The Consequences of Deficiency

Vitamin D is on the fast-track toward nutritional sainthood -- that is, of being declared a miracle vitamin. Indeed, the research shows that vitamin D is required for healthy bones and to maintain the skeletal muscles that hold our bones in place. It helps prevent type-1 and type-2 diabetes. Vitamin D fights infections and may also have anti-depressant benefits. Vitamin D seems necessary for maintaining a healthy heart. And perhaps most dramatically, vitamin D protects against many different types of cancer, including those of the breast, colon, and prostate. All of these benefits point to the fundamental importance of vitamin D in health.

But I’ll argue for a moment that almost everyone is looking at the health benefits of vitamin D from the wrong perspective. Studies have consistently shown that low levels of vitamin D (either marginal levels or outright deficiencies) are common among both sexes and all age groups, from infants through seniors. The consequences of inadequate vitamin D are nothing less than catastrophic, contributing to the risk of developing all the diseases that vitamin D supplements correct. As Evan Shute, MD, once told me, “Vitamins prevent what they also cure.”

The risk of a vitamin D deficiency can be reduced simply by taking a capsule containing 1,000 to 2,000 IU daily. The benefits might seem miraculous, but they are not a true miracle. They are the result of correcting a single vitamin deficiency. The conventional medical and dietetic view is that vitamin deficiency diseases were common through the 1940s, but that they are rare today. But this conventional view is wrong—often dead wrong for the people affected by such deficiencies.

It’s incredible that, in 2009, a lack of vitamin D is widespread, not just in the United States, but throughout Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world. And if we looked just a little harder, we would find deficiencies of other vitamins and minerals also to be common. Imagine how much better off people would be if we managed to eliminate all vitamin deficiencies. –JC