Vitamin D Council podcast 10: Carole Baggerly of GrassrootsHealth
Episode notes by Dr. Cannell of Vitamin D Council
Baggerly is the head of GrassrootsHealth, a fellow non-profit organization focusing on migrating vitamin D research into practice. Though faced with many challenges along the way, Baggerly and team found that pregnant women, their physicians and the institutions were ready to begin implementing vitamin D education, testing and supplementation into their prenatal regimen.
In this episode, Baggerly discusses the success of her vitamin D program for pregnant women in South Carolina and provides insight on a study in which she played an instrumental role in publishing regarding vitamin D status and premature birth risk.
Notes by Henry Lahore of VitaminDWiki
2012 study looked only at treatment groups
Baggerly re-analyzed to look at the vitamin D level actually achieved
Preterm birth rate reduced 57 percent by Vitamin D – Nov 2015 had the following
Most of the white women already had 30 ng of vitamin D, so not as much reduction in pre-term bith
Study at 40 ng was confirmed 2 ways – the data and March of Dimes
Liza Bodnar also found same thing – 3,000 women Feb 2015
Starting year of organizations: Viamin D Council 2001,. Grassroots 2007, VitaminDWiki 2009
She is training the full OBGYN staff – not just the OBGYN doctors
She has two continuing medical education courses online
She had started 500 women – but they expanded it to 2,000 women per year
Compliance: Phone encouragement does not seem to help, have online chat room
They do have texting to the women – 100% of them have cellphones
Vitamin D is now the standard of care at that institution – so physician is not at risk for law suits
Funding for South Carolina was by Managed Care Insurance
Cost of the 2 year project is $450,000 (for 500 women?)
Estimated cost benefit $8 million annually for 2000 women
Dr. Cannell would like to have children continue to be on vitamin D – but nothing is funded, or implemented
Dr. Cannell believes Vitamin D is needed by toddler, wherease 98% of researchers believe that Autisim is lack of D during pregnancy
Expansion of providing vitamin D during pregnancy outside of South Carolina
Generally the hospitals that are wanting to do it
- Missoula Montana – in process ,
- initial in Connecticut and Arkansas
Dr. Cannell: Probably should have only 1 claim – premature birth, will be easier for people to understand than 10 claims
She wants to tell journals that It is essential that Vitamin D analysis be done on outcome serum levels, not dosing levels
e.g. 40 ng, not 4,000 IU dosing
See also VitaminDWiki
- Ensure a healthy pregnancy and infant with as little as $20 of Vitamin D
- Vitamin D Webinar - cost of pre-term birth etc- Baggerly Nov 2013 has the following graphic
- Pre-term birth - many of risk factors are associated with low vitamin D
- Women taking 4,000 IU reduced pregnancy risks in half RCT May 2010
- Pregnant women will get Vitamin D – going beyond clinical trials - March 2015
Healthy pregnancies need lots of vitamin D has the following summary
Most were taking 2,000 to 7,000 IU daily for >50% of pregnancy
Click on hyperlinks for details
Problem | Vit. D Reduces | Evidence |
| 0. Chance of not conceiving | 3.4 times | Observe |
| 1. Miscarriage | 2.5 times | Observe |
| 2. Pre-eclampsia | 3.6 times | RCT |
| 3. Gestational Diabetes | 3 times | RCT |
| 4. Good 2nd trimester sleep quality | 3.5 times | Observe |
| 5. Premature birth | 2 times | RCT |
| 6. C-section - unplanned | 1.6 times | Observe |
| Stillbirth - OMEGA-3 | 4 times | RCT - Omega-3 |
| 7. Depression AFTER pregnancy | 1.4 times | RCT |
| 8. Small for Gestational Age | 1.6 times | meta-analysis |
| 9. Infant height, weight, head size within normal limits | RCT | |
| 10. Childhood Wheezing | 1.3 times | RCT |
| 11. Additional child is Autistic | 4 times | Intervention |
| 12.Young adult Multiple Sclerosis | 1.9 times | Observe |
| 13. Preeclampsia in young adult | 3.5 times | RCT |
| 14. Good motor skills @ age 3 | 1.4 times | Observe |
| 15. Childhood Mite allergy | 5 times | RCT |
| 16. Childhood Respiratory Tract visits | 2.5 times | RCT |
RCT = Randomized Controlled Trial
Intervention during Pregnancy studies on VitaminDWiki
- 3X reduction in preemie Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia if add tiny amount of Vitamin D – meta-analysis June 2024
- 4,000 IU of daily Vitamin D during pregnancy is good (Mongolia this time) – RCT Oct 2023
- Resulting childhood Asthma cut in half if 4,400 IU Vitamin D daily while pregnant - RCT April 2023
- 6,400 IU of Vitamin D is safe and effective during breastfeeding – RCT Dec, 2020
- Vitamin D during pregnancy – single 200,000 IU similar to daily 5,000 IU – April 2020
- Massive improvement in vaginal microbiome during pregnancy with Vitamin D – March 2019
- Autism risk reduced 2X by prenatal vitamins (Vitamin D or Folic) – Feb 2019
- Fetal bones helped a bit by 1,000 IU of vitamin D – RCT Feb 2019
- Adding 1,000 IU vitamin D while pregnant did not help much (no surprise) – RCT Jan 2019
- Pregnancies helped a lot by Vitamin D (injection then 50,000 IU monthly) – RCT May 2018
- 430 genes changed when 3,800 IU Vitamin D added in late second trimester – RCT May 2018
- 300,000 IU of Vitamin D is not enough during pregnancy – RCT May 2018
- Preeclampsia risk reduced 7X by 4,000 IU of Vitamin D daily – RCT March 2018
- Risk of infant Asthma cut in half if mother supplemented Vitamin D to get more than 30 ng – RCT Oct 2017
- Gestational diabetes 30 percent less likely if consumed more than 400 IU of vitamin D daily – Oct 2017
- Monthly 120,000 IU Vitamin D plus daily Calcium was great during pregnancies – RCT Sept 2017
- Preterm birth rate reduced by vitamin D – 78 percent if non-white, 39 percent if white – July 2017
- 1,000 IU of Vitamin D while pregnant helped a little bit (4,000 IU helps a lot) – RCT Dec 2016
- Preeclampsia recurrence reduced 2 X by 50,000 IU of vitamin D every two weeks – RCT July 2017
- Only a select group of women will get a modest benefit from 800 IU of vitamin D – Jan 2017
- Reduction of infant asthma may require good vitamin D when lung development starts (4 weeks) – March 2017
- Gestational diabetes treated by Vitamin D plus Omega-3 – RCT Feb 2017
- 3,800 IU Vitamin D during pregnancy did not help much – RCT Jan 2017
- 50,000 IU of vitamin D for 8 weeks of pregnancy raised most above 30 nanograms - RCT Jan 2017
- Gestational Diabetes reduce 3 times by 5,000 IU of Vitamin D – RCT Jan 2016
- Preeclampsia risk reduced by higher levels of vitamin D (VDAART 4,400 IU) - RCT Nov 2016
- Gestational Diabetes treated with 50,000 IU every two weeks – RCT Sept 2016
- Perinatal depression decreased 40 percent with just a few weeks of 2,000 IU of vitamin D – RCT Aug 2016
- Pregnancy – adding 35,000 IU Vitamin D weekly was nice, but not enough – RCT April 2016
- Vitamin D once during pregnancy reduced infant health care costs (300 times ROI) – RCT Dec 2015
- Autism rate in siblings reduced 4X by vitamin D: 5,000 IU during pregnancy, 1,000 IU to infants – Feb 2016
- Preterm birth rate reduced 57 percent by Vitamin D – Nov 2015
- Pregnancy supplemented with 2,000 IU vitamin D got most infants to more than 12 nanograms – Aug 2015
- Preeclampsia reduced by Vitamin D (50,000 IU bi-weekly) and Calcium – Oct 2015
- Clinical trials for pregnancy with Vitamin D intervention – 51 as of Sept 2015
- No multiple sclerosis relapses during pregnancy if 50,000 IU of Vitamin D weekly – RCT April 2015
- Wheezing reduced 35 percent if vitamin D added during pregnancy – April 2015
- 4,000 IU raised vitamin D levels during pregnancy – July 2014
- Pregnant mothers in Quatar needed more than weekly 50,000 IU Vitamin D – Nov 2013
- Gestational diabetes – Vitamin D and Calcium provided huge benefits – RCT March 2015
- Pregnancy helped by single dose of 60,000 IU of Vitamin D – RCT March 2015
- Gestational diabetes reduced by just two 50,000 IU doses of vitamin D – RCT Nov 2014
- Improved births with 2,000 IU vitamin D during pregnancy in India - RCT Feb 2015
- 50,000 IU of Vitamin D every 2 weeks reduced gestational diabetes – RCT Feb 2015
- Infant much healthier if Gestational Diabetic mother got 2 doses of vitamin D – RCT Nov 2014
- 2000 IU vitamin D during pregnancy and 800 IU to infant resulted in less use of antibiotics – RCT April 2014
- Gestational Diabetes reduced with 50,000 IU of vitamin D every 3 weeks and daily Calcium – RCT June 2014
- Gestational Diabetes reduced 40 percent by 5,000 IU of vitamin D – RCT April 2014
- 5,000 IU Vitamin D was not enough to reduce preeclampsia but did help future infant – RCT April 2014
- Breast milk resulted in 20 ng of vitamin D for infant if mother had taken 5,000 IU daily – RCT Dec 2013