Few Americans Get Enough Vitamin D

Only about 1 out of 4 Americans gets enough vitamin D, and that number is going down, researchers say. A new study compared data from about 20 years ago with data from early in this decade. In the first period, nearly 1 out of 2 Americans had ideal levels of vitamin D. In recent years, that dropped to 1 out of 4. The number of people with very low levels (deficiency) increased from 2% to 6%. Among blacks, 29% had a deficiency. Very few blacks had ideal levels. The authors cited two causes for the trend: more use of sunscreen and less time spent outdoors. They said people should get about 1,000 international units of vitamin D daily. The study appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine. HealthDay News wrote about it March 23.