November is Vitamin D Awareness Month and the Vitamin D Society is urging all Canadians to check their vitamin D blood levels to ensure that they are not deficient. Canadians will no longer be able to make vitamin D from sunlight (UVB Light).
Woodstock, ON (PRWEB) November 22, 2013
November is Vitamin D Awareness month. A time of the year when your body’s vitamin D level starts to decrease dramatically as the reserves of vitamin D built up through summer sunshine rapidly deplete. November is the start of vitamin D winter in the northern hemisphere. In Canada the sun is low in the sky and the UVB rays that produce vitamin D in your skin do not reach the earth. People retreat indoors to bear the long, cold, low light Canadian winter. The Vitamin D Society is urging all Canadians to check their vitamin D levels through a 25(OH)D blood serum test, get their test score and ensure that they are at the optimal levels of 100-150 nmol/L as recommended by over 40 of the top vitamin D scientific researchers at GrassrootsHealth(1). If you are unable to test your vitamin D levels, Dr. Robert Heaney MD, Creighton University, recommends that you ensure your vitamin D intake is approximately 35IU per pound of body weight per day (75 IU per Kg/day).
In Canada, overall vitamin D levels for all ages of the population have been decreasing. The mean average vitamin D blood levels for Canadians between the ages of 6 and 79 years of age fell sharply by 6.2% from 67.7 nmol/L in 2009(2) to just 63.5 nmol/L in 2011(3). “This decrease is very disturbing as research studies continue to show that people with lower vitamin D levels are at a much higher risk of developing serious diseases” said Perry Holman, executive director of the Vitamin D Society. “Just over two-thirds of Canadians (68%) had vitamin D blood levels sufficient for healthy bones. Public health action programs encouraging increased vitamin D intake from all sources, including UV light, food and supplements, are urgently needed to help reverse this steep decline.”
Based on the latest Stats Canada research report, less than 10% of Canadians reach the recommended optimal vitamin D level of over 100 nmol/L. This is the natural vitamin D level of African tribesman living the way our ancestors did thousands of years ago(4).
“The vitamin D problem is getting worse not better and is hurting Canadians health and costing millions in healthcare” says Holman “It is very important that Canadians recognize the role vitamin D plays in their personal health and they take action to ensure natural, evolutionary vitamin D levels especially during vitamin D winter.”
In a study published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, Dr. William Grant reported that if Canadians raised their vitamin D levels to 105 nmol/L it would save an estimated 37,000 premature deaths and $14.4B in healthcare costs annually(5).
To help increase vitamin D levels, Dr. John Cannell from the Vitamin D Council recommends “vitamin D3 supplements and either sunlight or sunbeds to get needed UV light exposure”
About the Vitamin D Society:
The Vitamin D Society is a Canadian non-profit group organized to: increase awareness of the many health conditions strongly linked to vitamin D deficiency; encourage people to be proactive in protecting their health and have their vitamin D levels tested annually; and help fund valuable vitamin D research. The Vitamin D Society recommends people achieve and maintain optimal 25(OH)D blood levels between 100 – 150 nmol/L (Can) or 40-60 ng/ml (USA).
For further information, please contact:
Perry Holman
Vitamin D Society
877-520-4867
pholman(at)vitamindsociety(dot)org
http://www.vitamindsociety.org
References:
1. GrassrootsHealth – Scientists’ Call to D*action
http://www.grassrootshealth.net/epidemic
2. Langlois K, Greene-Finestone L, Litte J, Hidiroglou N, Whiting S. Vitamin D status of Canadians as measured in the 2007 to 2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey. March 2010. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 82-003-XPE
3. Janz T, Pearson C. Vitamin D blood levels of Canadians. January 2013. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 82-624-X
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-624-x/2013001/article/11727-eng.pdf
4. Luxwolda MF, Kuipers RS, Kema IP, Janneke Dijck-Brouwer DA, Muskiet FA. Traditionally living populations in East Africa have a mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration of 115 nmol/l. Br J Nutr. 2012 Jan 23:1-5
5. Grant WB, Schwalfenberg GK, Genuis SJ, Whiting SJ. An estimate of the economic burden and premature deaths due to vitamin D deficiency in Canada. Mol. Nutr. Food Res. 2010, 54, 1172-1181
