Tuesday October 14, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- The nation’s top physicians organization says it now recommends that children from newborns to teens should double their intake of vitamin D because evidence has suggested that the current recommended dose is too low to prevent some health conditions that would otherwise be presentable at high intake.

The daily intake of vitamin D is currently recommended by the government at 200 international units for infants, children and adults age under 50 years. For adults between 50 and 70, the current recommendation is 400 IUs and for adults older than 70, 600 IUs per day is recommended.

The new recommendations may help change the landscape of vitamin D deficiency in children.   One study led by Dr. Catherine Gordon, director of the bone health program at Children's Hospital in Boston and colleagues and published in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found 12 percent of the youngest children in the U.S. are deficient in vitamin D and another 28 percent are at risk for vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D can be found in a small number of foods mostly in oily fish such as salmon and fortified foods such as milk and orange juice.   Vitamin D supplements are also a major source of this vitamin.

The best source is sunshine. The information given in the scientific community is confusing or even misleading. One argument is that people need to protect their skin from UV rays to avoid skin cancer. But researchers have warned that vitamin D deficiency can lead to more serious types of cancer.

But vitamin D experts have complained for long that the recommended intake is too low.   Studies have showed low vitamin D in the blood were linked with an array of serious diseases such as heart disease, cancer, rheumatic disease, metabolic syndrome, pre-eclampsia, multiple sclerosis and diabetes among others.

The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends children including breast-fed infants should get 400 IUs a day.   Physicians have been saying all along that exposure of both hands and the face to sunshine for 10 to 15 minutes each day will lead to generation of sufficient vitamin D.  

People with dark skin and people who live in the north could not be able to get enough vitamin D through exposure of vitamin D.   People who are prone to becoming vitamin D deficient also include elderly people, those with inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, and infants exclusively breastfed.

Still some researchers do not think the new recommendation is adequate enough. Adrian Gombart, a vitamin D researcher at Oregon State University, was cited by theapssoatepress as saying that 400 IUS is "probably not enough".

He was cited as saying many vitamin D experts believe that a dose between 800 and 1,000 IUs daily would be needed to help fight many diseases.   Observational studies suggested taking 1500 IU per day could help reduce breast cancer by 75 percent.

A study led by Dr. Ghada E.-Hajj Fuleihan of the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and recently published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism showed school children can use up to 2,000 IU per day without any side effect.

News media reports that the Institute of Medicine, a government advisory group that dictates many standards and recommendations is considering a change in its recommendation because research has showed the old one is no longer adequate.

The new vitamin D recommendations were scheduled to be released Monday at an academy conference in Boston. They will also be published in the November 2008 issue of the academy’s journal, Pediatrics.

Here are the AAP's recommendations cited by healthday.com

Infants who are breast-fed or partially breast-fed receive 400 IU a day of vitamin D in supplements, beginning in the first few days of life. Many mothers are deficient in the vitamin and pass this on to their newborns. Supplementation should be continued unless the infant starts taking at least one quart a day of vitamin D-fortified formula or whole milk, although whole milk should not be introduced until the child has turned 1. Many children, including those with a family history of obesity, should only be drinking low-fat milk. On-breast-fed children and older children should also receive a vitamin D supplement of 400 IU/day. Children at increased risk of vitamin D deficiency (for example, those taking anti-seizure medications) may need higher doses, but this should only be done in consultation with a health-care professional.

A health observer pointed out that there is no reason why a person should drink milk to get vitamin D. Fortified milk is not the only source for vitamin D and according to some nutritionists, milk, particularly the milk produced in the U.S. is not a good food in the first place.

For more information on vitamin D, read http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/vitamins/vitaminD/