"Treat the disease, you win some, you lose some. Treat the patient, you always win."
~Patch Adams~



Monday, December 20, 2010

How Much Vitamin D? What's Missing From the New Recommendations

Hi Everyone, sorry I haven't posted in a few days. This time of year the Internet is scarce of good articles on hormones and related issues!

I did find this article by Dr. Mark Hyman this morning on TheHuffingtonPost.com. He talks about the recent report from the Institute of Medicine and their (in my opinion woefully conservative) recommendations for Vitamin D3. Dr. Hyman points out a number of issues with the study. Two in particular I want to point out:

Paragraph 4 " An important distinction to keep in mind is that the DRI's are intended as general population based guidelines. They do not differentiate or take into account a person's unique medical history, genetics, dietary intake, clinical symptomatology, environmental conditions including sunlight exposure or biochemical and nutritional assessment."

Bullet point #3 "An important distinction to keep in mind is that the DRI's are intended as general population based guidelines. They do not differentiate or take into account a person's unique medical history, genetics, dietary intake, clinical symptomatology, environmental conditions including sunlight exposure or biochemical and nutritional assessment."

As I always cautioin my readers, check with your doctor about what Vitamin D3 level is right for you, but by all means, have the discussion, and don't let him/her put you off with "don't worry, your levels are normal". It's normal for us to have hormonal imbalances as we age, too, but it certainly isn't in the best interest of our health.

I don't celebrate or observe the holiday season (and honestly, I can't wait until all the hoopla is over and the holiday commercials disappear!) but for those of you who do celebrate Christmas, may it be filled with great times, great memories, and abundance of love.

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