I am delighted to see that at the recent American Medical Association’s annual meeting a report was presented that reviewed more than 1500 articles, including 300 studies that were published in 2008 alone.

I am very pleased to see the American Medical Association recognizing the overwhelming evidence supporting the importance of vitamin D in the prevention of cancer, infection, cognitive decline, diabetes and several autoimmune diseases.

 In this article they report that more than 30% of people in the United States may be vitamin D deficient. I think that this report seriously understates the degree of vitamin D deficiency in our country. In my practice alone in sunny Southern California I see over 90% of my new patients having low vitamin D levels.

This article rightfully notes that getting vitamin D from food including fatty fish or fortified milk is not a realistic way to get sufficient vitamin D.

It also notes, as I have noted in my blog before, that the Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board is reviewing the vitamin D information available and they  will be coming out with revised recommendations by 2010. They note that at several of the endocrine meetings the doctors have discussed daily doses of 1000 to 2000 IU. As my readers will know I recommend 2000 IU for everybody who is otherwise healthy.

As always, the AMA notes that the studies that have been done are not prospective and they are hesitant to give any official recommendations until more prospective studies can be done. These studies however will take 5 to 10 years and we must act immediately to raise everybody’s vitamin D levels. There is absolutely no harm in raising people’s blood levels to a normal or optimal level.

The AMA’s recommendation, per this article, is that vitamin D levels should be done in people who are “at risk” (e.g. elderly, overweight etc), but I feel everybody is at risk! Vitamin D levels need to be done on everyone.

Dr Alvin Head is the chairman of the AMA’s Council and I am writing him a letter, and sending him a copy of my book, urging him to get the word on vitamin D out to every doctor.

Let me know your thoughts on this article.

Here are 2  references:

Reference 1 

Reference 2