Vitamin D: the thoughts of science journalist Gina Kolata

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To D or not to D

An article written by Gina Kolata, an American science journalist, on vitamin D was published in the New York Times April, 10, 2017. Her write-up called into question whether vitamin D testing and subsequent supplementation was necessary and more to the point, ill advised.

Kolata quoted Dr. Clifford J. Rosen, an osteoporosis researcher at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute, as stating that “vitamin D has become a religion.”

And she’s not wrong. We’ve all become accustomed to the long aisles at CVS and Walmart filled to the brim with different supplements, many of which are unregulated. In Kolata’s fairly short write-up, she questions the numerous health claims that circulating the web surrounding vitamin D and, moreover, the impacts of a vitamin D deficiency. She adamant proposes that medical establishment has been corrupted into propagating the belief that we are all deficient and desperately in need of exogenous supplementation.

She referenced a JAMA study published April 5th of this month that concludes that “monthly high-dose vitamin D supplementation does not prevent CVD. This result does not support the use of monthly vitamin D supplementation for this purpose. The effects of daily or weekly dosing require further study.”

Since the op ed publication, several have responded including Dr. Geo Espinosa, ND, who shed further light on the topic, calling into question whether a science journalist should be persuading their audience one way or the other when it comes to charged medical topics.

Dr. Espinosa is quick to point out that vitamin D is not a panacea, but also makes clear that it is a very important ‘prohormone.’

“Up until two years ago, I worked to maintain my patient’s vitamin D blood levels at about 80 ng/ml. This is what my colleagues were doing and it’s what I had learned at medical conferences. Since then, [I] took a deep dive into the research literature and I changed my tune.

“In my practice, I try to keep patient’s blood levels of vitamin D taken between 35ng/ml to 40 ng/ml/ (nmol / l), not much higher. This requires regular testing. There is disagreement I know, but I am basing my opinion on the best science I have come across,” said Dr. Espinosa.

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