Vitamin D, like the other micronutrients, functions in cells at a molecular biologic level of organization. It would seem to make sense to base their daily intake requirement on what it takes to optimize that function rather than on some disease they may or may not prevent. This is partly because health is more the absence of disease. And, accordingly, the intake necessary to ensure health is higher than the intake needed to prevent disease. Of several physiologic outcomes that might be selected, three seem particularly pertinent: 1) the ancestral intake to which the species was adapted by natural selection; 2) the intake that minimizes the organism’s need to compensate; and 3) the intake that is needed to support a critical physiological function, such as lactation. With all three the required serum concentration of 25(OH)D has been shown to be between 110 and 150 nmol/L, a status that requires an all-source input on the order of 6,000 IU/day.<br/>

Toward a physiological referent for the vitamin D requirement

249th National Meeting (2015)

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