Dr. Richard Besser on GMA did a report on Vitamin D. He also gave some of the foods where you can get Vitamin D. I think that if you eat a healthy balanced diet, you can get Vitamin D from your food as well; not entirely but you can. But not everyone does that.

There was mention of nursing mothers - their babies - older people, etc. in the article.

Also pointed out was having high amounts of Vitamin D kidney and tissue damage can happen. With too much calcium you can have kidney stones. Perhaps a person needs to calculate how much they are getting in their diet and also if they take supplements so that the amount isn't exceeded. It seems to me that testing before you do anything would be helpful to see if you really do need more either from your diet or supplements. Testing before you take any supplements for anything would seem to make sense.

It's an interesting article at that. It just seems to be an age old argument. Nothing is set in stone.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/calcium...ry?id=12270518

I agree that testing is important. That is an obvious point.

But food typically does not have Vit D in it. The D in milk is D2 and less bio active. I00IU D2/8oz of milk.

I have seen some newer foods with labels D3, on them but they are few and far between.

Vit D is NOT a vitamin, and I wish with all the media attention this would be explained. Biologically we evolved to make our own from the SUN. But today the medical community has squashed that source...with all the suggestions about skin cancer, and coverups, and sunscreen products.

D2 and D3 are very different chemically. And react differently in our bodies. It is incredibly naive to put out a government statement with such low values as a recommendation.

You know I had a patient once who took SIX 50,000 IU daily, and had been doing so for years. I ran into him at an HMO and when I saw his use, I went to the supervisor (I was temping there until they could hire a new person)...and she said he had been getting that for several years, and not to verify it or do anything but just take care of it! This was an older gentleman. Details were not forthcoming either from her.
I will never forget it! But that was before we had the newer research we have now. That RX D2 was not serving him well!

We have drank milk all of our lives and lots of it. Today, anyway the milk we drink is fortified with Vitamin D3. It is not a fancy type of milk either. A cup of this milk gives you 25% of the daily allowance. I won't go into what a daily allowance should be.

I agree that they should not be calling D3 a Vitamin but they all do it. It is what our bodies synthesize from the sun and what we get in foods that are fortified with D3. And it does occur naturally in some foods.

The daily allowance is 400IU.... so 25% of that is 100IU.

So some brands may have changed their D content, and that is good. Traditionally it always was D2 form however.

People can choose what to do, with all the available information out there. It is just a shame that the media does not provide adequate information to make that choice. That is just my opinion.

I use Lactaid 2% milk. I rarely drink more than 8oz a day.
That would give me 100 IU of D3. And it costs me about $4.00 for a half gallon!

Fortified foods normally do not supply high amounts of what is being fortified. For example...Gatorade? providing electrolytes?
Nope... has some sodium, but one serving of Gatorade typically provides 30mg of potassium. (Potassium intake for adults is now recommended to be 4500mg).

Food contents are really confusing. Man made things are highly controlled by FDA. Naturally occuring things like V8 juice can have 800mg of potassium in a twelve ounce can or 1100mg in a Low Sodium can!

To find food contents here is a good website:
www.nutritiondata.com

Member "lookingforacure" on our PD forum found and posted this link. It is a reply to the IOM guidelines recently released:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...111112159.html

I'll be watching for those papers mentioned in the link by Dr. Cannell MD. As soon as they are available, online I'll post a link to them as well.

http://www.grassrootshealth.net/iomquotes

Questions come up here often about which type of D3 to take.

Bioavailability studies are done on drugs, but not often on supplements. I've been suggesting soft gels because I suspected they were better than "dry" types. But here is a study showing no real reason to use one over the other:

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=...HnnaNdoqV88xEA

i used to think that i was getting plenty from my milk, but blood tests found me low. low d3 is linked to cancer and i have that too. don't depend on the milk. btw can anyone explain what the dif is between d2 and d3?

This link explains the difference:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

ergo is D2
chole is D3
from http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml

I just had my Vit D tested with my yearly check up.

It was 43. My doctor expected higher. I take 5000 IU D3 daily since late Sept. (none during the summer).

So we settled on 10,000 IU D3 one day, and 5,000 the next and alternating that way. She wants me at 50ng at least, but ideally at 70, which she has medical information that 70 is the best level for cancer prevention.

The 43 is not bad... tho for my efforts so far. I rather shudder to think where I was 5 yrs ago! (didn't test back then).