Definitely not, if you’re following the government’s recommendations.
GrassrootsHealth, an organization dedicated to disseminating information about vitamin D research, has now confirmed a previous finding that the National Academy of Medicine (IOM), the government’s advisor on health and medical issues, is off by a magnitude of ten in its recommended daily intake of vitamin D.
From GrassrootsHealth:
The recommended intake of vitamin D specified by the IOM is 600 IU/day through age 70 years, and 800 IU/day for older ages. Calculations by GrassrootsHealth scientists and other researchers have shown that these doses are only about one-tenth those needed to cut incidence of diseases related to vitamin D deficiency. The authors propose a new RDA with a value of approximately 7,000 IU/day from all sources.
Comment: Changes in American lifestyles mean that many people get less exposure to the sun, the principal way we get vitamin D, combined with inadequate dietary levels of the vitamin. 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 these are being tested as part of routine physical exams. Keeping D levels in the upper part of the accepted blood range also appears to be highly protective against viral infection and cancer.
Let’s also keep in mind that this is just part of a larger problem. We must ensure that we don’t go the way of the European Union in setting strict limits for what the maximum dose in a vitamin can be.
