Bones Need D

Just how much Vitamin D do you need?

A new use for your bathroom scale.

You can calculate your individual vitamin D needs with the help of a bathroom scale, according to James Dowd, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Michigan State University and author of The Vitamin D Cure (Wiley, 2008). Based on an examination of all the available vitamin D research and years of testing patients’ vitamin D levels, Dowd recommends an average of 20 IU per pound of body weight for Caucasians and 25 IU per pound for those with darker skin. “More than 60% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D,” he says, due to lack of sun exposure and too little cold-water fish in our diets. For more information, visit www.thevitamindcure.com.