Johns Hopkins Clinicians Declare the Current RDA Guidelines Inadequate to Correct Vit D Deficiencies

According to an article in the current issue of Journal of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University researchers have termed the current RDA guidelines inadequate to correct the widely prevalent vitamin D deficiency in children suffering from cystic fibrosis. In their attempts to restore normal vitamin D levels, their trials used the recommended 50,000 IU of vitamin D once a week, increased it to twice a week, and finally to three times a week, yet produced less-than-optimal results. They concluded that adult and pediatric patients with vitamin D deficiency need 50,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily for four weeks to optimize their levels of vitamin D.
Several studies, including one published in the peer-reviewed Nutrition Journal, and another from the Dietary Supplement Information Bureau, have concluded that high-dose nutrient supplementation along with other healthy lifestyle choices translates to better health. For example, lack of vitamin D may be linked to as many as eighteen different types of cancer. USDA studies under the direction of Dr. Richard Anderson have linked chromium deficiency along with other key lifestyle choices to poor blood sugar control.
This message is telling for many Americans and their practitioners. The government’s National Health and Nutrition Exam Surveys (NHANES), which assess Americans’ nutritional status, have concluded the American population is often consuming a diet rich in calories but lacking in nutrients. The traditional “eat three square meals a day” along with the current AMA recommendation to take a multivitamin and mineral supplement daily may be “inadequate,” to say the least. With escalating levels of degenerative disease among the American population, is there a link between the western/American lifestyle and the occurrence of disease?
The work of Loren Cordain, Ph.D., has linked poor lifestyle choices to insulin resistance and pre-diabetes. Dr. Cordain’s work points out that the Western dietary approach, moving away from the paleolithic diet of free-range protein, in-season fruits and vegetables, minimal grain consumption, and no bad fats, is directly responsible for apple-shape weight gain, insulin resistance, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, polycystic ovarian syndrome, adult acne, fatty liver, and male pattern baldness, together with the other symptoms of Syndrome X.
The Standard American Diet (which Dr. Carlton Fredericks has nicknamed “SAD”) is lacking in key nutrients. There is solid science to suggest that nutrient deficiencies and imbalances can affect genetic expression. With the emerging field of nutrigenomics, there needs to be more government-funded research on correcting nutrient deficiencies, especially considering the American healthcare climate that favors medical procedures and prescriptions. If Dr. Mark Levine at NIH indicates that vitamin C must be given intravenously to optimize tissue levels, what are the implications for correcting the all-too-common deficiencies among Americans of vitamin E, magnesium, calcium, vitamin D, and the B vitamins, just to name a few? According to Dr. Jeffrey Bland, the studies in which 100 Americans were given 100 mg of vitamin C, only to declare that vitamin C does not cure heart disease, are deeply flawed in their methodology. How right he appears to be!