Why does the Vitamin D Coucil Recommend 5,000 IU/Day?

By Dr. John Cannell, Vitamin D Council

Where did the Vitamin D Council et its recommendation that adults take 5,000 IU/day of vitamin D3 for the rest of their life? The Institute of Medicine’s food and Nutrition Board says 600 IU/day is enough, and the Endocrine Society says 2,000 IU/day is enough for most adults.

We think the safest thing to do while all the research is going on is to maintain natural vitamin D levels. By natural, we mean those levels obtained by those with natural sun exposure, such as lifeguards, some roofers and gardeners, and other who work in the sun and expose a lot of skin to sunshine. This is how our ancestors behaved throughout our evolutionary history.

The best study that examined the vitamin D levels of people who get plenty of sun exposure was published last year. Researchers discovered that free-living hunter-gatherers living around the African equator (where humans evolved) have average vitamin D levels of 46 ng/ml (115 nmol/L).

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