Don Smith

The important "message" here is that once the public finds out about the importance of maintaining optimal vitamin D (25-OH-D) levels, they will "demand" that their doctors order them when they have their annual physical. And the statistics indicate that 54% of them world-wide (and 65%-95% in Canada) will be vitamin D deficient.

Does it bother anyone (other than me) that our friends "up north" are (thanks to Doug McNabb) light years ahead of us?


Demand for vitamin D tests soars as nutrient's potential benefits touted

15 hours ago
TORONTO — With study after study touting the potential benefits of vitamin D, including the possibility it may stave off some cancers, requests for tests to check patients' blood levels have soared in the last year, leaving some medical labs scrambling to meet demand.


LifeLabs, which provides a broad range of medical testing in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, saw demand for vitamin D tests skyrocket by 90 per cent between April 2007 and March of this year, said company spokesman Norm Berberich.


"And because of the way in which our business operates, we don't provide this test without a physician requisition," he said Thursday. "It means more physicians are requesting this test for their patients."


Vitamin D tests are paid for under provincial health insurance plans, but Berberich would not say how many LifeLabs performs per year or what the company charges per test. (Depending on the province, they range in price from about $50 to $100 each).
Although the company is managing to meet increased patient and physician demand, he conceded that "with the exceptional growth we've seen over the past year, turnaround times have also increased."


"I'd say that's the same for every provider of this test."


But not all labs are managing to keep up with the growing clamour for tests. At the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's, N.L., endocrinologist Dr. Christopher Kovacs said burgeoning demand has created a huge backlog at the medical lab at the hospital, the province's largest.


"The increase is about 10-fold or more in the past 18 months or so - from 200 to 2,500 per month," said Kovacs by e-mail, adding that similar increases are being experienced at labs across Canada.


Many of the requests to test blood levels of the so-called sunshine vitamin are unnecessary, he said, advising that patients concerned about whether they are getting adequate amounts of the nutrient should take a vitamin D supplement for several months.


"Most people are idly curious about their vitamin D levels, get several levels done to confirm that they really are that low, and then do nothing about it," Kovacs writes on an Internet blog. "Or some may take vitamin D for a few months and then stop, because most otherwise healthy people do not want to take any pills, period."


"Very few, extremely few, are the people who actually take vitamin D for a sustained interval, and for them another level will be done to see if they are getting enough."


Vitamin D is produced when the skin is exposed to sunlight. There are few foods that naturally contain the fat-soluble nutrient, but these include fish, liver and egg yolks. In Canada, milk, soy drinks and margarine are fortified with the vitamin.


Studies have shown the majority of Canadians are deficient in vitamin D, primarily due to low sunlight during the fall and winter.
Because the deficiency is so widespread among the population, Kovacs said there is no need to confirm what is "certain already." Testing should be limited to the "few people who proactively take a vitamin D supplement for an extended period in order to determine if those people are getting enough."


But Dr. Gerry Schwalfenberg, an Edmonton family physician who specializes in environmental medicine and deficiencies, regularly orders the vitamin D test for his patients and recommends that other doctors do the same.


Preliminary findings of a yet-to-be-published study of more than 1,400 people in the region found 67 per cent of participants did not have enough vitamin D, said Schwalfenberg, a member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and one of the study's authors.


While some may argue that the increasing number of vitamin D tests is putting undue strain on an already overburdened health-care system, he argues that knowing patients' blood levels and treating them accordingly could lead to billions of dollars in health-care savings in the long run.


Schwalfenberg said research strongly suggests that optimal levels of vitamin D may prevent certain cancers and Type 1 diabetes. It is already known to keep bones strong, reduce muscle pain and maintain good balance, helping to prevent falls in the elderly, he noted.


"I think people should know what their level is and I think they need to know how much they should take to replenish their vitamin D," he said. "And they will generally feel a lot better."


The Canadian Cancer Society recommends that adults consider taking a daily vitamin D supplement of 1,000 IUs during fall and winter, while darker-skinned and older people should think about taking the little white pills year-round.


Health Canada recommends 200 IUs for adults 19 to 50 years of age. In September, it said recommendations by various organizations to boost intake were premature and a comprehensive review is needed before it would revise its recommendations.