Number of Children Lacking Vitamin D
Soars
November 10, 2014
Story at-a-glance
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The number of children with vitamin D deficiency has
increased by more than 200 percent in the last five years
-
Only 7 percent of physicians could identify the months of
the year when it is difficult to get enough sunlight
exposure to produce adequate vitamin D
-
Your body needs vitamin D at all life stages, including for
development in the womb
-
If you’re a woman who is pregnant or planning to become
pregnant, now is the time to optimize your vitamin D levels
for the sake of your child (and your own health as well)
By Dr. Mercola
In the last five years, the number of children with
vitamin D deficiency has
increased by more than 200 percent, according to a study
commissioned by the UK-based public awareness campaign Vitamin D
Mission.1
What’s more, they uncovered that many physicians and parents had
a “worrying lack of knowledge” about the importance of vitamin D for
children’s health and the widespread prevalence of deficiency.
Your skin produces vitamin D from exposure to sunlight, but
during certain months of the year – namely November, December,
January, February, and March in the UK and much of the US.
During this time not enough of the sun’s rays reach the earth to
produce ample vitamin D in your body (plus, it’d be too cold outside
to go sunbathing, even if it was).
Only 7 percent of physicians could identify these months of the
year when it is difficult to get enough sunlight exposure to produce
adequate vitamin D, and only 4 percent of parents were aware that
sunlight during the winter months could not provide vitamin D.
Many Parents and Health Care Practitioners Are Unaware of the
Importance of Vitamin for Children
There’s widespread misinformation and lack of awareness when it
comes to vitamin D, which is tragic because it’s incredibly
important for multiple aspects of health – and it’s one of the
easiest vitamin deficiencies to fix.
When surveyed, half of parents with children under 5 said they
knew “not much” or “nothing” about the importance of vitamin D for
children’s health. Another third said they had not received any
information from their physicians about it.
Further, one-third of health-care practitioners and four out of
five parents did not know the UK’s Department of Health recommends
children under 5 take a daily vitamin D supplement.2
Unfortunately, they recommend just 280 IUs of vitamin D daily for
children aged 6 months to 5 years, and 400 IUs daily for pregnant
and breastfeeding women.
These levels are likely far too low to bring vitamin D levels
into the optimal therapeutic range of 50-70 ng/ml year-round, and
even still it’s estimated that the average British toddler only gets
27 percent of the too-low recommended intake!3
No wonder rates of
rickets and other vitamin-D-related conditions are increasing
year after year…
Why Is Vitamin D So Crucial for Children’s Health?
Your body needs vitamin D at all life stages, including for
development in the womb. In fact, if you’re a woman who is pregnant
or planning to become pregnant, now is the time to optimize
your vitamin D levels for the sake of your child (and your own
health as well). One of the leading vitamin D researchers,
Dr. Michael Holick, explained in our interview:
"I usually recommend that vitamin D is critically
important from birth until death. Just to give you a couple of
examples: during pregnancy, we're now realizing that vitamin D
deficiency is a major issue for the developing fetus.
Pre-eclampsia, the most serious complication of
pregnancy, is associated with vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is
critically important for muscle function, which, of course, is
important for birthing action. We showed a 400 percent reduced
risk of women requiring a C-section if they simply were vitamin
D sufficient at the time they gave birth.
We're now beginning to realize that in-utero vitamin D
deficiency is more likely that the young children are going to
have asthma and wheezing disorders. We're also now realizing
that children who are vitamin D deficient are more likely to
develop type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis later in life,
rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn's disease.”
For instance, poor diet and lack of vitamin D during pregnancy
were found to be determining factors in whether children suffered
from asthma and wheezing by the age of 5.4
In childhood, studies of critically ill children found that vitamin
D deficiency is very common in sick children, and is associated with
worse outcomes and extended hospital stays.5
Your immune system needs vitamin D to function properly, too,
which is why children with adequate vitamin D levels are less likely
to catch the flu than children without.6
Vitamin D even plays a role in the health of your teeth, and
children with early childhood caries tend to have lower vitamin D
levels than children without.7
In fact, this association appears to begin in utero, as mothers
of infants with cavities were found to have significantly lower
vitamin D levels during pregnancy than mothers with infants who were
cavity-free.8
Research shows that 56 percent of black women and 19 percent of
white women were vitamin-D deficient during their first trimester of
pregnancy, however this used a deficiency definition of <20 ng/ml.9
This is well below the optimal 50-70 ng/ml, as you can
see in the table below. So most of those who the study classified as
having enough vitamin D were actually deficient as well – giving you
an idea of just how widespread vitamin D deficiency actually is.
Sources
Inadequate Vitamin D in Adults: Linked to Asthma, Neuromuscular
Disease, Thyroid Issues, and More
As an adult, your vitamin D requirements are equally important as
children’s. Accumulating research continues to highlight the many
different aspects of your health that are affected by too little
vitamin D. For instance:
- Low vitamin D levels may be associated with autoimmune
thyroid disease10
- People with neuromuscular disease are often vitamin D
deficient11
- Adults with asthma who are also vitamin D deficient are at a
higher risk of having an asthma attack, and boosting levels may
help manage attacks12
(the same has been found to be true
in children as well)
From my perspective, however, vitamin D deficiency appears to
have the greatest impact on
cancer rates. At present, the US
cancer mortality rate is equivalent to eight to 10 airplanes
crashing each and every single day. Optimizing vitamin D rates
across the general population could reduce that by about 50 percent.
And it's virtually free—at least if you opt for sun exposure.
As mentioned by Dr. Holick, one of the Nurses' Health Studies
showed that nurses who had the highest blood levels of vitamin D,
averaging about 50 ng/ml, reduced their risk of developing breast
cancer by as much as 50 percent. Similarly, a Canadian study showed
that women who reported having the most sun exposure as a
teenager and young adult had almost a 70 percent reduced risk of
developing breast cancer. It's just insane not to take advantage of
this prevention strategy…
How to Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels
It has become increasingly clear that
vitamin D deficiency is absolutely rampant, not just in
the UK but also in the US. For example:
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
reported that 32 percent of children and adults throughout the
US were vitamin D deficient
- The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found
that 50 percent of children aged 1 to 5 years old, and 70
percent of children between the ages of 6 and 11, are deficient
or insufficient in vitamin D
- Researchers such as Dr. Holick estimate that 50 percent of
the general population is at risk of vitamin D deficiency and
insufficiency
I firmly believe that appropriate sun exposure is the best way to
optimize your vitamin D levels. I personally have not taken a
vitamin D supplement for over five years, yet my levels are in the
70 ng/ml range. If you can't get enough sunshine, then a
high-quality tanning bed would be your next best option. What makes
for a high-quality tanning bed? Most tanning equipment uses magnetic
ballasts to generate light. These magnetic ballasts are well known
sources of
EMFs
that can contribute to cancer. If you hear a loud buzzing noise
while in a tanning bed, it has a magnetic ballast system.
I strongly recommend you avoid these types of beds and
restrict your use of tanning beds to those that use electronic
ballasts. Dr. Holick recommends protecting your face when using
a tanning bed, and to only go in for half the time recommended for
tanning. Make sure the tanning bed you're using is putting out UVB
radiation. There are some on the market that only put out UVA, as
this is what creates a tan, but you need UVB to produce vitamin D.
If You Opt for a Vitamin D Supplement…
If your circumstances don't allow you to access the sun or a
high-quality tanning bed, then you really only have one option if
you want to raise your vitamin D, and that is to take a vitamin D
supplement (make sure it is vitamin D3, not D2). I recommend
regularly testing your levels to make sure you're staying within the
therapeutic range of 50-70 ng/ml year-round. The Society Clinical
Practice Guidelines Committee recommends the following dosages. Keep
in mind that these guidelines are thought to allow most people to
reach a vitamin D level of 30 ng/ml, which many still consider
suboptimal for disease prevention.
- Neonates: 400 to 1,000 IUs per day
- Children one year of age and above: 600 to 1,000 IUs per day
- Adults: 1,500 to 2,000 IUs per day
GrassrootsHealth offers a helpful
chart showing the
average adult dose required to reach healthy vitamin D levels based
upon your measured starting point. Many experts agree that 35 IUs of
vitamin D per pound of body weight could be used as an estimate for
your ideal dose, but you’ll need to test your levels to find out the
dosage that’s right for you.
Vitamin K2 and Magnesium Are Important Alongside Vitamin D
Nutrients do not exist in a bubble… they often require the
synergistic actions of supportive nutrients to function properly
within your body, and this is very true of vitamin D, vitamin K2,
magnesium, and also calcium. These four nutrients perform an
intricate dance together, with one supporting the other. Lack of
balance between these nutrients is why calcium supplements have
become associated with increased risk of heart attacks and stroke,
and why some people experience vitamin D toxicity.
Part of the explanation for these adverse side effects is that
vitamin K2 keeps calcium in its appropriate place. If you're K2
deficient, added calcium can cause more problems than it solves, by
accumulating in the wrong places. Similarly, if you opt for oral
vitamin D, you need to also consume in your food or take
supplemental vitamin K2 and more magnesium. Taking mega doses of
vitamin D supplements without sufficient amounts of K2 and magnesium
can lead to vitamin D toxicity and magnesium deficiency symptoms,
which include inappropriate calcification.
Magnesium and vitamin K2 complement each other, as magnesium
helps lower blood pressure, which is an important component of heart
disease. So, all in all, anytime you're taking any of the following:
magnesium, calcium, vitamin D3, or
vitamin K2, you need to take all the others into consideration
as well, since these all work synergistically with one another.
Please don’t simply assume that you’re getting enough, either, as an
estimated 80 percent of Americans are deficient in magnesium.
The health consequences of deficiency can be quite significant,
as magnesium performs a wide array of biological functions,
including activating muscles and nerves and creating energy in your
body. So, ideally, strive to get the vitamin D your body needs
naturally, via healthy sun exposure, but if you opt to take a
supplement be sure to find out how to
optimize your vitamin K2, magnesium, and calcium levels along
with it.
From November 8th - 14th we launch
Vaccine-Awareness Week.
We set aside an entire week dedicated to advocating vaccine safety
and informed consent in the public health system.
Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More
I encourage you to visit the website of the non-profit charity,
the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), at
www.NVIC.org:
-
NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View
descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have
suffered vaccine reactions, injuries, and deaths. If you or your
child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider
posting and sharing your story here.
-
If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn
how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine
injuries.
-
Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post
descriptions of harassment and sanctions by doctors, employers,
and school and health officials for making independent vaccine
choices.
Together, Let's Help NVIC Get to the Finish Line
This is the week we can get NVIC the funding it deserves. I have
found few NGOs as effective and efficient, as NVIC. Its small team
has led the charge on vaccines and informed consent and will
continue to do so with our help!
So I am stepping up with the challenge. For the fourth year in a
row, I will match the funds you give. This year, I believe a
$100,000 match is the right thing to do. Please give, and all
dollars received up to $100,000 will be matched by Natural Health
Research Foundation, which I founded.
Also check out the documentary
Bought from now until November 21st, that
exposes the inner workings of the food and healthcare systems,
exploring the truth about the manufacture and sales of vaccines and
drugs. All proceeds from sales of the video (minus $1 for the
distributor) will be donated to the NVIC.
Copyright 1997- 2014 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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