How to Start with Vitamin D
Scientists have found that most of the world is vitamin D deficient.
 If you are new to our newsletter you are most likely vitamin D deficient as the average person has a vitamin D serum level around 25 ng/ml. In today's world it takes effort to get within the recommended range of 40-60 ng/ml because most people are predominantly inside; use sunscreen when outdoors; rely on multi-vitamins with low dosage (due to incorrect RDA); and cannot get enough from food.
Why is the RDA too low? Why is milk not enough?
The US RDA is too low because the Institute of Medicine (IOM) made an error in their analysis of the scientific data when they adjusted the RDA in 2010. Currently there is a petition to encourage the IOM and Health Canada to review the guidelines based on a paper describing the error. Suffice it to say that the US government has not yet caught up with the published science. When talking to your doctor do not be surprised if they think 20 ng/ml is enough, or if they discourage you from taking over 2000 IU/day of vitamin D supplementation.
 The government first supplemented milk with vitamin D to prevent rickets. Rickets is a disease caused by a lack of sunlight (vitamin D) which leads to softening and weakening of developing bones in young children. It was prevalent in the early 1900s as people moved from farms to the cities and got less and less sunlight. Children with vitamin D levels less than 20 ng/ml are at risk for rickets. This is a serious problem and to best supplement all children the government decided to fortify milk (and some breads). It worked! Despite the fact that a vitamin D level of 20 ng/ml is enough to prevent rickets in children, it is not enough to support overall good health throughout our lifetime.
Why do I need more?
To understand why the amount necessary to prevent rickets is not enough for overall good health, you need to understand more about vitamin D and how it affects your body. Vitamin D is actually a hormone that affects over 3000 cell processes within your body. Without enough vitamin D circulating regularly in your blood, your body simply does not function as it was intended (ridding the body of intruders, fighting disease, repairing cells). This presentation from Michael F. Holick, PhD, MD - "D-Lightful Vitamin D: Bone and Muscle Health and Prevention of Autoimmune and Chronic Diseases" is a great introduction to how vitamin D affects your body's systems.
Around the 1960s scientists started doing studies on vitamin D and disease prevention. While these studies are not as prolific as the studies on bone health, there are many that have found that vitamin D serum levels well above 20 ng/ml, in the range of 40-60 ng/ml, are necessary to prevent a number of diseases and cancers. Some of these studies have been randomized control trials (RCTs) and others have been epidemiological studies (looking at trends to determine cause and effect). GrassrootsHealth put together this chart to explain how vitamin D can prevent disease.
 | | Disease Incidence Prevention Chart - Click to Enlarge |
In the past ten years, there have been some successful RCTs that showed how beneficial vitamin D supplementation is with pregnant women. Please see this disease incidence prevention chart for pregnancy.
 | | Pregnancy - Disease Incidence Prevention - Click to Enlarge |
I have a specific condition, can vitamin D help me?
GrassrootsHealth, working with over 40 leading vitamin D scientists, has amassed many videos (from conferences, webinars and interviews) that can explain in more detail how vitamin D can prevent a certain disease. Please consult this chart for the video that might be pertinent to you or your family.
OK, I'm convinced. Now what do I do?
The first thing to do is test your vitamin D level. You may check with your doctor for a test or join D*action. With D*action you will be asked to pay fpr the test and complete an online questionnaire to enroll in our study. Then you will receive a card and instructions in the mail. You will prick your finger and put blood on this card and return it to us. A couple of weeks later you will receive a link via email to view your vitamin D serum level. We recommend you test your blood level every 6 months, especially when you are new - as you will most likely be changing your habits and/or diet to achieve a higher serum level. Doing this through D*action will help provide us with more data and help fund vitamin D research and education.
| 
Baggerly graduated from Texas Christian University with a BA in Math and Physics. She started her professional life as a physics teacher and become a credentialed Montessori teacher when she had children. She then started and ran a Montessori Children's Center. She entered the business world as the Director of Information Technology at an ITT division where she helped implement ITT's first on-time, on-budget MRP system, a multi-million dollar project. In 1983, she formed Baggerly & Associates, providing business process re-engineering services to Fortune 500 companies. Due to market timing, she quickly became an expert in electronic data exchange and worked as the aerospace industry Vice-Chair with ANSI to define the emerging EDI standard. In 1992, she founded ESIS to provide aerospace companies a service bureau with EDI which allowed them to implement 1000's of partners quickly. She retired from ESIS in 2001 to start Building Points of View, providing teambuilding and conflict resolution to companies. Her personal experience with breast cancer led her to form GrassrootsHealth. Baggerly lives in San Diego with her husband, Leo L. Baggerly, a physicist who is also working on some research aspects of vitamin D, specifically with the kinetics, the movement of vitamin D through the body.
