Welcome back to Local Edition, I'm Brad Pomerance. Thank you so much for joining us again.
Our guest is Tony Norman. Professor Norman teaches at UC Riverside
and he has recently hit the presses with a very important study about Vitamin D, which
I have in front of me.
A very important vitamin, no doubt. Talk to us about the Vitamin D crisis.
[Norman] So the Vitamin D crisis is a health topic.
The question, fundamentally, is how much Vitamin D should each person get?
From babies to kids to teenagers to young adults to adults to people my age.
[Pomerance] What I understand from your studies is that half the people in North America and
Western Europe are Vitamin D insufficient. They're deficient.
[Norman] Yes, and two-thirds of the rest of the world. [Pomerance] Why?
[Norman] Because they don't... because Vitamin D is not
available in very many food substances, and so
there's another aspect about Vitamin D the audience should appreciate, we all have a precursor
in our skin.
A derivative of cholesterol and when that is exposed to sunlight, or ultraviolet light, it
produces Vitamin D. [Pomerance] Let's talk about that, because I remember
when I was a kid, my dad the pharmacist would tell me
you get Vitamin D from the sun.
Now Vitamin D is a huge benefit
of the sun, but you also get sunburn and you get skin cancers. And so, nowadays
we are always hearing "put on that sunblock!"
But is that sunblock preventing us getting the Vitamin D from the sun?
[Norman] Yes it is. But there's a truce between
Vitamin D researchers and nutritionists, like myself, and
dermatologists who worry about melanomas and skin cancer.
It is that we agree that
we won't necessarily try to obtain all the Vitamin D from ultraviolet light or sunlight
or suntan parlors, but they will obtain some by supplementation, like what was in the bottle.
[Pomerance] So let's talk about supplementation.
You are recommending that we were receive between 2,000 and 4,000
international units of Vitamin D [Norman] Mmmm-hmmm, that's right. [Pomerance] Is that a lot?
Well it's a big number, but you know it used to be when we went to Italy, it was 1,400 Lira per dollar,
[Pomerance] There you have it. [Norman] So don't be impressed or worried
about the large number.
[Pomerance]These are not horse pills. I mean it doesn't appear, if you can get this G, they're not that
large and they are easily
digestible. You can swallow them without much difficulty. You can see it right
here, they're not that large.
But that being said, I have to think there are ways to get Vitamin D other than from
supplements. What foods are rich in Vitamin D? [Norman] Well, the only natural ones are fish,
cod liver oil is a good example, or salmon. Beyond that it would be present in low
levels in meat which came from animals
which were out in the sunlight. [Pomerance] That's interesting. [Norman] That's how Mother Nature planned
for all vitamins. Technically, Vitamin D is not a vitamin, because the substance that's made
from the sunlight doesn't actually produce the biological responses. It has to be converted
first in the liver and then the kidney and it produces a steroid hormone which I refer
to as Hormone D. [Pomerance] What about the multi-vitamin? Would you get enough Vitamin D?
I take a multi-vitamin. Is that good enough?
[Norman] It depends on which version of the multi-vitamin. [Pomerance] Fair enough.
So the Institute of Medicine committee reported that I'm sure some of the audience has heard about was
released two Tuesdays ago
and recommended that for kids and adults, up to 70, should take 600
international units a day.
And older people should take 800.
That was about a 20% increase over what they recommended the previous ten years.
[Pomerance] But you still think that's too low.
[Norman] It's way too low. [Pomerance] And professor, if you are Vitamin D deficient, what happens?
Well, with respect to Vitamin D and its Hormone D working on calcium and bone, you can get
rickets or osteomalacia. But also Hormone D works in the heart and cardiovascular system,
blood pressure regulation, regulation of insulin secretion,
participation in the immune system and protects against disease and muscle.
[Pomerance] Incredible. Professor, thanks for joining us. Back to HLN.