JULY 9, 2009 — Health officials in the Canadian Atlantic province of Newfoundland & Labrador say they are so overwhelmed with demand for vitamin D testing that they can no longer process the blood tests, the Canadian Broadcast Company reported on Tuesday.
“Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest health authority said Monday it won’t do any more general testing for vitamin D because its lab is being overwhelmed,” CBC reported. “In the last two years, Eastern Health authority has seen a 10-fold increase in people wanting to be tested for vitamin D deficiency. The request for tests has steadily climbed since July 2007, and peaked in January at 5,000 tests a month.”
According to CBC, “Eastern Health’s laboratory medicine director Lynn Wade said at $25 per test, it was costing a fortune to tell people that everyone in the province who isn’t taking a vitamin D supplement should be taking one.”
Newfoundland, in extreme Northeaster Canada, has a population at risk for vitamin D deficiency because of the weak sunlight most of the year. The network acknowledged that “Scientific studies have suggested vitamin D, also known as the sunshine vitamin, could protect against a number of illnesses including cancer and depression.”
The professional tanning community in Newfoundland can be a part of the solution to this problem – informing communities that affordable Vitamin D home testing is available for $40 per test for those who want to get a D test done and who want to be involved in a revolutionary vitamin D testing program. Visit www.Daction.org for more information.
To read the CBC story click here.