing people are very deficient in…instead they take a flu shot which doesn’t work and suffer with colds/flu.
Was the ‘fish oil’ cod liver oil?
Cod liver oil’s vit A is a problem.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/vitamin-d-vitamin-a-and-cancer.shtml
You always have to be suspicious of “science” that is mitigated by conflict of interest,what I call “sciencology”. Conclusions dispensed by sciencologists have to be tempered such that they are able to keep their jobs. This is the religious aspect of medicine that mirrors the insanity of protecting pedophiles in the Catholic Church. Its a human phenomenon that has to do with self preservation and propagation of one’s genes to a next generation. The sciencologists who came to the conclusion that you can safely smoke tobacco or replace estrogens in women with that from horse urine are examples. The IOM is overseen by congress. Congress is heavily subsidized by the pharmaceutical industry. Its not likely that anything useful would ever come from their work. I don’t know when this organization was formed but if I was assessing their effectiveness, I’d track morbidity/mortality records since their inception to see if there has been a positive or negative change.
The true science on vitamone D and its metabolites is unequivocal to objective observers. Cholecalciferol is a hormone with nuclear receptors in the same super family as testosterone,estrogens and glucocorticoids. These receptors are in the same sub family as those for thyroid hormone. When these ligands bind to these nuclear receptors,a conformational change happens that up-regulates gene expression. The epigenetic impact is that animal homeostasis is controlled by the availability of these DNA orchestrators. As the level of these hormones decline with age(starting around age 26) there is a rheostatic decline in homeostatic integrity that we call aging. The semantics of cholecalciferol needs to be changed in order for the proletariate to not be misguided by information such as the IOM is dispensing. Cholecalciferol is a hormone that works in concert with an orchestra of other hormones. There is no such thing as a vitamin D.
Hormone expression is determined not so much by the presence of hormones as the presence and function of hormone receptors.Our investigation of prostate cancer,for instance,shows that black males use testosterone more efficiently. So,to try to dispense hormone recommendations feed lot style makes no sense in the first place. Patients have to be looked at individually to assess needs for comprehensive hormone replacement. You won’t be able to practice good medicine from an insurance code cook book. Personally,I take 15,000 IU of vitamone D3 based on lab testing and clinical response.
Are there conflicts of interest represented in this group of scientists? The conclusions of this report do not make sense!
I believe those of us who are living in the northern states, those who are elderly, those who are using sunscreen regularly, those who live in more southern states but stay indoors most of the time, and patients in nursing homes all need to get the 25 O H D Test and chances are all of them will test below the optimal level of Vitamin D. We ought to be trying to prevent illness.
Let’s do the testing to learn the truth about our levels of Vitamin D! I personally have had my Vitamin D tested and I work indoors and over a period of five years I have been trying to get my Vitamin D level up to the level my doctor recommends. 2000 IU’s did not do that for me! I eat all the foods that contain Vitamin D on a regular basis. This report is not accurate in my opinion.
Maybe the IOM is in cahoots with the medical pharmaceutical complex and wants to try and stop anything which will improve overall public health if it means less dollars for drug companies and physicians? I hate to think that way, but when overwhelming published research is ignored, what else can I think??
It makes sense to downplay the value of vitamin D(3) since it is the primary key to good health. If there was a nationwide push to increase everyones use of this vitamin, big Pharma profits would be greatly reduced.
Our sunlight is taken from us daily. We no longer have real sunny days. Look up! We can’t help but be deficient in Vitamin D and many other essential vitamins and minerals. No sun = sick people. All living things need sun and clean air. When will the people wake up and ban together to stop this insanity?
That should be ‘…band together’.
I saw this on msn.com and then on the Today Show. I was so upset that people are now misinformed on the benefits of Vit. D and how correcting their deficiencies will improve their health. Their upper limit of 4,000 IU’s a day doesn’t seem to be based on anything and considering that the human body can produce up 20,000 IU’s a day from the sun should be enough to show that people can handle more on a day to day basis. All that said I believe consumers should be monitoring their Vit D levels with accurate blood tests in order to accurately dose for each individual.
Just another way for the big pharma to cash in on people getting their flu shots instead…What a fu$$ed up world we live in…
I went to the IOM website to look at their recommendations. Their average daily IU _requirements_ are posted as 400 IU. They recommend 600 IU per day with an upper level of 4,000 IU per day. I believe we should be ingesting 2,000 IU per day during winter months with 4,000 IU minimum during a influenza period. I am not a licensed practitioner, so my comment is only based on personal use.
How can all these “scientists” be so ignorant of the facts about vitamin D. The simple answer is they CANNOT be. This is a POLITICAL agenda being implemented. Folks we have to face the facts “Science” itself at the highest levels has become corrupted by politics. The truth can be presented as 180 degrees wrong if the politics require it.
So what possible reason could there be to insure the vast majority of people have vastly too low vitamin D levels? The UN Agenda 21 posits a vast decline in the world’s population. Populations carrying too low a vitamin D level will accomplish this depopulation.
Our vitamin D levels are especially important as our Political Pandemic continues with the bio-labs seeking to create a virus with the transmissiblity of H1N1 and the virulence of H5N1. Such a killer virus would be greatly hampered in its killing capacity is we all had good vitamin D levels.
Cut it any way you want, until we wake up to this political depopulation agenda, events such as this seem to make no sense. Once you understand the political depopulation agenda LOTS of seemingly nonsensical events make PERFECT sense.
Thanks for mentioning this, Lou. It’s KEY and it’s almost a relief to see that someone understands what’s really going on. We’re being attacked on all fronts and our sky is no exception. Chemtrails are greatly reducing the sun’s radiation and therefore our ability to manufacture VitD in our own bodies, like we’re supposed to. Check out the work of Dr, Leuren Moret on the subject
I test all my patients for Vitamin D levels. I say about 90% of them are below acceptable ranges.
My recommendations in general are 10,000 units daily for 7 weeks then 5000 a day for life for an average adult.
While many deficiencies whether Vitamin C, D3, or the B family may not manifest classic symptoms like scurvy, rickets, or berri-berri, they can prevent optium health.
The vast majority of patients that I test for Vit D are deficient and/or sub optimal meaning lower than 50-80 on the test. It is the rare patient who is in this range, and age doesn’t seem to protect patients either. The younger patients don’t seem to have more Vit D. The ‘range of normal’ for laboratory testing for all tests that I have seen is misleading and should be revised to include ‘the range of commonly seen’, and the ‘optimal range’, for healthy function and prevention of illness.
I TOTALLY AGREE with this………………..this lack of Vit. D is such a SCAM……….anyone who knows anything about Vitamins in General………….. know that Vits. – need to be combined properly……………..I learned tha EARLY on in my Nutritional Studiies with B. Jensen and MANY OTHERS. I am just sorry to see soooooooooooooooo many SCAMED by this ………..and DOCTORS are selling PERSCRIITONS for GARBAGE. But there are many “Nutritional Professionals doing the same SCAM. The Vit. D tests are totally inaccurate – and people have become Blind, Deaf, & DUMB to the truth.
Get out in the Sun people. That is, what’s left of it after the corporate fascist are are done spraying their metallic/polymer dispersants into the sky to enhance electromagnetic weather coercion and subsequently block UV solar light as a secondary by-product of the machination. It’s too damn obvious that global central banking alchemy with it’s corporate fascist network and secret society scum filth are orchestrating operation human population reduction. This latest insult is but one of endless Orwellian machinations utilizing collective mind control against those amongst us who are gullible enough to believe an endless stream of blatant lies.
“The Vit. D tests are totally inaccurate – and people have become Blind, Deaf, & DUMB to the truth.”
Yes is it not strange with the thousands of perfectly accurate blood tests out there one of the most CRITICAL is MISLEADING.
Agree 100% – also, many lab value ranges for “normal” levels are too low, according to experts.
I had to break my ankle to find out that I was at 20% for vitamin D. This report does not surprise me.
I agree with you and know from experience and consume vitamin D along with other vitamins and minerals everyday. The lobbyists run the FDA and this is clearly another example of
govmnt thinking they know better than we do.
I agree with you that Vitamin D is very important to increase for the winter.
Also for the heart disease and cancer we have found it a great health
promoting to our family.
Accessing vitamin D levels and providing proper supplementation is neccesary to protect us from future disease. Scientific evidence proves that.
Children and adults are deficient in vitamin D.
cite studies that prove the NAS position is wrong;.
http://www.lef.org/newsletter/2010/0226_Vitamin-D-Neuromuscular-Function.htm?source=eNewsLetter2010Wk9-2&key=Article&l=0#article
http://healthfreedoms.org/2010/04/19/low-vitamin-d-levels-associated-with-more-asthma-symptoms-medication-use/
In the second study, Indonesian scientists compared the effect of vitamin D versus a placebo on almost 70 tuberculosis patients for some nine months. Treating tuberculosis patients with 10,000 units of vitamin D daily versus the much smaller amount (400 units) usually advocated by conventional medicine led to a 100 percent cure rate.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/311/5768/1770.abstract
Note this study is especially important. It virtually PROVES conventional medicine has been IGNORING and HIDING a virtual CURE for TB. A super virulent strain of TB has been developed and tested in South Africa. We will see it here IMO your tv will tell you there is no cure. It will kill thousands if not more. It will NOT kill you or your loved ones if you take 1000 IU of vitaminD3/20 pounds of body weight/day
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/deficiency/am-i-vitamin-d-deficient.shtml
Look at the article in the Phil. Inquirer for a different take on the same study. It stated that the only research they considered had to do with bone health!
Yes and rickets is prevented by the very LOWEST or the MANY vitamin D levels that are necessary for robust health, about 16 – 18 ng/ml.
http://www.healthyprotocols.net/_membersfiles/WEB%20Files/Working%20WEB%20Files/Image47.gif
This is a ruse used by the Food and Nutrition Board to foist very low vitamin levels upon us. Most vitamins have MANY functions; vitamin D has hundreds. So they pick the function with the LOWEST of the required levels and tells us this is an “sufficient” level for the vitamin and ALL its functions. Do the FNB know they are deliberately misleading a country into a practice that is killing us? If they do not they should turn in their PhDs. In an honest country they would be in prison or worse.
The very highest required vitamin D level IMO is for those fighting for their life with cancer. 100 ng/ml is what I would achieve had I cancer. Most oncologists do not test their patients for their vitamin D levels. This is clear malpractice IMO. But as cancer is a population control method this type of malpractice is politically sanctioned.
I heard about this report on the NBC Nightly News this evening and couldn’t believe it. I an 65 and was diagnosed with asthma in 2003. My asthma has been under complete control and my airflow dramatically increased since I began taking Vitamin D3 (4,000 units daily) several months ago. I no longer need prescription asthma medications to control my symptoms as I no longer have symptoms of asthma.
It is incredible in this day and age that so many live in denial of science and indisputable evidence. This is no different than the mass disbelief in global warming by so many who have to gain by the continuation of our abuse of the earth’s resources.
Why do we always have to fight the stupid ‘powers that be’ just to try to live a normal life. Haven’t the greedy drug companies skinned us every day by trying to to make us think that we cannot live without them. It is bad enough that nearly all our food is “enriched” with poisons for a longer shelf life. Thank God that there are some people who do not want to eat ‘chemicals’ that will ruin their health and that they know the difference. Unless everyone can afford to and will buy only organic food this country is going to Hell, and very soon at that.
Can’t someone do something about the drug thieves??
Wrong is right. I was tired and not good and my doctor prescribed 50000 a week and within a month was much better. Now I take 25000 a week and keep up the level that is good for me. I am over 70 and we do not get enough sun, etc. They are wrong as usual.
this report is just outrageous.
Cornell issued its support of this study on NPR. Cornell is also the university which was paid by monsanto to conduct the studies on rbst, saying it was safe.
It is professionally irresponsible to make the statement that most Americans have sufficient amounts of vitamin D in their systems. On what basis do they say “most Americans”? How many Americans have they studied? What percent of the population does this represent. And why do they think that their suggested level of Vitamin D is sufficient — based on what? Shabby science – actually, it’s not even science. It’s propaganda.
It does not surprise me that the US would say, just before the flu season begins, that most americans have sufficient vit D, and that too much Vitamin D is dangerous (other countries, including Canada, have found an inverse relationship between levels of vitamin D and incidence of flu — the US ignores these studies – – of course, if it acknowledged the significance of these studies, the drug companies would not make as much money) The US is a country run by the corporations for the corporations.
Cornell is quickly losing my respect. Don’t want my kids to go there!!!!!
Bingo!
This is KEY to understanding what is happening in the USSA today. Science at the highest levels has sold out, as has politics, education and “health care”. We are being fed PROPAGANDA which is slowly, sometimes not so slowly, killing us.
http://healthyprotocols.com/2_medical_myth.htm
How come doctors nowadays carry 50000 iu of vitamin D if it is so dangerous. One of my colleague expressed surprise over this report saying that her Husband was prescribed 50,000 iu of vitamin D!!!!
We all know how profitable those vacinations for the flu are. Could this be a consideration in the report and recommendation?
when we will have our scientists, our RFBA (real food benefit administration) to work against FDA? COME ON DO NOT TOLK MUCH WHEN THEY MAKING DOCUMENTS
It seems to me that all these flawed reports coming out on Vitamin D (and other supplements) have one thing in mind: keep the American people sick so they will continually buy all the toxic drugs that Big Pharma is pushing. Wake up, America!! The only one concerned about your health is YOU!
Why is the IOM saying this if it is contrary to overwhelming scientific evidence? Have the IOM people releasing this report been influenced by the pharmaceutical companies, who seem to stop at nothing to convince the American public of the uselessness or toxicity of natural substances, such as vitamins?
How can we combat a government report, picked up by the major news media, that is filled with lies?
We are working to combat this through a number of channels. Yesterday we contacted media and issued a press release to major media with our take on the IOM’s report, which you can read here: http://www.anh-usa.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/New-Government-Vitamin-D-Guidelines-Come-Up-Short.pdf We’ve also sent Letters to the Editors of several publications that released slanted anti-vitamin-D coverage of the report, correcting their errors. This is just a start! Stay tuned to our newsletter for more on how we will rebuke this flawed report.
Yes, I agree their report on V-D was incorrect, but also you and they left out the major differences between regular V-D and V-D3 the one that our body recognizes to give us our greatest benefits. Isn’t time to tell the public the difference?
Yes, I agree their report on V-D was incorrect, but also you and they left out the major differences between regular V-D and V-D3 the one that our body recognizes to give us our greatest benefits. Isn’t time to tell the public the difference?
Yes, I agree their report on V-D was incorrect, but also you and they left out the major differences between regular V-D and V-D3 the one that our body recognizes to give us our greatest benefits. Isn’t time to tell the public the difference?
Yes, I agree their report on V-D was incorrect, but also you and they left out the major differences between regular V-D and V-D3 the one that our body recognizes to give us our greatest benefits. Isn’t time to tell the public the difference?
Yes, I agree their report on V-D was incorrect, but also you and they left out the major differences between regular V-D and V-D3 the one that our body recognizes to give us our greatest benefits. Isn’t time to tell the public the difference?
Yes, I agree their report on V-D was incorrect, but also you and they left out the major differences between regular V-D and V-D3 the one that our body recognizes to give us our greatest benefits. Isn’t time to tell the public the difference?
Yes, I agree their report on V-D was incorrect, but also you and they left out the major differences between regular V-D and V-D3 the one that our body recognizes to give us our greatest benefits. Isn’t time to tell the public the difference?
This misleading report by the Institute of Medicine goes beyond irresponsible, and is probably criminal.
It shows a reckless disregard for citizens’ health, and will probably lead to gullible people getting vitamin-D-deficiency diseases they could have otherwise avoided.
One can speculate on their motives for using the prestige of the Institute of Medicine to spread this misinformation, but I think a criminal investigation is warranted.
If everyone were taking 5-10K of D3 a day, how would they be able to sell their vaccines?
The National Academy of “Sciences” is a ho.
“Finally, the FNB committee consulted with 14 vitamin D experts and — after reading these 14 different reports — the FNB decided to suppress their reports. Many of these 14 consultants are either famous vitamin D researchers, like Professor Robert Heaney at Creighton or, as in the case of Professor Walter Willett at Harvard, the single best-known nutritionist in the world. So, the FNB will not tell us what Professors Heaney and Willett thought of their new report? Why not?”
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/vdc-statement-fnb-vitamin-d-report.shtml
Here is your documentation of criminal intent.
I heard the report yesterday about Vit. D as well esp. on NPR – I was irritated at best. Interesting bit of misinformation the media was fed – guess there must be an abundance of flu vaccine to push. I’m going to get my family on better doses of Vit. D. Someone here mentions using it to help with their sad mood. Hurrah for this site and all those folks who participate and keep track of the truth.
For the last two years, I have taken approximately 7000 iu of D-3 daily. Twice I have tested in the 80’s and I will probably be testing again within the next 90 days. Most of the natural health publications, I subscribe to, had been recommending at least 5000 iu.
I was glad to see your response to the IOM Report recommending 600 iu as the max.
I have both praise and criticism of this study. The praise is for the researchers’ candor throughout the text that they simply are uncertain about drawing any firm conclusions based upon their findings.
Now for the criticisms:
First, very few populations are known through well-designed studies to have adversely reacted to several thousand units daily of vitamin D. One population may be male smokers, but how many adherents of natural medicine would be included in that sub-population? Therefore, any concerns that come about as a result of studying such a sub-population should not be generalized as being applicable to the greater population.
Secondly, I did not see the necessary geographical differentiation between northerners and southerners in the subject group. When it is well-known that southerners obtain their D more frequently through natural sunlight converted via a different pathway than oral D, and when it is well known that northerners absolutely must supplement with oral D during half of the year (i.e. half of their total lifetime), then such a distinction clearly needs to be made.
Thirdly, while a rational argument can be made for including such other nutrients as calcium and phosphorus in a thorough study of vitamin D, the inclusion of these other nutrients may also present confounding variables. In other words, the study had mixed aims and was not solely concerned with vitamin D. Some of the general concerns that specifically apply to calcium, such as danger of kidney stones and arterial calcification, need to be expressed to the public as pertaining only to calcium, but I have seen the news media lump these concerns together using both calcium and vitamin D together in the same sentence. The researchers would know better, but the media needs clarification on this.
Fourthly, it was, in my opinion, a mistake to include calcium in the study without including magnesium, which opposes calcium. Magnesium is the “sleeper” deficiency of our population. People are often unaware that calcium needs to be balanced by magnesium, and often the recommended balance is too weak on Mg. A simple way to determine what is best for each individual is to use the bowel tolerance rule on a highly individualized basis, with the understanding the human body knows what it needs.
Conclusions for possible discussion: This study and others might be improved by:
*Removing specialized sub-populations or highlighting them separately
*More careful geographical description and distinction of test subjects
*Removing possible confounding variables
*If a mixture of nutrients is retained in the focus of the study, then including magnesium as one of them.
*More care when articulating results to the news media not to make blanket statements that should only be expressly applied to one of several nutrients studied.
Vitamin D supplementation can help alleviate arthritis, depression (winter blues?), aid immune defense in preventing flu (which generally strikes during the shortest days of the year) as well as bone health. I took it daily last winter instead of getting a flu vaccination and was surprised that my arthritis didn’t bother me as it usually does in the winter.
Useless FDA trying to ban vitamins, yet another violation of our rights. Add it to the list of gov’t violations of our right:
They violate the 1st Amendment by placing protesters in cages, banning books like “America Deceived II” and censoring the internet.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns.
They violate the 4th and 5th Amendment by molesting airline passengers.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting undeclared wars for foreign countries.
Impeach Obama and sweep out the Congress, except Ron Paul.
(Last link of Banned Book):
http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000190526
Here’s an Idea… GET OUT IN THE SUN ONCE IN A WHILE! Stop believing everything they tell you! The Sun is GOOD for you! Especially in the morning. I’m not saying get out in the middle of the day and get a sunburn, but a little sun every day is all you need. Stop thinking that “Science” and/or the pharmaceutical companies who only want ot make money… NOT find cures. Just watch the TV… they have a “pill” for everything… It’s ridiculous! They even want you to use sunblock to MAKE SURE you don’t get your NATURAL vitamin D… They want you to BUY their usless crap!
I quit going to “regular” medical doctors long ago. Every common sense thought I had in my head was always dispelled by every doctor I saw. I ended up going through more turmoil than I needed to when I listened to them. Medical Doctors’ massive ego problems are their worst enemy. They ended up killing my mother while trying to “cover their tracks.” Incompetent, and the only education they have is directly related to outdated studies they had years ago in med school.
I started seeing an Alternative Doctor and couldn’t be happier. He has me on liquid Vit. D that I take everyday. Regular medical doctors only take orders from the pharmaceutical companies. That why they are overpriced and under educated. They have all succumbed to greed and are unable to think for themselves. Don’t step outside the box!!!!!!!!
“I quit going to “regular” medical doctors long ago.”
Bingo, bango bongo!
We need 100 million at least to join us.
JOIN US!
Please.
It is the ONLY way. The free market works.
This report is bad for your health.
HHS, NIH, CDC and the FDA et al are also VERY bad, OFTEN fatal, for your health, as well as the health of those you love and the health of the USA.
I’d say high intake of vitamin D definitely increases paranoia. This is based on reading all theories exposed in these posts by vitD consumers. Defending their thoughts with zeal of religion
We are just starting to know how VD and its receptor work at the molecular level and is appalling how little we know. It is a hormone for chrissakes. Keep your mind open. We’re still not sure how to define normal levels of vitD. Don’t be the experiment, be moderate. Unbiassed scientists still are debating the issue. Truth so far, is that your body will try to adapt to your excessive intake of vitD. You’re lucky.
Read the science! Vitamin d is only good for bone health. RCTs for everything else has largely failed.