NPR NEWS: Panel Clarifies Advice On Vitamin D Intake

A government-organized panel of doctors goes against recent advice to increase vitamin D intake. Their new study says most Americans get plenty of vitamin D in their regular routine and diet — and supplements can even be harmful. NPR’s Guy Raz talks with one of the doctors on the panel that released the report — bone specialist Clifford Rosen.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

There’s new guidance today from the Institute of Medicine on the use of a popular nutritional supplement: Vitamin D. Vitamin D has been flying off the shelves in the past several years thanks to doctors’ warnings that we are all Vitamin D deficient. Well, now comes news that we are consuming too much Vitamin D and too much calcium in supplements.

GUY RAZ, host:

If it all sounds confusing to you, it was also a surprising conclusion for Dr. Clifford Rosen. He was on an independent panel of medical researchers that determined the Vitamin D craze has gone a bit too far. And he’s with us in the studio now.

Dr. Rosen, first of all, it has practically an article of faith that most Americans don’t have high enough Vitamin D levels in their blood. That’s not true, you say?

Dr. CLIFFORD ROSEN (Maine Medical Center Research Institute): We don’t think that’s true. That certainly was an article of faith, and many of us believed it. I certainly did coming into the Institute of Medicine committee.

I published studies showing low Vitamin D in Maine women, particularly during the winter months. So I was relatively convinced and was supporting Vitamin D supplementation.

RAZ: Now, some doctors recommend an average of 1,000, up to 3,000 units per day. Your panel recommends 600 units per day per adult. How did you come to that conclusion?

Dr. ROSEN: Well, we looked at what the dietary intake and this was both Canada and the United States. So this was a joint effort.