Vitamin D
16th February 2012
Posted on behalf of Rufus Greenbaum, former associate of the Vitamin D Association:
On 10 February 2012 I went to a quarterly meeting of the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition.
This is the main scientific committee that advises the government and the medical professions about many subjects, and Vitamin D is one of them.
If a midwife, or a doctor or even a member of parliament writes to the Department of Health suggesting that something about Vitamin D should be changed, then the standard answer is: ‘We are waiting for advice from our experts.’
This committee is one year into a three-year study to revise the advice that they last gave in 2007.
I was one of about five members of the public who sat in on their ‘private meeting, held in public’.
Most of the meeting was about iron and iodine, with a ten-minute update from the Vitamin D sub-group.
After the meeting had officially closed I was allowed to ask a question about Vitamin D, to which the answer was: ‘See the latest message from the chief medical officer’.
I invite you to read the recent government messages about Vitamin D – see the letter attached below.
All health professionals such as midwives, doctors and nurses should have received a copy, dated 2 February 2012.
Note that the current UK definition of ‘deficiency’ is: 25(OH)D less than 25nmol/L ( = 10 ng/mL )
The letter reports that 25% of the UK population is deficient at this level. I wonder what the percentage would be if the level were set at 50 nmol/L or even 75 nmol/L, which many Vitamin D experts recommend?
The official advice from the government is unlikely to change until the SACN issue their next report in mid-2014.
Until then, I will keep holding the SACN to account and trying to influence midwives such as yourselves, doctors and the general public, whose timescales are much shorter.
(Picture courtesy of mph887)