This study from the American journal of clinical nutrition states that the health benefits from vitamin D starts at 75 nmol/l, and the best effect is found in the ranges between 90-100 nmol/l. They state that these levels cannot be reached by following the current guidelines for daily intake by the government. Those guidelines are outdated because when researchers set out to establish what was, in fact, a healthy level of vitamin D in the blood, they based their findings solely on vitamin D’s connection to bone and osteoporosis. They translated their findings in healthy British men to what was to be deemed healthy levels overall. The levels they found in their research were enough to combat osteomalacia or rickets, but today we know that vitamin D relates to many other aspects of health, and much higher levels are needed to combat adverse effects.

I live in Norway, and over here the recommended doses for just about anything is much lower than in the states. After being on 20 ug of vitamin D for over a year, I’ve only seen a slight increase in my serum levels: 36-46 nmol/l. I recently bought an over-the-counter box of 80 ug vitamin D, and the pharmacist actually warned me not to take any other supplements and watch my diet so I wouldn’t get a toxic reaction from these “high potency” pills. I had a discussion with her about the differences in doses between Norway and the US, and also about what kind of doses it would take to get to toxic levels (10.000 IU / 250 ug ), but she wasn’t able to tell me why a dose higher than 100 ug was dangerous. “It’s the official guideline”, and we both agreed that everything is “bigger in the US”. I am now aiming for 90-100 nmol/l of vitamin D to reap most of the benefits from it.

This research article states that supplemental guidance and population strategies for the eradication of vitamin D deficiency must be included in the priorities of physicians, medical professionals, and healthcare policy-makers. It is strange then that the same authorities that are responsible for the daily-intake-guidelines have set the intake so low that the majority of the population with a deficiency will not be able to get into the serum range which reports the most health benefits.