Perspective: Don’t throw away your vitamin D supplements yet
By Christy Brissette April 2 at 7:00 AM In 2012, 20 percent of American adults reported taking vitamin D supplements, a fourfold increase over about a decade earlier, according to a 2016 report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This increase in consumption isn’t surprising, given the generally low dietary intake of vitamin D and studies widely publicized during that time that suggested it could prevent a plethora of chronic diseases.
Dan Newton, a molecular biologist and research scientist at the Medical University of South Carolina, says vitamin D is a regulator of inflammation and plays an important role in the immune system. “Numerous studies within the last 20 years have linked vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency to various types of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, pregnancy complications and more,” he says.James C.
Manson and colleagues recently published a meta-analysis of vitamin D supplements and various health outcomes in the Annals of Oncology. “We found a strongly significant reduction in cancer death of 13 percent across the five trials, which included VITAL,” Manson says. The vitamin D dosages in these studies ranged from 833-2,000 IU per day.
It’s not surprising then that vitamin D is listed as an under-consumed nutrient of public health concern in the 2015-2020 U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Getting more vitamin D from nutritious foods, such as oily fish, fortified milk products or fortified milk alternatives, egg yolks and vitamin D-enhanced mushrooms, is helpful advice.
How do we know? Because of the variations in how much vitamin D people produce and variability in sun exposure, blood tests of vitamin D levels, specifically the level of 25-hydroxy vitamin D, are the best way to determine whether there is a vitamin D deficiency. This is a simple blood test that requires no special preparation and can be done along with your regular bloodwork, though it may result in an additional out-of-pocket fee.
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