Today, the Food and Nutrition Board has Failed Millions
The following was released today by the Vitamin D Council:
Vitamin D – SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., Dec. 1, 2010
PRNewswire-USNewswire
After 13 years of silence, the quasi governmental agency, the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), yesterday recommended that a three – pound premature infant can take virtually the same amount of vitamin D as a 300 pound pregnant woman. While that 400 IU/day dose is close to adequate for infants, 600 IU/day in pregnant women will do nothing to help the three childhood epidemics most closely associated with gestational and early childhood vitamin D deficiencies: asthma, auto-immune disorders, and, as recently reported in the largest pediatric journal in the world, autism (1). Professor Bruce Hollis of the Medical University of South Carolina has shown pregnant and lactating women need at least 5,000 IU/day, not 600.
The FNB also reported that vitamin D toxicity might occur at an intake of 10,000 IU/day (250 micrograms), although they could produce no reproducible evidence that 10,000 IU/day has ever caused toxicity in humans and only one poorly conducted study indicating 20,000 IU/day may cause mild elevations in serum calcium but not clinical toxicity.
Viewed with different measure, this FNB report recommends that an infant should take 10 micrograms/day (400 IU) and the pregnant women 15 micrograms/day (600 IU). As a single 30 minutes dose of summer sunshine gives adults more than 10,000 IU (250 micrograms), the FNB is apparently also warning that natural vitamin D input – as occurred from the sun before the widespread use of sunscreen – is dangerous. That is, the FNB is implying that God does not know what she is doing.
Disturbingly, this FNB committee focused on bone health, just like they did 14 years ago. They ignored the thousands of studies from the last ten years that showed higher doses of vitamin D helps: heart health, brain health, breast health, prostate health, pancreatic health, muscle health, nerve health, eye health, immune health, colon health, liver health, mood health, skin health, and especially fetal health. Tens of millions of pregnant women and their breast-feeding infants are severely vitamin D deficient, resulting in a great increase in the medieval disease, rickets. The FNB report seems to reason that if so many pregnant women have low vitamin D blood levels then it must be OK because such low levels are so common. However, such circular logic simply represents the cave man existence of most modern day pregnant women.
Hence, if you want to optimize your vitamin D levels – not just optimize the bone effect – supplementing is crucial. But it is almost impossible to significantly raise your vitamin D levels when supplementing at only 600 IU/day (15 micrograms). Pregnant women taking 400 IU/day have the same blood levels as pregnant women not taking vitamin D; that is, 400 IU is a meaninglessly small dose for pregnant women. Even taking 2,000 IU/day of vitamin D will only increase the vitamin D levels of most pregnant women by about 10 points, depending mainly on their weight. Professor Bruce Hollis has shown that 2,000 IU/day does not raise vitamin D to healthy or natural levels in either pregnant or lactating women. Therefore supplementing with higher amounts — like 5000 IU/day — is crucial for those women who want their fetus to enjoy optimal vitamin D levels, and the future health benefits that go along with it.
For example, taking only two of the hundreds of recently published studies, Professor Urashima and colleagues in Japan gave 1,200 IU/day of vitamin D3 for six months to Japanese 10 year-olds in a randomized controlled trial. They found vitamin D dramatically reduced the incidence of influenza A as well as the episodes of asthma attacks in the treated kids while the placebo group was not so fortunate. If Dr. Urashima had followed the newest FNB recommendations, it is unlikely that 400 IU/day treatment arm would have done much of anything and some of the treated young teenagers may have come to serious harm without the vitamin D. Likewise, a randomized controlled prevention trial of adults by Professor Joan Lappe and colleagues at Creighton University, which showed dramatic improvements in the health of internal organs, used more than twice the FNB’s new adult recommendations.
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 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? Yesterday, the Vitamin D Council directed our attorney to file a federal Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the IOM’s FNB for the release of these 14 reports.
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
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.
For More Information on Vitamin D
Vitamin D Fraud?
Recently one vitamin has caused a frenzy of activity in the press and among anti-aging practitioners around the world.
Beware of the lie that may be hiding in your vitamin d supplement…
Until recently, vitamin D was recommended for bone health and nothing more. New and exciting breakthrough studies have revealed the almost miracle benefits of this one simple vitamin.
Heart health, blood pressure, prostate health, colon health—vitamin D’s power is proving to be amazing!
As a Chemist and Researcher who has been teaching the benefits of vitamin D3 for over 30 years, Bob Barefoot is troubled by some of today’s vitamin D supplements. If you’re taking your vitamin D, you must be sure of one thing…
There’s a good chance your “D” is not what it is cracked up to and it’s not providing you with the health benefits you need and deserve.
There are two forms of vitamin D that the human body can synthesize and use…
One is the anti-aging and health miracle being researched and written about in medical journals around the world…The other is cheap, ineffective and was deemed nearly worthless by the esteemed Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
The dirty secret is that the useless form is sometimes used by supplements and often used by pricey prescription pills!
Vitamin D2 is often used in supplements and prescription pills because…it’s dirt cheap.
Vitamin D3, however, is as premium as it gets. In fact, scientists at Creighton University and Medical University of South Carolina proved with a controlled, double-blind study that revealed vitamin D3 is 300% more effective than D2.
You see, scientists noted that both forms raised vitamin D blood serum levels, but while vitamin D2 reached its peak and peetered out in just 3 days, vitamin D3 kept on climbing the charts and didn’t peak for 14 days! Even better, D3 maintained high blood serum levels for the entire study, while D2 plummeted down the charts after its peak.
If vitamin D3 is that much more Effective and Powerful and is the form that’s being used in these incredible studies, why are some supplements using this worthless alternative?
Frankly, because they’re only looking at the almighty dollar and not really concerned for your health.
Bob’s Best Vitamin D3 5000 iu is the highest quality supplement you deserve!
The same POWERFUL form used in these groundbreaking studies. The results to these eye-opening studies are streaming in daily. What is the one thing they all have in common?
They’re all about vitamin D3—that’s the only form you need!
- The Journal of Clinical Investigation reports D3 may play a pivotal role in helping keep your blood pressure healthy.
- The Archives of Internal Medicine reveals the strong connection between D3 and your cardiovascular health.
- An 18-year study performed at the Harvard School of Medicine surveyed over 14,000 men and revealed the healthy relation between proper prostate health and vitamin D levels.
And that’s just a few of the groundbreaking studies…
Don’t let time pass you by; you have nothing to loose but quality life and greater health.
Add Bob’s Best Vitamin D3 to your diet today!