Overview Deficiency of vitamin D

FACT: Much of the world is now vitamin D deficient

OBSERVATION: There are many reasons that a person may be vitamin D deficient

11 of the reasons for the epidemic are new in the past 40 years, Example: Air Conditioning

OBSERVATION: The more reasons that apply to an individual, the more likely he is to be deficient (additive reasons)

FACT: Vitamin D Deficiency has been associated with many diseases

FACT: Vitamin D intake can be increased by supplements, injection, UV, and sun (very little by food) items

FACT: Adding vitamin D to diets has been proven E1 E2 in clinical trials to both PREVENT some and TREAT some diseases

OBSERVATION: Adding vitamin D (intervention) does PREVENT and TREAT additional diseases - more trials are underway

OBSERVATION: There are at least 10 ways to increase the response by the blood to vitamin D intake

Details at Vitamin D Life

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Only half as many people had >30 ng of vitamin D 16 years later

Approximately 44% in 1988 and 22% by 2004

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CLICK HERE for paper which has this chart: "Demographic Differences and Trends of Vitamin D Insufficiency in the US Population, 1988-2004"

Vitamin D Cure book by Dr Dowd's (pg 32-33) has one of the ways to make a vitamin D risk assessment

Ethnic Background dark skin 4, 5, 6 3 points
Body Mass Index >30 3 points
Breast fed infant 3 points
Have fatigue or muscle, bone, or joint paint 2 points
Senior older than 50 2 points
Live far from equator more than 35 degrees 2 points
Put sunscreen on before sunning 8 SPF or more 2 points
Rarely spend time outdoors 11 AM to 4 PM 2 points

The vitamin D research indicates that the following factors should be added to Dr. Dowd's list

Pregnant improve Calcium availability 2 points
Very far from equator > 70 degrees 1 point
Winter 1 point
Recent sunny vacation -1 point
Frequent use of tanning bed If bed does produce UVB, not just UVA -1point
High altitude increases UV - Colorado -1 point
Cloudy or smoggy reduce UV 2 points
Very obese in addition to BMI > 30 1 point
Vegetarian no fish and no supplements 1 point
Medical condition which obstructs vitamin D rickets, MS, gut, HIV, kidney, liver, thyroid.. 3 points
Vitamin D depleting drugs] 2 points
Smoking 1 point
Avoid sun with extra clothing, umbrella skin cancer concern, whiter skin, social reasons 2 points
Medical problem related to D runs in family Cancer, MS, Heart, Lupus, TB, etc. 2 points

Risk Assessment

Low Risk 0-2 points
High Risk 3-5 points
Very high risk 6-8 points
Extreme risk 9+ points

If you have a risk factor >2 see: Overview: How Much vitamin D

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Text was extracted from graph July 2011 - for translation to other languages and to be read to the blind

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Indoors more (results from)

  • Air conditioning

  • Fear of sun

  • Dark skin

  • Less muscle mass (vicious circle)

  • More video games, multi-media, computer

  • More people in office jobs

Low income (results in)

GREEN text

=big change in last 40 years


Decreased D (results from)


Vicious circles: (low D ==> disease ==> lower D)

Many other diseases:

such as cancers, rickets, heart attack, lupus, psoriasis, depression; do not seem to have vicious circles other than the person not going outdoors as much


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A similar cause and affect diagram for African-Americans - by Grant 2010

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CLICK HERE for web page


Only a tiny number of Americans eat even the "minimum wage" of vitamin D

orange line indicates the Institute of Medicine Nov 2010 minimum recommendations

Note that this shows few Americans get at even 400 IU of Vitamin D

  • <5% of all females,

  • <10% of males

  • 0% of females ages 14-31

  • 0% of seniors (over age 71)

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Percent of population with less than 20 ng of vitamin D has the following graph

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Large % of people in many countries have less than 20 nanograms:

Australia 31, Canada 61, China 45, India 75, Korea 56, Malaysia 74, Middle East 90, Mongolia 98, New Zealand 56, North Africa 60, Northern Europe 92, United States 36

Low levels of Vitamin D for 70,000 people in California 2007

click on chart for details

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Vitamin D reduced so low that Victorian age diseases are returning has the following chart

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Risk Factors for Vitamin D Deficiency

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See also web

image click on chart for details

short URL for this page = tinyurl.com/amIdeficient