Daily Dose with William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
Excerpt
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Dangerous new recommendations on D
Anyone who thinks Americans get enough vitamin D is really in the dark -- and yes, I'm talking to you, Institute of Medicine.
The Institute -- part of the National Academy of Sciences -- claims we don't really need much vitamin D, and that Americans already get the amount they need.
That's it -- toss your supplements, put the sunscreen back on, end of story... right?
Not on your life!
These screwy new recommendations aren't just wrong -- they're potentially deadly. And that's not just my opinion, that's scientific fact.
The recommendations are so baffling that even many in the mainstream were caught off guard by them.
But not me -- I expected this.
After all, this is the same cast of characters behind the laughably low recommendations for every other key nutrient, from folate to vitamin C -- so of course they were bound to get it wrong on D.
The simple fact is, this is an organization that HATES alternative medicine, and especially HATES supplements. They've even urged the feds to regulate vitamins like meds, a position that even the FDA considers too radical -- and you know they're not exactly pals with the supplement industry.
But let's get back to this D report. It's so badly flawed I could write a book on it -- and in fact, I'm working on one -- but for now, I'll just break it down to what I call the Four Great Lies:
They raised the recommended levels of D to 600 IU per person, then claimed most people won't need a supplement to reach it -- despite the fact that few people spend enough time outdoors and fewer still can get that amount of D from food.
They claim nearly everyone between the ages of 1 and 70 should get the exact same amount of D -- despite strong evidence that the amount of D you need varies based on everything from age to size to skin color.
They claim that 10,000 IU of vitamin D is deadly -- despite the fact that anyone who's ever spent 30 minutes at the beach with no sunscreen has generated that much vitamin D on his own. Last I checked, no normal person has keeled over from 30 minutes of sun exposure.
They claim vitamin D is for bone health only, and there's no evidence it can reduce the risk of anything else -- despite repeated studies that show it can fight depression, flu, heart disease, cancer and more.
If there's any good news here, it's that now even most mainstream docs realize that the Institute of Medicine is completely bonkers -- and many are telling their patients to keep taking their D supplements anyway.
Rebellion. I love it!
And maybe -- just maybe -- this will cause those docs to take a closer look at the rest of the Institute's inadequate recommendations, too.