3 Ways to Make Sure Kids Get Their Vitamin D

I find it most disturbing that current medical and lay literature sources are bursting at the seams with convincing evidence of the far-reaching benefits of the hormone we call vitamin D, and yet the FDA and NIH have not updated their recommendations for daily vitamin D supplementation since the one they published in 1997. That recommendation was for 200, 400, or 600 i.u. daily, depending on one's age.

In fact, the NIH held a conference of experts in August of this summer, but won't share the decisions made at that meeting until next spring. In the meanwhile, an uninformed public will likely pay the consequences of their "thumb-twiddling".

After a good bit of study on this topic during the past 2 years, it's my opinion that an adult should receive a MINIMUM of 2000 i.u. vitamin D daily, and 4000 to 5000 i.u. is probably closer to their real need for optimal health outcomes.

One blog entry asked about the absence of sunshine-derived vitamin D in the winter. Vitamin D synthesis in our skin is a result of the ultaviolet B-wave in the sun's spectrum. The angle of the sun to the earth's surface is too low in the winter for any UVB to penetrate the atmosphere in the northern hemisphere.

Russ of TN 10:53AM October 27, 2009

While skepticism is healthy, Greer's comparison of vitamin D to other vitamin fads falls short because:

1) Vitamin D is not truly a vitamin -- it is a hormone. Unlike every other vitamin it is not obtained naturally through dietary sources. It is obtained naturally through sun exposure to the skin. And the amount of vitamin D our skin makes when it is allowed to do its job naturally is 100 times greater than the amount present in an 8-ounce glass of milk. Not coincidentally, the functions that we now know "The Sunshine Vitamin" performs only happen at levels that are naturally consistent with getting regular sunshine.

Here are the numbers:

- 10,000-20,000 IU - Vitamin D made from a full-body tan in the sun.

- 100 IU - Amount of vitamin D fortified into an 8-ounce glass of whole milk.

Sunshine exposure is the body's only natural source of vitamin D - why else would our bodies have such high capacity to make so much vitamin D, and also have the ability to de-metabolize any extra so that toxicity through natural, UV-induced vitamin D is not possible. In contrast, dietary overdose of vitamin D IS possible (albeit at very high doses) - because our bodies aren't designed to get it that way naturally.

2) The research connecting vitamin D with positive health outcomes is now overwhelming -- hundreds of studies have now established both the mechanism for and the power of the relationship between vitamin D and lower risk of cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis and many other conditions.

3) Greer is wrong to minimize vitamin D by comparing it to other vitamins. Whereas EVERY other vitamin is essentially a supplement, D is really more analogous to water, air and food -- things to which our bodies naturally are attracted and need.

An excellent source for further information is www.GrassRootsHealth.org -- an independent non-profit group that started the world's "D-Action" campaign, supported by the world's leading vitamin D researchers.

The vitamin D community now supports the following:

- Vitamin D blood levels of 40-60 ng/ml -- natural vitamin D levels.

- Daily total vitamin D intake of 2,000 IU to maintain those natural levels.

You can get a vitamin D blood test -- called a calcidiol test -- to measure your levels. GrassrootsHealth.org offers an accurate, simple test for $30 that you can take at home and mail in as simple as measuring your insulin levels.

Joseph Levy of CO 1:28PM January 27, 2009

Dairy is a bad source for nutrition and for Vitamin D. Vit. D is only in dairy products because it is an additive -- "Fortified with Vit. D." Go to www.notmilk.com to learn more. Also, Dr. John McDougall has many articles on the harms from dairy. Go to www.drmcdougall.com and "Hot Topics," and read the April and May 2003 archives. http://www.drmcdougall.com/med_hot_calcium.html

William Kleinbauer of CA 3:17PM October 14, 2008

Liquid vitamins for infants taste terrible. My children are 100 percent breastfed and we tried vitamins for the first but he rejected them. It's not as easy as saying "give a vitamin." What's needed is liquid vitamins that won't be rejected. (I guess, according to the pharmaceutical companies, that "vitamin" would be formula - lol) I agree with Dacia - we have to be very careful about even hinting that formula might be better for babies than breastmilk. I took fish oil supplements throughout my pregnancy and continue to take them. Now I wonder if cod oil should also be taken (in the winter months). Would that increase my breastfed baby's access to vitamin D?

Heidi of WI 9:39AM October 14, 2008