Health Canada Proposes Review Of Vitamin D Intake

With recent studies claiming that vitamin D deficiency is leading to chronic health problems such as cancer and heart ailments, Health Canada has decided to review how much of this nutrient is needed every day by an average Canadian who doesn't get enough of it from sunshine.

The U.S. Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine in Washington will conduct the year-long review. Current vitamin D intake levels for Americans and Canadians have been set by previous recommendations from the board. However, those recommendations were based on studies conducted only in the climatically milder U.S., and many health institutes insist that current Canadian daily levels of 200 to 600 international units of vitamin D are insufficient to ward off serious health problems—they contend that these dosage levels are good only for prevention of rickets in children.

Because of this country's cold and long winters, Canadians—particularly in its northern reaches—don't get enough vitamin D from sunshine. In fact, the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Paediatric Society have gone to the extent of prescribing up to 10 times more vitamin D than the current standard recommended by Health Canada.