Reply #35: Shedding light on vitamin D deficiency ‘crisis’

[ronnie624]

The vitamin D craze has been building over the last few years, with low levels of the supplement being the blamed as a source of many of our ills. Depression? D can ease it. Chronic pain? Take D. It is said to prevent kidney disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, colon and breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, or even the common cold. Recently, a study linked low vitamin D levels to the rise in Caesarean births.

Some studies, mainly epidemiological research that hunts for associations between diseases and possible causes, would seem to support that enthusiasm. For example, Cedric Garland, professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and colleagues, found that "the serum level associated with a 50 percent reduction in risk could be maintained by taking 2,000 international units of vitamin D3 daily." Garland believes the good news is being suppressed.

“We are curing cancer and diabetes and nobody is doing anything about it,” Garland said.

Well, not quite. Partly through the agitation of evangelists like Garland, along with the efforts of the indoor tanning industry, the vitamin companies, and medical testing outfits, the message has been heard. Patients are now getting their vitamin D status tested at such a rate Quest Diagnostics, the world’s largest medical testing company, reports double digit sales growth of vitamin D tests, which can cost upwards of $200.

<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28894095/>