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Experts call for higher vitamin D recommendations

Category: Vitamin D Deficiency-Diagnosis and Treatment

In recent years vitamin D has been found to have a wide range of health benefits. Studies have shown that the nutrient benefits everything from heart health to brain function. Yet the recommendations from many doctors and healthcare groups remain low, and cause some health experts to call for them to be readjusted.

The current national guidelines from the Food and Nutrition Board, the governmental agency responsible for setting recommended levels, came out at a time when the vitamin was thought only to assist in calcium absorption.

Many primary care physicians remain conservative in their recommendation as well, prompting some to call for a reevaluation of vitamin D standards.

"We have a problem with education of physicians," said Anthony W. Norman, a professor of biomedicine at the University of California, as quoted by the New Berns Sun-Journal. "The government regulations are very conservative estimates, and there wasn't the knowledge that other organs were involved."

Some organizations, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, have increased their recommendations, and the Food Nutrition Board is considering doing the same.