Wednesday, November 12, 2008

UNPRECEDENTED WARNING ABOUT COD LIVER OIL

I got the following important message in my e-mail today. My mother used to give us cod liver oil every day -- lord only knows how much Vit. A toxicity we kids had. I think most mothers today don't give their kids cod liver oil (what kid today would take that foul-tasting stuff without spitting it out? :-P ), but it's important to know about the Vitamin A warnings.

However, the most important part of this medical doctor's message is that the doctors are now realizing most kids don't get enough Vitamin D -- and are recommending for healthy children 1,000 IU/day for every 25 pounds of body weight! As they say, in some cases this is more than ten times the current recommendations for children by the government and professional organizations.
Finally, the group recommended that "children with chronic illness such as autism, diabetes, and/or frequent infections" may need to take even more vitamin D, "doses adequate to maintain their 25-hydroxy vitamin D in the mid normal of the reference range (65 ng/ml) - and should be so supplemented year around." Less than one percent of American children currently have such levels.

Dangers of cod liver oil

November 11, 2008

Today, sixteen well-known experts, including professors Walter Willett and Ed Giovannucci of Harvard, Dr. John Hathcock of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, and Professor Reinhold Vieth of the University of Toronto, published an unprecedented warning about the ingestion of cod liver oil and resultant vitamin A toxicity.

Cod Liver Oil, Vitamin A Toxicity, Frequent Respiratory Infections, and the Vitamin D Deficiency Epidemic

John J. Cannell, MD; Reinhold Vieth, MS, PhD; Walter Willett, MD, DrPH; Michael Zasloff, MD, PhD; John N. Hathcock, MSc, PhD; John H. White, PhD; Sherry A. Tanumihardjo, MSc, PhD; D. Enette Larson-Meyer, PhD; Heike A. Bischoff-Ferrari, MD, MPH; Christel J. Lamberg-Allardt, PhD; Joan M. Lappe, PhD, RN; Anthony W. Norman, PhD; Armin Zittermann, PhD; Susan J. Whiting, MSc, PhD; William B. Grant, PhD; Bruce W. Hollis, PhD; Edward Giovannucci, MD

Using the strongest language published to date, the group condemned the current (1997) Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) recommendations for vitamin D, stating "The 1997 FNB recommendations offend the most basic principles of pharmacology and toxicology, leading us to conclude that the current official guidelines and limitations for vitamin D intakes are scientifically indefensible."

In addition to warning about the consumption of cod liver oil, the above experts recommended healthy children take 1,000 IU/day of vitamin D for every 25 pounds of body weight. In some cases this is more than ten times current recommendations for children by the government and professional organizations.

Finally, the group recommended that "children with chronic illness such as autism, diabetes, and/or frequent infections" may need to take even more vitamin D, "doses adequate to maintain their 25-hydroxy vitamin D in the mid normal of the reference range (65 ng/ml) - and should be so supplemented year around." Less than one percent of American children currently have such levels.

I'm sorry I can't send you this paper. Even though I wrote it, I had to pay to download it and agree not to reproduce it.
John Cannell, MD
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