Experts are warning that current recommendations for daily vitamin D intake are “grossly inadequate.”
“National recommendations from the Food and Nutrition Board are 400 to 600 International Units (IU) a day,” says Neil Binkley, MD, an Associate Professor in Geriatrics and Endocrinology at the University of Wisconsin.
The Food and Drug Administration currently recommends between 400 and 600 International Units (IU) a day. Experts are recommending between 1500 to 2600 IU daily. And there’s no concern for overdoing it since it’s safe to take 40,000 IU a day or even a little more.
Vitamin D is essential for bone health and improves muscle function. And there’s also evidence that shows it’s essential in warding off asthma symptoms.
Doctors from Harvard Medical School studied over 600 Costa Rican children with asthma. They found that children with lower vitamin D levels were significantly more likely to have been hospitalized for asthma. They were also more likely to have airways with increased hyper-reactivity and were likely to have used more inhaled corticosteroids.
“To our knowledge this is the first study to demonstrate an inverse association between circulating levels of vitamin D and markers of asthma severity and allergy,” wrote Drs. Juan Celedón and Augusto Litonjua.
(via: Science Daily & News-Medical.net)