Vitamin D: the newest coronary risk factor?

Dr. Robert Heaney and colleagues at Creighton University determined that healthy males required 3000-5000 units of vitamin D per day just to maintain a stable vitamin D blood level. That's 10-fold-1000%-more than the previous Recommended Daily Allowance.

You thought your calcium supplement was helpful? When vitamin D is replenished to normal levels, intestinal calcium absorption quadruples.

The notion that vitamin D intake of 200-400 units per day is adequate is not just untrue, it's dangerous to your health. We live in an enlightened age, one blessed with near-immediate dissemination of new information through information portals like HealthCentral. Don't subscribe to the advice of the 1960s on vitamin D any more than you'd insert a cassette into your 8-track tape player or scrawl anti-Viet Nam War graffiti on your neighborhood walls.

Out-of-the-box free-thinker and California psychiatrist, Dr. John Cannell, founder of the Vitamin D Council, was the first to bring the neglected vitamin D issue to my attention. He has stated:

Personally, I take 5,000 units in the late fall, winter, and early spring, and then I vary doses the rest of the time depending on sun exposure. I also have my 25(OH)D level checked twice a year, once in the early spring and again in the early fall. My 10 year-old daughter takes 2,000 units a day in the winter months and my three-year-old takes 1,000 units a day in the winter.

Dr. John Cannell

The Vitamin D Council

www.vitamindcouncil.com

(By the way, Dr. Cannell makes his wonderful newsletter available without cost. Just go to the www.vitamindcouncil.com website to sign up. His writing is enormously clever and interesting.)

In a future post, we'll discuss how to go about deciding whether you need vitamin D (you do) and how to determine the quantity necessary for health.

Note:

The recommended Adequate Intake for vitamin D (by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences) is between 200-400 units per day. There are few dietary sources of vitamin D. An 8 oz glass of milk contains 100 units (though not always-inconsistency reigns). Other dairy products, like cheese and yogurt, tend to have little or no vitamin D added. Oily fish like salmon, mackerel, and sardines contain 200-360 units vitamin D per 3 ½ ounce serving. Many breakfast cereals contain 40-100 units per serving.

Despite this, more than 50% of people fail to obtain even the modest "Adequate" Intake every day.

For the scientifically-minded, here's a list of some important references on vitamin D:

References:

Grimes DS, Hindle E, Dyer T. Sunlight, cholesterol and coronary heart disease. QJ Med 1996;89:579-589.

Heaney RP, Davies KM, Chen TC, Holick MF, Barger-Lux MJ. Human serum 25-hydroxycholecalciferol response to extended oral dosing with cholecalciferol;. Am J Clin Nutr 2003;77:204-210.