"In this piece, several of the leading epidemiologists and endocrinologists who were on the original IOM committee argue for a lowering of the currently accepted cutoff level of 20, stating that the level they estimated as acceptable was never intended to be used to define vitamin D deficiency. They feel that we are over-screening for vitamin D deficiency, and unnecessarily treating individuals who are perfectly fine.
Based on their analysis, a more appropriate cutoff for vitamin D deficiency would be much lower, 12.5 ng/mL. They examined a massive amount of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for 2007 through 2010, and found that less than 6% of Americans had vitamin D levels less than 12.5. A cutoff of 12.5 ng/mL would most certainly eliminate the “pandemic” of vitamin D deficiency."
All they had to do was go with the numbers. Just ignore how healthy those people are (according to their doctors) -- or worse yet, how well they feel.
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Sounds about right. Too many people getting diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency, clearly you redefine deficiency rather than try to work out why the deficiency is happening on such a large scale.
Yes, moving the goalposts is a tried and tested method of saving money for healthcare systems everywhere or increasing pharma company profits.
Did you know back in the 1990s that "normal" cholesterol was considered to be anything under 7.5? Nowadays it is considered to be under 5. It increases the pool of patients and hence increases pharma profits.
Osteopenia was invented to increase the number of people who were diagnosed as being at risk of developing osteoporosis and could therefore be treated for it.
There is pre-hypertension for people with what used to be classified as "normal" blood pressure.
Pre-diabetes - that has also been invented during my lifetime.
And yet, nutrient deficiencies are rarely tested for and even more rarely treated. Yet people who optimise their nutrient levels actually feel better, which is something that doctors rarely achieve (or attempt to achieve) these days.
Yes food quality and optimum nutrition rarely gets air time in the NHS. It would be interesting to see the correlation between nutrient deficit, impaired immunity and the incidence of severe Covid 19 patients.
They did do some stool tests on ICU patients and found low diversity/count of gut bacteria. Whether Covid 19 caused it or resulted from it is the question.
Gut bacteria and health is never mentioned in traditional medical circles. Immunity appears to be a dirty work unless mentioned in the same sentence as vaccination
Oh yes that has been advocated since the beginning - from the people I follow ! Also Selenium Magnesium and VitC. Sadly not mentioned on the news. Could be creeping into some newspapers I believe. Good VitD link below !
They seem to swing back and forth on vit D - I saw a post by Chris Kresser saying the science recommended high doses of vit D on one day, then the next day that anything over 1000IU (unless you're deficient and loading) makes no difference. I don't know if they've swung back again since then. It's an evolving subject
I suspect that is his natural colouring but I thought he didn’t look well for a while before he was really ill. Something about his eyes, Prince Charles’ eyes looked similar.
In 2012 when I was found to have Graves’ disease I read on here that it was important to have vit D and B12 near the top of the range. My consultant tested B12 but not D so when I went back I asked about D to be told by a different, young male endo ‘ I don’t know what it is with the fashion of everyone wanting their vit D tested, if you can bring me evidence that there’s any point in it, I’ll test it’. Unfortunately by the time my next appointment came round and I gathered the evidence he had moved on.
Fast forward to January this year, I rolled off the edge of the bed and broke both bones in my wrist. Had a DEXA scan because of my age. Osteoporosis!
When the osteoporosis machine kicked in one of the first things I was tested for was vitamin D! When you have osteoporosis you are fed vitamin D.
Turns out also that if you have an overactive thyroid you should have a DEXA scan as an overactive thyroid along with low vitamin D and coeliac, early menopause and a few other things are markers for osteoporosis.
I can’t really blame it on low vitamin D because I did home fingerpick blood tests and supplemented vitamin D myself but there were enough warning signs that I was just a case of ‘bones waiting to break’
Couldn’t agree more with Human Bean about moving the goalposts!
I would guess most of the OP research comes from the big pharma companies who invariably wish to sell their wares. I have a hunch that more objective research considering vitamin and mineral supplementation plus optimum nutrition and exercise needs to be funded. The reason? Not necessarily to redress the balance because I don't think this would happen, but rather to expose current OP treatments for the sham they are!
I agree there’s big - well enormous amounts of money to be made out of OP. I didn’t want to go down the bisphosphates route but my diet is good, I do lots of weight bearing exercise, I don’t smoke or drink - never have - I supplement with various things if I need to, like vitamin D and B12 to keep them high yet in spite of all that I’ve got OP.
Unfortunately I’ve got a string family history of OP plus an overactive thyroid, inflammatory arthritis and a couple of other markers. I was surprised to see that the hospital dept that seems to be dealing with my treatment is rheumatology - broken bones - rheumatology - seemed a strange pairing to me.
I am only taking their horrible tablets because the pain caused by this break has been indescribable not only that I think I’ve now got CRPS into the bargain - my wrist has pretty much recovered and my hand feels enormous, like one of those ‘baseball catcher’s mitts’, in spite of doing the physio, my fingers are like fat swollen sausages that are permanently curved - they just won’t straighten out at all, I think the nerves and tendons have been damaged, the skin on them feels like I’ve got sand on them all when I wash and dry them and things I touch don’t feel like they should, it’s pretty horrible plus I now have a lot of shoulder pain that I didn’t have before.
So drug companies are making a fortune out of me and people like me because I just feel I don’t want to have to go through this again and if bisphosphates stop that then so be it - I’ll give them a try for a while.
119nmol The lowest I’ve been is 76 and it’s been up to 150
I’ve been using NutraZing K2&D3 with Magnesium, I’ve just had a spell using BetterYou D3/K2 spray but I found the spray didn’t last very long so I’ve gone back to the NutraZing
Might be worth looking at the Royal Osteoporosis Society online. Loads of information about diet and exercise there.
Thanks, Fruitandnutcase . I'll take a look. It boggles my mind that doctors put someone on a drug that is notorious for causing OP without discussing that risk and steps to take to prevent the development (if possible.)
Know what you mean. When I discovered I had OP I was shocked to discover that people with Graves Disease were at risk, that and inflammatory arthritis, plus the steroids I was given for that triggered T2 diabetes fortunately I only took them for three months and I was taking part in a pre diabetes study which meant that it was discovered very quickly because I was due for an annual check up..
I felt so many opportunities had been missed when I could have been warned of the risks of OP and offered a DEXA scan before I ended up as I did. It seems to me that doctors treat their own ‘bit’ of you in isolation.
I have a friend who is receiving treatment for breast cancer from the same hospital and she has had two DEXA scans and was made aware of the risks of OP so I think it is the luck of the draw.
They only use the lowest possible level to avoid rickets but can't care less much.
But for some the low level of D is good because they convert inactive to active better and they should not be tested the inactive D anyways, it's always on low side. That ruins the statistics as it makes it look like level for deficiency is lower!
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PubMed Papers - Every Day
Vitamin D dropped again
Every day is a bad hair day!
Advice please - Are levels low enough for nhs help or should I buy supplements? 
Omg how do some doctors get a degree
