Newswise — In a development that could help improve the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, rickets, and other bone diseases, government chemists are reporting an advance in developing an accurate, reliable set of standards for measuring vitamin D levels in blood. Their findings could affect the health of millions of people worldwide, particularly children, women, and the elderly, who suffer from or are at risk of these debilitating diseases. The study will be presented here today at the American Chemical Society’s 237th National Meeting.
The advance comes in the midst of a growing awareness that many children and adults are not getting enough vitamin D. New studies also link vitamin D deficiency to a higher risk of diseases ranging from cancer to cognitive impairment in the elderly. Everyone needs ample vitamin D not just to absorb calcium and maintain bone strength but to promote good overall health.
People produce the vitamin naturally when sunlight shines on their skin. Concerns about skin cancer, however, have reduced exposure to sunlight. Likewise, declines in consumption of certain dairy products have reduced intake of another natural source of vitamin D. The vitamin also is available as a dietary supplement.
Despite concerns about adequate vitamin D intake, there is no standard laboratory test for measuring vitamin D levels in humans, and no universal agreement on what are considered “normal” or “optimal” vitamin D levels. To understand vitamin D’s role in health and disease, and use that knowledge in everyday medicine, laboratories need better measurement standards, the scientists say.
“No one really knows what methods or assays are correct at this point,” says Mary Bedner, Ph.D., an analytical chemist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Md. “Right now, you can send a blood sample to two different labs and get completely different results for vitamin D.”
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/550271/that's not cool......Late last year, a group of leading scientists published an editorial in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition calling for an "urgent need" to increase the AI for vitamin D. Among them was Walter Willett, MD, the widely respected chairperson of the Harvard School of Public Health's department of nutrition. "The range we are talking about-1,000 IU per day-is still a small dose," Willett says.
In response to the debate, the National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) last year began an intensive effort to learn more about vitamin D, partnering with other federal agencies to assemble a panel to assess research needs and priorities. Their efforts may result in a new AI when the Dietary Guidelines for Americans are revised in 2010.