Vitamin D: New Guidelines for ChildrenThe American Academy of Pediatrics has doubled the recommended dose of vitamin D that infants, children, and teens should receive to 400 units daily. To meet the new recommendation, millions of children will need to take vitamin D supplements each day.
The advice replaces a 2003 academy recommendation for 200 units daily. The same amount is recommended for people up to age 50; 400 units is recommended for adults ages 51-70, and 600 units for those 71 and older.
There has been a recent surge in publications about the possible benefits of daily vitamin D supplementation in all age groups. As a general rule of thumb, one has to be cautious when implementing the latest research results in clinical practice, especially of there is no definite evidence of benefit.
Last month, I had an interesting discussion with Dr. Robert R. Recker who is one of the top researchers on osteoporosis and vitamin D metabolism. He is very convinced in the benefits of the daily vitamin D supplementation at a dose of 1,000 units for adults. Vitamin D toxicity is typically observed at doses exceeding 7,000 units daily.
Here are some other comments on the topic: Vitamin D -- Elixir of Life? and Where are EpiPens prescribed the most in the U.S.?
A Doctor's Opinion: Why I Started Microblogging on Twitter
Micro-blogging on Twitter is easy, fun and can be useful and educational if you follow/subscribe to interesting people. In general, Twitter may prove to be more useful for physicians than what one expects at first sight. Some people don't like the links in the posts, thinking that the main purpose of Twitter is for personal updates answering the question "What are you doing?"
In my opinion, the links answer 2 more questions:
1. What are you reading?
2. What are you thinking?
See an example below (the oldest post is at the bottom, the newest at the top):
 | sandnsurf @AllergyNotes 10000 U. Working with Prof Jelinek on 3000 U summer maintenance and 10000 U winter (keep levels >100) |   |
 | AllergyNotes @sandnsurf Re: Vitamin D dose -- did you mean 10,000 or 1,000 U per day? |  |
| | sandnsurf @AllergyNotes Despite living in Australia - Vitamin D levels are 25-30% of required. I take 10000U a day to stave off madness...elixir YES | |
| | AllergyNotes @sandnsurf Vitamin D -- Elixir of Life? http://tinyurl.com/4b2umw | |
| | sandnsurf @AllergyNotes nice article - we are working on the link between vitamin D and MS and dpression at present. http://short.to/6de | |
| | AllergyNotes Doubling of Vitamin D for Children Is Urged http://www.nytimes.com/2008... |
References:
New Vitamin D Guidelines. AAP.
A Doctor's Opinion: Why I Started Microblogging on Twitter
Vitamin D: New Guidelines for Children. WebMD.
Doubling of Vitamin D for Children Is Urged. NYT.
A vitamin D3 dosage of 800 IU/d increased serum 25-(OH)D levels to greater than 50 nmol/L in 97.5% of women http://bit.ly/GzBCcA
Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.
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