Your Vitamin D Requirements
Are WAY Higher Than What
Your Doctor Tells You

When I began researching Vitamin D requirements, being a nurse and interested in alternative health all of my life, I thought that I knew a bit about Vitamin D. Was I EVER wrong. I had no idea what I would discover. I’m familiar with the US RDA and know that the Vitamin D dosage in most supplements is about 400 International Units or IU’s. The US RDA, by the way, does not actually give a ‘recommended’ dosage for Vitamin D requirements. Instead, they give an ‘Adequate Intake’ recommendation. This Vitamin D dosage is set at 200 IU’s/day (all dosages are per day unless otherwise noted) for children and goes up to 600 IU’s for the elderly. In Europe, the Vitamin D dosage is between 400 to 800 IU’s and The Canadian Cancer Society is the highest at 1000 IU’s.

Is Your Government
Shortchanging Your Health?

There are TONS of Vitamin D research studies on Vitamin D blood levels and their effects on health and the current Vitamin D Research describes the governmental recommendations for Vitamin D requirements as

"woefully inadequate, misleading and potentially harmful"

and that higher doses “would be far safer than the present median adult intake in the US"

Woefully inadequate and potentially harmful! Those are strong words. Researchers used to believe that Vitamin D mainly controlled calcium metabolism and therefore was only important in bone health. But new Vitamin D research shows that it is extremely important in regulating The Immune System, controlling the expression of thousands of genes and controlling the proliferation of cancer cells!

"Healthy adult men utilize
up to 5000 IU's of Vitamin D per day,
if it is available."
Human serum 25-hydroxycholecalciferol response to extended oral dosing with cholecalciferol

These functions require MUCH higher Vitamin D Requirements to work properly. These researchers believe that widespread Vitamin D deficiency could be a major contributing factor to the current epidemic of cancer and diabetes!!

So what are Optimal Vitamin D Requirements for Health?

Well, every Vitamin D research study has a different theory on the exact Vitamin D dosage, but they are pretty close to each other – and they are no where NEAR the government recommended daily dose of Vitamin D mentioned above.

On the Vitamin D Levels page, I discuss the Vitamin D Blood Test levels that current Vitamin D research is recommending. This is a well researched subject that doctors seem to be completely dismissing, and the daily dose of Vitamin D should be based on LEVELS, not some arbitrary amount that may not work for everyone. 

So what are some recommendations?

The third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey suggests a daily dose of vitamin d of 3800 IU [per day] for those above a 25(OH)D level of 55 nmol/L (17.3 ng/ml) and a dose of 5000 IU for those below that. (see Normal Vitamin D level for translation of 25(OH)D). Yes, you read that right –

Yes, a daily dose of Vitamin D of 3800 to 5000 IU’s per day! That is ten times greater than the US recommended daily intake!! Ten times!! And remember, these are the Vitamin D Requirements for MAINTAINING your levels. If you need

Vitamin D Deficiency Treatment or you have problems with Absorbing Vitamin D then you are likely to need much higher doses- up to 50,000 IU's per Day in some cases!!

A Vitamin D research paper called ‘What is the Dose-Response Relationship between Vitamin D and Cancer Risk’ makes some shocking statements. It says that a Vitamin D dosage of 2000 IU’s would be a minimal dose to provide “meaningful… breast cancer reduction”.

They state unequivocally that a Vitamin D dosage of 3500 IU’s per day would prevent 50% of breast cancer incidences and would prevent over 350,000 cases of breast cancer worldwide!!

"The cost of taking a 5000 IU Supplement
of Vitamin D every day for a year is $22.00...
The number and variety of diseases that
vitamin D at this dose could prevent...
is mind-boggling."
-Donald Miller,MD. Cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington,Seattle.

And another doctor in clinical practice, Dr. Joseph Pizzorno, cites his experience with 1500 Canadians. His conclusion is, "...a loading dose of 10,000 IU's for 3 months and maintenance of 5000 IU's is not enough [Vitamin D] for most people in northern climes..."

This just goes to show you that your Vitamin D Requirements are MUCH higher than you've been told!

Vitamin D Dosage for Children

Infants and children have Vitamin D Requirements too. Although this need is NOT understood well in the medical community. While the 'traditional' view is that Vitamin D Deficiency in children ONLY causes rickets, and indeed, the prevention of rickets is the guideline by which the RDA is set. But more and more, research shows that children need a daily dose of Vitamin D for MUCH more that just the prevention of rickets. Although the rickets issue, too, may need may be revisited as Rickets Makes a Comeback.

But just like adults, simply not having rickets does not necessarily mean that children have optimal Vitamin D levels or that they are having their Vitamin D requirements met. Children could have severe repercussions from having Vitamin D deficiency too.

But Vitamin D is needed for SO MUCH more in children. Vitamin D Deficiency is 'The Cause' of some cases of Congenital Heart Failure! The article Mothers to be, better get your Vitamin D outlines the case that prenatal vitamin d deficiency MAY be linked to later in life problems such as:

• Schizophrenia
  
• Osteoporosis 
• Decayed Teeth
  
• Type 1 Diabetes

Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council gives what we might consider a VERY high vitamin d dosage for children:

In addition, a retrospective study of Finnish infants given Vitamin D and followed up years later showed an 80-90% reduction in the incidence of diabetes with a daily dose of Vitamin D of 2000 IU's a day throughout the first year of life! That's more than twice the recommended dose for pregnant women in the United States!

And Sunshine Mist Vitamin D Spray is a GREAT way to dose children without them having to swallow pills.

Vitamin D Requirements
For Pregnancy and Lactation

While the RDA of Vitamin D for pregnant and lactating women has been stuck between 600 to 800 IU's per day for decades, there has been PLENTY of research that should have made governments take notice that these unique conditions require a MUCH MUCH higher daily dose of Vitamin d than the paltry recommendations that governments are making. The latest of these studies showed that women who took 4000 IU's of Vitamin D during pregnancy had:

• Still had infants that were born vitamin d deficient
  
• Had Fewer Infections than women taking either 400 or 2000 IU's of vitamin d per day
  
• Had HALF the pregnancy or labor complications as women taking 400 IU's per day

* Statistics from Vitamin D Council Dec. 2009 Newsletter

The studies on Vitamin D and Breastfeeding are just as damning. Women taking 400 IU's of vitamin d are not producing enough vitamin d to even prevent Rickets in their babies. Studies of 1000 IU's, 2000 IU's, 4000 IU's and 6400 IU's of Vitamin d per day show that ONLY the mothers that were taking 6400 IU's per day were able to make enough Vitamin D to meet their baby's RDA of Vitamin D! Read more about this on the Vitamin D and Breastfeeding page.

So, what I want to know is why no one in the medical community is talking about the need for higher Vitamin D Requirements?? There is a huge amount of evidence out there showing that Vitamin D requirements should be MUCH higher than governmental recommendations and that more people getting more Vitamin D will absolutely save tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of lives.

But your doctor is not likely to be educated on current scientific recommendations of Vitamin D dosage. Remember, Vitamin D, as well as A, E and K, are FAT SOLUBLE vitamins. This means that any excess gets stored in your body. If you get too much, you CAN Overdose on Vitamin D and cause Vitamin D toxicity. While this is rare with Vitamin D and the chance of taking too much are practically ZERO if you follow recommended dosages and get your Vitamin D Blood Levels Tested yearly, you must always remember that it IS possible. Keep reading for more information on the RIGHT supplements, and learn about Vitamin D overdose.

Next --->
Vitamin D3

Resources to Meet Your Vitamin D Requirements

• 5000 IU Vitamin D 3 Supplements- Vitamin D3 is really the ONLY vitamin d that you should be taking. Get Vitamin D 3 in a clinically relevant dose for adults
  
•  Sunshine Mist Vitamin D Spray- This Vitamin D3 is GREAT for kids. Just a spray a day is all it takes.
  
•  The Vitamin D Solution: A 3-Step Strategy to Cure Our Most Common Health Problem - Take a look at this EYE OPENING book. This fascinating account of the health benefits of Vitamin D will keep you turning pages far into the night!

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