Private MD News

Government vitamin D guidelines updated

Category: Vitamin D Deficiency-Diagnosis and Treatment

In light of several recent studies in which vitamin D has been shown to provide a range of health benefits, Canadian authorities recently updated their daily intake recommendations. Individuals who are concerned about how much of the nutrient they are getting may benefit from Vitamin D testing.

The Canadian Medical Association now recommends that healthy adults receive up 1,000 international units of the vitamin, while seniors should be getting up to 2,000. These numbers reflect a significant increase in daily recommendations.

"Current recommendations on vitamin D intake for Canadians are more than 10 years old, and since then, there has been a lot of new and exciting research in this area," said David Hanley, who wrote the new guidelines. "Because of these research advances, we felt it was time to update Clinical Practice Guidelines."

The research advancements referred to by Hanley include studies that have found vitamin D to play a role in the maintenance of heart health, mental capacity and muscle and bone health.

The Food Nutrition Board, the agency responsible for nutritional recommendations in the U.S., is currently looking in to revising their vitamin D guidelines as well.