Doctors, Health Practitioners Dispute Vitamin D Recommendations From IOM

Recommendations from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a unit of the National Academy of Science, that vitamin D intake should be significantly increased for virtually every American, from infants to the elderly, are being criticized by experts in the healthcare community. The IOM recommended vitamin D intake should be doubled for infants to 400 IU, tripled for people aged one to 50 and upped by 50 percent for people aged 51 to 70. The IOM also urged caution for post-menopausal women about calcium intake because of kidney stone risk. However, doctors and healthcare practitioners disagreed with the recommendations, saying they won’t change their advice to patients. One physician said the IOM’s report “does not represent the views of researchers who are true experts in the field.”