Eighty percent of Iranians suffer from Vitamin D deficiency and by just taking one Vitamin D supplementary (50,000 IU) dosage, osteoporosis can be prevented, says Dr. Fereydoun Azizi, head of the Research Center of Metabolism and Glands at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.
Vitamin D supplement is recommended for all adults and children older than 4 years. The easiest way to correct Vitamin D deficiency is to give the patient an oral dose of 50,000 IU of vitamin D once per week for 8 weeks. To maintain sufficiency, the patient should receive either 50,000 IU of vitamin D once or twice per month thereafter. In Europe, intramuscular injection of 500,000 IU of Vitamin D twice per year has appeared to be effective in preventing Vitamin D deficiency.
A multivitamin containing 400 IU of vitamin D is inadequate to satisfy the body’s requirement. It is estimated that at least 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day is needed to satisfy the body’s requirement.Low blood levels of the vitamin have been associated with the increased risk of death from cardiovascular diseases, cognitive impairment in older adults, severe asthma in children and cancer.
