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SAN DIEGO — The Institute of Medicine is reviewing its 1997 guidelines for vitamin D intake, and will likely recommend increased supplementation when new guidelines are published in 2010. There is a growing consensus that currently recommended intakes—200 IU per day for individuals under age 50 and 400 IU for those aged 50-70—are too low, said Connie Weaver, Ph.D., director of the department of food and nutrition, at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. A recent analysis of data collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) during 1988-1994 and 2001-2004 even suggests that an epidemic of vitamin D...

Researchers suggest a huge bump in recommended daily levels as the vitamin's benefits extend to helping fight diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Vitamin D's star is on the rise and physicians who have studied it say it's about time.Recent research has found that higher D levels are beneficial in fighting ills ranging from colds to cancer. And, on March 26, the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board began reviewing those studies and many others with an eye to revising the recommended dietary intake of vitamin D and its close companion in maintaining bone health -- calcium. A report is...

N.E. Journal Of Medicine: 1 In 100 African Americans Will Develop The Problem In The Prime Of Life -- Before 50 Heart failure affects about 5 million Americans and is the leading cause of hospitalization in people older than 65, but new research suggests it's not just a disease of the elderly. And for people of color, it's striking remarkably early. One in 100 black men and women will develop heart failure in the prime of life. It's usually the disease of the older set, but according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, surprisingly it's striking...

NEW ORLEANS — Quaffing three cups of hibiscus tea daily for 6 weeks resulted in a mean 7.2-mm Hg reduction in systolic blood pressure in mildly hypertensive or prehypertensive adults in a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial. “This suggests that regularly incorporating hibiscus tea into the diet may help control blood pressure in people at risk of developing hypertension,” Diane L. McKay, Ph.D., said at the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association. The public health implications of a blood pressure reduction of this magnitude, if extended to a large population, could be profound. According to the National High Blood...

Other group helping in Iraq not prosecuted Friday, March 07, 2003By Renee K. Gadoua The same federal act used to indict three Central New Yorkers accused of illegally sending money to Iraq has not been enforced against at least a dozen local residents who openly violated U.S. law by traveling there. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act authorizes U.S. sanctions against Iraq. Four Muslims, including three Onondaga County residents, were indicted Feb. 26 on charges that include violating the act by using the Syracuse-based charity Help the Needy to send money to Iraq without a license. About 600 people have...