Vitamin D- not as helpful as hoped for

Vitamin D- not as helpful as hoped for 

About a year and half ago (May, 2009), I posted an essay that reflected some exciting possibilities for Vitamin D being helpful to health.

As noted at the time, the preliminary evidence suggested that increasing the level of your Vitamin D could possibly reduce the chance of a range of serious illnesses, such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and colon cancer, from developing.

The American Academy of Pediatrics had also recently established a recommendation for Vitamin D supplementation for all children, a policy we at Advanced Pediatrics supported.

Today, the nation's leading panel of medical experts, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published a major report on the use of supplemental calcium and Vitamin D.

http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2010/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-for-Calcium-and-Vitamin-D.aspx

After studying over 1,000 studies on taking extra Vitamin D and calcium, the IOM found that with few exceptions, it was a bad idea.

Here are their findings:

• With regard to calcium, most Americans take enough calcium to meet all their needs.   The one exception are girls ages 9-18.   Older women tend to actually take too much and increase the risk of kidney stones.
• Vitamin D levels in America are much better than one would think.  An adequate blood level of 25-OH-D, the form of Vitamin D that should be measured, is 20 ng/ml, not the 80 or 100 that was once proposed as a goal.
• Taking extra Vitamin D can cause harm to your health.  Over 9 years of age, exceeding an intake of 4,000 Units a day can be harmful.
• The recent claims of health benefits from taking more Vitamin D than simply bone health requires are not supported by this review.
• The recommended dietary allowance for calcium every day is 700 mg for ages 1-3, 1000 from 4-8, 1300 from 9-18, 1000 from 19-70, 1200 from 51-70 females, 12000 if over 71.
• For Vitamin D the recommended dietary allowance is 600 units a day from age 1-70, and 800 after that.

Bottom Line:

The promise and hope that Vitamin D might do more than help bones form has been disproven.

No longer will we be recommending supplemental Vitamin D for most children.

The guidelines above will be our guide for calcium and Vitamin D intake, which is actually quite adequate for all but 9-18 year old girls who should work to make sure they take 1300 mg of calcium a day.

Dr. Arthur Lavin

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*Disclaimer* The comments contained in this electronic source of information do not constitute and are not designed to imply that they constitute any form of individual medical advice. The information provided is purely for informational purposes only and not relevant to any person's particular medical condition or situation. If you have any medical concerns about yourself or your family please contact your physician immediately. In order to provide our patients the best uninfluenced information that science has to offer,we do not accept samples of drugs, advertising tchotchkes, money, food, or any item from outside vendors.

Advanced Pediatrics Upgrades its Electronic Medical Record System

Advanced Pediatrics Upgrades its Electronic Medical Record System

Dear Family,

Everyone at Advanced Pediatrics is very excited to announce that we are upgrading our electronic medical record system.

As many of you know, we have been pleased to lead the way in the adoption of electronic medical record-keeping.  Our office opened with a fully integrated electronic system almost eight years ago.  Microsoft recognized us as a pioneer in this field in 2003.

Now that eight years have nearly passed, we have found a new system that will offer a far more robust system, particularly in our ability to communicate information to every family.  More on those features later.

Right now we want to be sure you know the key items you should be aware of for our four day transition period:

• First, we have all worked very hard to limit the time of transition to only four days.
• Those days will be Monday, November 15- Thursday, November 18
• Advanced Pediatrics will remain fully open during these four days.  
• Phone access will remain completely unchanged in this time period.
• During the days from Nov. 15-18, we will not be scheduling pre-scheduled appointments.
• This means that during Nov. 15-18, we will not be scheduling check-ups or well-baby visits.
• No appointments during Nov. 15-18 will be made on any but the same day.
• During Nov. 15-18, only, in order to be fully trained on the system, the office will take a step we do not plan to do again- limit times for medical care to Noon-1 and 5-6PM.  All three providers, Drs. Lavin and Hertzer, and Ms. Rieger will be available during these times.
• Starting November 19, our regular scheduling will resume, all under our new system
• One last point, since the system will be new, we are going to enter insurance information at every visit, to be sure we have all your information correct in the new system.  So please be sure to bring your insurance card to every visit for awhile, and plan for a few extra minutes to check in.

We appreciate everyone's understanding during these four days.  We will work hard to be sure we can answer all questions anyone has at anytime during this interval, just as we do everyday.

Once completed, we will be very excited to share many of the advances our new system offers.  A couple examples include:

• Electronic prescribing, no more carrying prescriptions to the pharmacy (unless you ask to)
• A secure web page where you can see your family's lab results, and communicate with the office electronically

As with our current system, the overall goal is to get rid of as much frustration as possible when it comes to getting information to or from our office.   Helping you is our key goal, and managing medical information is central to that purpose.

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*Disclaimer* The comments contained in this electronic source of information do not constitute and are not designed to imply that they constitute any form of individual medical advice. The information provided is purely for informational purposes only and not relevant to any person's particular medical condition or situation. If you have any medical concerns about yourself or your family please contact your physician immediately. In order to provide our patients the best uninfluenced information that science has to offer,we do not accept samples of drugs, advertising tchotchkes, money, food, or any item from outside vendors.