Enough (D) is Enough

"A recent breakthrough study looking for changes of osteomalacia in bone biopsies helps us understand the disease beyond these late clinical findings. This study was published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research in February 2010 and was misinterpreted when reviewed by the IOM. In this study, 675 iliac crest bone biopsies from autopsies of adult men and women from Northern Europe were studied and correlated with vitamin D levels from the biopsy subjects. In a biopsy the scientists can measure the ratio of non-mineralized bone volume to total bone volume. This ratio is increased above 1.2-2% when there is a mineralization defect, such as from vitamin D deficiency or osteomalacia. They did not find any increase in this ratio in subjects with vitamin D levels above 75 nmol/L or 30 ng/mL whether they chose 1.2% or a more conservative 2% cut off. This study avoids the delayed and subjective nature of disease symptoms and the late findings of x-ray studies and simply correlates bone pathology at the microscopic level with vitamin D levels. This study indisputably argues for an optimal vitamin D level of equal to or more than 30 ng/mL. This study ENDS the debate on defining vitamin D deficiency. The pathologic definition of vitamin D deficiency is a blood level <30 ng/mL."
http://www.thevitamindcure.com/blog/?p=151


This is a great post, well worth reading in its entirety.


Dr. Davis, from Heartscanblog, chimes in with this quote from the same post:
"The IOM is focusing on deficiency when it should be focusing on optimal health values for vitamin D. The scientific community continues to argue about the lower limit of normal when we now have definitive pathologic data showing that an optimal vitamin D level is at or above 30 ng/mL. Moreover, if no credible toxicity has been reported for vitamin D levels below 200 ng/mL, why are we obsessing over whether our vitamin D level should be 20 ng/mL or 30 ng/mL?

"Yes, indeed. Have no doubts: Vitamin D deficiency is among the greatest public health problems of our age; correction of vitamin D (using the human form of vitamin D, i.e., D3 or cholecalciferol, not the invertebrate or plant form, D2 or ergocalciferol) is among the most powerful health solutions. "

http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/vitamin-d-deficiency-vs-optimum-level.html