Leaps and bounds
New study shows that current RDAs of vitamin D for children are a fraction of what they should be.
Occasionally, we get letters from readers accusing Dr. Wright of “harping” on the importance of vitamin D. It is a frequent topic in the pages of Nutrition & Healing, but as I always assure the miffed readers, there’s good reason for that. Dr. Wright has known for years how important this nutrient is — and how deficient most people are in it. So whenever there’s news supporting vitamin D, he makes it a point to share it with his readers, to reinforce the message he’s been sending for decades: That you simply can’t live without this essential nutrient. And now, yet another new study has taken this cause and moved it forward by leaps and bounds. According to research conducted at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon, the current vitamin D recommendations for children are 10 times too low.
The researchers set out to clarify guidelines on safe vitamin D dosages for children and adolescents, stating that “data on appropriate vitamin D levels in the pediatric age group are lacking” which “is a major obstacle to finding the right daily allowance.”
So they recruited a group of children ages 10-17 and gave them various doses of vitamin D or placebo at specific intervals. After several phases of research, they discovered that only children taking the equivalent of 2,000 IU per day increased their body’s vitamin D to optimum levels.
To put that in perspective, the 2,000 IU per day dose that brought the kids’ levels up to par are literally 10 times higher than the 200 IU per day dose currently recommended by los Federales. But despite the big increase, none of the children in any of the study phases experienced any negative side effects or showed any signs of toxicity.
Once again, get your kids out in the sun — without sunscreen — so that their bodies can make as much of their own vitamin D as possible (when they start to turn slightly pink, head back into the shade). And on those rainy days or in the winter months, don’t be afraid to give them the vitamin D supplements they need to stay healthy.
Source:
“Current vitamin D recommendations fraction of safe, perhaps essential levels for children,” Science Daily (www.sciencedaily.com), 5/28/08
