March 17, 2011 — Vitamin D is supplied by sunlight, eggs, milk, tuna, and salmon, but most North Americans — with the possible exception of lifeguards and other outdoor workers — can benefit from consuming extra D in the form of supplements, experts at Cooper Complete in Dallas say.

To fend off osteoporosis, cancer and other diseases, Cooper Complete vitamins contain more D than federal government or Institute of Medicine guidelines recommend.

Under a review funded by the U.S. and Canadian governments, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report in November reviewing dietary needs for vitamin D and calcium. The IOM is a U.S., not-for-profit organization founded in 1970 and is part of the United States National Academies.

Commenting on bone health, an IOM panel said Americans up to age 70 need to consume no more than 600 International Units of vitamin D daily, but people in their 70s and older require as much as 800 IUs.

Since D controls calcium uptake, levels must be adequate to address bone health. The IOM panel also said the safe upper limit for D intake is 4,000 IU per day. Dosage recommendations were based on what the panel believes would allow most people to maintain a vitamin D blood level of 20 nanograms per milliliter.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government's daily reference value or requirement is 400 IU of vitamin D.

Cooper Clinic, along with a number of scientists and researchers, believe that federal and IOM requirements are inadequate. Those who think the IOM recommendations are too low include Dr. Walter Willett, nutrition department chairman at The Harvard School of Public Health and a member of the Cooper Complete Nutritional Supplement advisory

committee, and Dr. Robert Heaney, a principal scientist at Creighton University's Osteoporosis Research Center in Nebraska.

According to Cooper Clinic and Dr. Willett, blood levels greater than 20 ng/ml are associated with higher bone-mineral density, a strong risk factor for fractures. In contrast to the IOM report, the International Osteoporosis Foundation, in a 2010 position paper on vitamin D, recommended a threshold of 30 ng/ml for fall-and-fracture reduction.

Vitamin D levels are associated with much more than bone health, says Todd Whitthorne, President of Cooper Concepts, parent of Cooper Complete in Dallas. "Scientific literature shows a clear relationship between deficiencies of vitamin D and many cancers-of the breast, colon, ovaries and kidney-along with immunity to infection, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, age-related macular degeneration and chronic pain.

The only way to know how much vitamin D to take is by having a blood test-called 25-hydroxy-vitamin D-done, Whitthorne said. Anything below 20 ng/ml in test results is defined as deficient, and anything between 20 and 30 is insufficient. About 80 percent of Americans are believed to have D levels below 30 ng/ml.

The Cooper Clinic has been measuring vitamin D levels in patients since May 2007. The majority of the clinic's first-time patients fall below, with some visitors well below, the 30 ng/ml minimum target.

The dosage needed to achieve D sufficiency varies greatly from patient to patient, however. "Ideally, we strive for individuals to maintain a serum level of between 40 and 60 ng/ml, with 30 ng/ml considered to be an absolute minimum," Whitthorne says.

Source: Cooper Complete, www.coopercomplete.com