Private MD News

Research grant may spur increases in vitamin D testing in children

Category: Vitamin D Deficiency-Diagnosis and Treatment

A University of Georgia researcher of food and nutrition has been awarded a $2.2 million grant to investigate the function of vitamin D in children’s health.

The grant, which was awarded by the National Institutes of Health Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, will specifically seek to determine the quantity of daily vitamin D supplements suitable for maintaining healthy levels of the nutrient in children’s bloodstreams.

The results of this research will likely assist individuals in identifying levels of vitamin D in children which are cause for concern and in acknowledging the appropriate times to administer a vitamin D test.

Rick Lewis, a professor and researcher at the University of Georgia, confirmed the Pediatrics report stating, "In prior research we’ve conducted with female children and adolescents over the course of seven years, we’ve consistently found that they have lower levels of vitamin D than are recommended and that those levels drop as they grow older."

The U.S. National Library of Medicine reports that a type of vitamin D test is the most accurate way to measure the amount of the so-called sunshine vitamin in a body.