What Every Patient Needs To Know About Vitamin D

A Government Not For The People, But For The Corporations

What Every Patient Now Needs To Know About Vitamin D

I was recently discouraged by the report that was released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM).  It turns out that the United States and Canadian Government enlisted the IOM to assess the need and nutritional requirements of Vitamin D.

First, a little bit about the IOM.  The IOM website says that the The Institute of Medicine (IOM) acts as an independent, nonprofit organization that works outside of government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision makers and the public.  Established in 1970, the IOM is the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

The national Academy of Sciences (NAS) was established by an Act of Congress that was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1863, which calls upon the NAS to "investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art" whenever called upon to do so by any department of the government. 

Keep in mind the IOM’s history and lineage; I feel it is safe to say that it is not necessarily independent, acting outside of government.  In fact, one might feel safe to say that the IOM is actually overseen by Congress, which is heavily subsidized by the pharmaceutical industry.

Why does this matter?  

There is an overwhelming amount of research and evidence, contrary to the IOM’s report saying Vitamin D is only good for bone health, linking Vitamin D deficiency to heart disease, stroke, depression, hypertension, auto-immune disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, and even cancer.

And not to go down the roads of conspiracy, but the pharmaceutical industry makes a lot of money on medications that “treat the diseases” above. The pharmaceutical industry could stand to lose a lot of money, if something so beneficial with such a proven safety record and so cheap can make even a minor dent in the above conditions.

The committee within the IOM even went as far as to say that supplementing with Vitamin D could be harmful.  There are several studies in fact proving the safety level of much higher levels of Vitamin D than the IOM recommends.

Scientists at The Grassroots Health (www.grassrootshealth.net) consist of a panel of 41 expert vitamin D researchers and medical practitioners who maintain their position based on the evidence that they see that the serum level should be between 40-60 ng/ml (100-150 nmol/L), which equates to their recommendations of 600 IU/day with an upper limit of 4000 IU/day.

“There is an impressive body of scientific evidence supporting levels higher than the IOM panel is currently recommending, and for reasons that are not entirely clear, the panel has discounted that evidence. The public needs to know that that evidence exists so that they can make up their own minds. It's helpful in making those decisions, to know that intakes higher than the IOM recommends are safe. For me, that makes the decision easy. Even if the evidence for a higher intake were uncertain (and I don't believe it is), intakes 2-5 times the IOM recommendations would carry a good chance for benefit at essentially no cost and no risk.

I believe that the presumption of adequacy should rest with vitamin D intakes needed to achieve the serum 25(OH)D values (i.e., 40-60 ng/mL) that prevailed during the evolution of human physiology" Robert P. Heaney, MD, John A. Creighton University Professor, Creighton University.

What should you do?  

Have your levels measured, find your baseline and speak to a health care practitioner on what options are best for you.