Discuss this Gallery 8
1. Recommended Daily Amount of Vitamin D:
Adults up to age 70 need 600 IU (international units) daily.
Men and women 71 and older need 800 IU.
2. Vitamin D can be toxic and damaging in excess:
Taking more than 4,000 IU of vitamin D daily or 2,000 mg of calcium daily increases the risk for harm.
Why would anyone want to take well over the recommended amount?! I always marvel at these doses people are selling the public, which may be the unknown cause of many problems for many people.
One, the RDAs have proven to be way low for most supplements, two, a recent study of 2000/day showed little improvement and three, get tested to know where you stand.
Please give references for toxic doses above 400IU per day.
Thank you
Bill
These vitamin D levels of which you speak are the newly revised ones put out by the Institute of Medicine this year. Not a single actual vitamin D researcher agrees with these recommendations-- in fact, there were no vitamin D researchers on the IOM panel. Look no further than the fact that these recommendations were for all of North America -- so what the IOM is saying is that vitamin D intake is the same in Florida as it is in Saskatchewan. They also concluded that 20ng/dL was adequate blood levels of vitamin D, when any doctor who knows anything about vitamin D will go with the bare minimum of 30ng/dL -- 50% higher -- and many other doctors start at 50ng/dL. Of course this is not so. Plus, the IOM would look only at bone health, and not the many other health conditions vitamin D is showing benefit for. Take a few minutes and listen to a podcast with vitamin D researcher Dr Robert Heaney, MD: http://newhope360.com/vitamins/podcast-vitamin-d-researcher-dr-robert-he...
Thanks for your comment, Barbara. Certainly it's always a good idea to have your blood levels checked regularly by your doctor, get a copy of the results, and become familiar with your levels over time--which would inform supplement choices, among other things. Marcelle Pick, a women's health practitioner I interviewed recently, likes to measure each patient's D levels in spring and fall, so they gain an understanding of how that individual's levels vary according to season and lifestyle. Her patients keep results in a 3-ring binder, which helps them take informed responsibility for their health. Together, they are able to make better decisions about how to supplement, and at what doses and for what period of time. I think it would be great if more health care practitioners would empower and assist their patients in this way.
I love all your articles on health. You website is the only one I found to address steps for better and stronger fingernails.
I love how they don't tell you that the calcium in new chapters bone strength is almost entirely calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate whether from algae or limestone is still the most poorly absorbed form. New chapter is like the emperor with no clothes. Do some research on what's really in their supplements.
Their "whole food vitamins" are made with the same isolated and synthetic vitamins that are then "culltured" with yeast. Doesn't sound like food to me. Food comes from a farm, not a tank in a factory. New chapter is not a step forward but a triumph of flashy marketing