by Ethan Huff
(Health Secrets) A letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine states that almost half of critically ill patients in intensive care units (ICUs) are suffering from vitamin D deficiency, a common thread increasingly being linked to all sorts of adverse health conditions. Dr. Paul Lee, an endocrinologist and research fellow at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia and author of the study, admitted a direct correlation between vitamin D deficiency and serious illness. This is a hypothesis long acknowledged by many in the natural health community who understand the critical role vitamin D plays in maintaining health and preventing disease.
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A necessary component in perpetuating wellness, vitamin D facilitates proper blood sugar and calcium levels in the body as well as maintains proper heart function and gastrointestinal health. It is also been shown to protect the body from various infections, osteoporosis, diabetes, and even cancers. Since vitamin D is naturally present in very few foods, it is best obtained through skin exposure to sunlight whose UVB rays cause the body to produce the vitamin-like hormone naturally and to the proper levels.
According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, the recommended daily intake, or adequate intake (AI), of vitamin D in healthy adults under 50 is a mere 200 international units (IU) while the U.S. Institute of Medicine recommends between 200 IU and 400 IU. While these levels may be adequate in preventing rickets, they have been found to be far too low in preventing the major diseases previously mentioned.
Many naturopathic physicians recognize that anywhere between 4,000 IU and 10,000 IU of vitamin D a day is a more appropriate therapeutic range, considering upper levels of vitamin D are generally recognized to be about 40,000 IU per day, a level far greater than the recommended daily intake thresholds established by mainstream medicine. Contrary to popular misperception, vitamin D is not dangerous nor is it toxic. With a therapeutic index of 10 (40,000/4,000), vitamin D is considered by the Vitamin D Council to be twice as safe as water in terms of “overdosing”. In other words, vitamin D is safe and beneficial in relatively large amounts.