IS A VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENT NECESSARY?

Vitamin D supplementation has become popular due to its suggested role in preventing disease such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. However, recent guidelines from the Endocrine Society are singing a different tune.

After reviewing the data supporting aggressive vitamin D supplementation, they found that a lot of those studies were not strong enough to suggest such a direct correlation between vitamin D and disease prevention. They therefore decided that the only people who should supplement above the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) daily recommendations are:

• anyone 18 and younger — to prevent rickets and reduce chances of developing respiratory infections;

• anyone 75 and older — to try and reduce mortality risk;

• pregnant people — to reduce risk of pre-eclampsia, intra-uterine mortality, preterm birth, small-for-gestational age birth and infant mortality; and

• anyone with prediabetes — to try and prevent diabetes.

Additionally, unlike the protocol to supplement with megadoses once a week, the new guidelines recommend taking smaller doses daily.

Finally, they recommend against testing vitamin D levels, unless there is reason to suspect deficiency.

So, what does this mean for you? Unless you’re in the group of people mentioned above, you might be able to ditch your vitamin D pills. But before doing so, please do confirm with your doctor.

How do we feel about this? At 4Q Method, we believe that the less you need to supplement, the better, so this is really music to our ears. Relying on food sources for our nutrients — in this case: yogurt, egg yolk, and fatty fish — is ideally the way to go. If you’re worried you’re not meeting your needs through food alone, schedule a call and let us help you!