Vitamin D recommendations increased for Pregnant Women

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/30/vitamin.d.pregnancy/index.html

Oh, it's been a few days. Sorry about that, I'll do two tonight :)

CNN posted an article a couple of days ago about recent studies showing that pregnant women need more Vitamin D than previously thought. Right now the RDA is 400IU and the study had women take up to 4000IU, yeah, big difference. At my first midwife appointment she recommended that I add a 2000IU supplement. It's recommended that midwives or obs do a blood test to see if their patient is low in Vitamin D, but as my midwife put it, everyone is, it's a $150 test, and $150 will buy a LOT of supplements.

This isn't based on anything I've read, but I'm willing to bet that there are two main contributors to why most of the population is now D deficient (I'm thinking that this is also why the recommendations are suddenly changing): change in food production & change in outdoor time. People spend much, much less time outside now than they ever have before, and scheduled outdoor time frequently (and should ALWAYS) include sunscreen. I have a history of skin cancer in my family, and am pale enough to glow in the dark, I don't leave my bathroom in the morning without sunscreen on my face, at least. The other big reason is that we're getting less D from our food. Animals produce Vitamin D in the sunlight as well, and this can be found in products such as milk and eggs (I'm not sure about the content in actual meat). As most of our animals are now being raised indoors (heck, so chickens never even see the light of day), they're D production has also plummeted. Another excellent reason to only buy products from animals that have lived outdoors!

So, talk to your midwife, ob or dr. and ask about the new recommendations!