Letter from the Director

MEASUREMENT is the key to action!  It provides every individual with the information needed to make a logical, informed decision about their health.  It puts you in charge!

The US Preventive Task Force published a statement on November 25, 2014 that concludes "the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for vitamin D deficiency in asymptomatic adults." In other words, for adults who do not show outward signs of vitamin D deficiency, they don't recommend vitamin D testing, nor do they dissuade testing - they simply don't have enough evidence to say one way or another.

So, the implication is that we have to wait until we're sick or receive a diagnosis when we could have known by testing that we might be able to keep ourselves healthy? 

The GrassrootsHealth D*action project is even more critical to public health now than ever.  I am extremely thankful to each and every one of you who chooses to participate.  Please keep participating. Please encourage others to do so.  We all need measurement to keep our bodies in a disease-fighting state.

Another recent development in the importance of measurement has been a new analysis to help fight the battle against the ridiculously low 600 IU/day recommended daily allowance (RDA) published by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in November 2010. Paul J. Veugelers calls for a reconsideration of the vitamin D RDA, stating that the current recommended intake results in measured blood levels that are too low, many being less than 50 nmol/L (20 ng/ml).  We are creating a formal publication to show what it really takes to get a population to a minimum vitamin D blood level of 20 ng/ml. Based on the extensive data you have provided, our publication will be powerful. So, when you think about getting a 'test', please realize that your information is truly impacting public health policy with the D*action project.

Thank you for continuing to measure your vitamin D and GrassrootsHealth will continue to collect and report on this data - opening the eyes of the government and moving resea

rch into practice - NOW!

Carole Baggerly 

Director, GrassrootsHealth

A Public Health Promotion & Research Organization

Moving Research into Practice NOW!

Measurement is the Key to Success

Measurement is how we find out if we are improving or changing. How would you know...

• if your blood pressure was where you wanted it to be if you never measured it?
• how much your toddler has grown if you never measured their height?
• if you were becoming a faster swimmer or runner or cyclist if you never measured your time?

What did the USPSTF recommend that patients and doctors do?   

On November 25, 2014 the US Preventive Services Task Force concluded to have no recommendation on vitamin D testing in non-pregnant adults. They gave vitamin D testing an "I statement" result, which from a chart reads "The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of the service. Evidence is lacking, of poor quality, or conflicting, and the balance of benefits and harms cannot be determined."

Dr. Robert P. Heaney, MD, Creighton University, and Research Director of GrassrootsHealth, responded immediately with an editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine , Screening for Vitamin D Deficiency: Is the Goal Disease Prevention or Full Nutrient Repletion? In the editorial, Heaney criticized the USPSTF's stance because it "fail(ed) to take advantage of newer information or to use critical biological criteria for selection of studies for analysis of biological effects."

The USPSTF's recommendation was due in part to the lack of consensus in the scientific community about what vitamin D deficiency really is. Also, they based the recommendation on older studies and a disease prevention model instead of a nutrient repletion model. Dr. Heaney states "...most studies of vitamin D efficacy have used a disease-avoidance model, which is the standard approach used by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) for most nutrients. Furthermore, disease prevention is the explicit focus of the USPSTF. Nevertheless, the IOM and USPSTF approaches effectively equate health with the absence of disease, an equivalence that nutritionists have long rejected. Instead, nutritionists focus on full nutrient repletion when possible. The inevitable gap between disease prevention and nutrient repletion is still largely unexplored territory."

Measurement is the Key to Understanding the Right RDA

Today, the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for vitamin D is 600 IU/day with an upper limit of 4000 IU/day. When the IOM published their recommendations in fall of 2010, a group from the vitamin D community responded, but to no avail. One of the better responses came from Dr. Susan E. Brown, Director of The Center for Better Bones, New IOM Vitamin D recommendations - baby steps and missteps which we encourage you to read. 

On October 20, 2014 an independent researcher, Dr. Paul J. Veugelers from the University of Alberta, Canada wrote a compelling paper (with measurements!) to explain why 600 IU/day was simply not enough. His final conclusion being that there was a statistical error in the estimation of the RDA for Vitamin D and that 600 IU/day would get 97.5% of the population to only 10.72 ng/ml!

We are continuing to finalize details for our seminar next week Vitamin D for Public Health - Integrating Sunshine, Supplements and Measurement for Optimal Health.

I sure hope if you aren't coming that you sent the invite onto your doctors or health consultants - people in the health industry that can affect change. That is what we are trying to do - not just give more information, but have a group of people together that will brainstorm, make partnerships, and take action!  

D*action already has done so much, just by doing one test at a time, over many years - we have data that can refute a standing public health recommendation. With data, comes power - and we will use this power (like any super-power) for good.

Thanks,

Susan Siljander       

Marketing Director, GrassrootsHealth

A Public Health Promotion & 

Moving Research into Practice NOW!

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You can prevent disease if just one more person finds out about the preventative properties of vitamin D and starts moving their blood serum levels to 40-60 ng/ml.