At the time of writing The Vitamin D Revolution, I was aware that the American Public Health Association (APHA) was formulating a policy statement about the importance of vitamin D for all people in our country. When the book went to press they had not finalized their statement and so I could not include it in the book.

I am delighted to tell you that the American Public Health Association has now put their policy statement regarding vitamin D on their website. (See link below)

I have carefully reviewed this groundbreaking document and would like to review it for you in a series of blog posts of which this is the first.

The title of the document is “A Call for Education and Research into Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency”. The first part of the document defines vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency in exactly the way I defined it in The Vitamin D Revolution. They state that it is estimated that 30 to 40% of children and 40 to 50% of all adults in the United States are at risk of vitamin D deficiency. They also state, as I did in my book, it is estimated that worldwide there are one billion people at risk for vitamin D deficiency. They target the four populations in the United States who are at the highest risk for vitamin D deficiency (1) women of childbearing age; (2) breast-fed infants not receiving vitamin D supplementation; (3) people with dark skin including a large percent of African-Americans and Mexican-American adolescents and adults; and (4) elderly people.

The article then reviews scientific facts about vitamin D and its role in our metabolism, as well as the sources for getting vitamin D. It goes on to talk about the consequences of vitamin D deficiency and supplementing with vitamin D. They point out as I do that a simple blood test is all that is required to determine a person’s vitamin D level. They reiterate that the normal range is 30 to 100 ng per milliliter, not the old standard where 20 ng per milliliter was considered normal. They have, as I do in my book a section on excessive vitamin D, commenting, as I do, that it is very rare to have intoxication with vitamin D. And they specifically say that there is need for more research.

It is so exciting to me to see the American Public Health Association putting its full weight behind the scientific knowledge that is so solidly in the medical literature, with the goal of improving the health of the entire American population.

The next part of the document goes into the American Public Health Association’s action statements in regard to vitamin D and will be continued in my next blog post.

Reference

www.apha.org