IOM's Report: Vitamin D Daily Intake Recommendation - by Mark Newman, MS

By guest blogger - Mark Newman, MS

The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies offered up new recommendations for daily intake of vitamin D and calcium late last year. The new Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is 600 IU/day. They define the RDA as “levels of intake that are likely to meet the needs of about 97.5% of the population.” The Upper Level Intake is listed as 4,000 IU/day, which is an increase.

These conclusions are in sharp contrast to the vitamin D zealots of the world, the most aggressive of whom are calling for 5,000-10,000 IU/day to achieve the health benefits of vitamin D sufficiency. I happened to be at the CDC recently for a meeting with some folks very involved in vitamin D research. These are fairly conservative research types (not to be confused with the vitamin D zealots) and the group of renowned epidemiologists was disappointed with the ruling, to say the least. The difference of opinion between the vitamin D research world and the IOM is vast, so let’s break this down, so you can make some reasonable decisions for you, your family, and your patients ....

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