San Diego, CA (PRWEB) April 01, 2015

GrassrootsHealth, an international nonprofit public health promotion organization, is announcing two continuing medical education (CME) courses about vitamin D. The goal is to help practitioners become more confident in measuring, prescribing, and tracking vitamin D levels to prevent disease. After completion of these CME courses, practitioners can apply for D*certification with GrassrootsHealth.

The CME courses available are “Vitamin D, Sunshine, Optimal Health: Putting it all Together” by Dr. Robert Heaney of Creighton University and “Public Health Initiative: Meeting the Vitamin D Requirements of the Pregnant Woman and Improving Health Outcomes; NICHD Vitamin D Lactation Summary Data” by Dr. Carol Wagner of the Medical University of South Carolina. Each course is valued as 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Three additional courses related to vitamin D will be available later this year.

In “Vitamin D, Sunshine, Optimal Health: Putting it all Together” Heaney explores why vitamin D is important, how it works, how we get it and how much we need. He covers the key points of vitamin D physiology and the role it plays in the maintenance of health. He gives specific practitioner guidelines for implementing a plan to help create optimal health with sunshine and vitamin D.

In “Public Health Initiative: Meeting the Vitamin D Requirements of the Pregnant Woman and Improving Health Outcomes; NICHD Vitamin D Lactation Summary Data” Wagner discusses the role of vitamin D during pregnancy, its role in maternal health and in reducing comorbidities of pregnancy, including preterm birth. The talk is concluded with NICHD Vitamin D Lactation Summary Data to detail the importance of maternal supplementation during lactation, versus supplementing the baby alone, in order to maintain sufficiency for both the mother and the breastfeeding infant.

“Pregnant women with vitamin D deficiencies may be at greater risk for various problems and complications, both for themselves and their babies,” said Wagner. “It’s imperative for pregnant women and the medical community at large to recognize the importance of vitamin D in overall health.”

These courses were developed from two of the ten lectures presented in December 2014 at the “Vitamin D for Public Health” seminar co-sponsored by University of California San Diego School of Medicine and GrassrootsHealth. Each course includes a pre-test, video presentation, post-test, and evaluation. All lectures from the December seminar are available through UC TV at http://www.ucsd.tv/vitamin-d-public-health/. Anyone who has already watched these videos can complete the CME questionnaires for credit and request GrassrootsHealth D*certification.

“These lectures contain valuable information for anyone in health care. Each will take about one hour to complete and is easy to access from your computer,” said Jen Aliano, project manager for GrassrootsHealth. “We are happy to make this information available to people around the world, and to offer the free credits with them.”

GrassrootsHealth partnered with the UC San Diego School of Medicine and CME California to certify and present these courses online. CME California is shared by all University of California Schools of Medicine, providing a reliable and intuitive platform for online CME.

Doctors, nurses, or anyone who needs CME credit may login to GrassrootsHealth’s web page (http://www.grassrootshealth.net/vitamin-d-cmes) and click to register for CME.

“Providing online CME and D*certification is the next step to moving the science of vitamin D into practice,” said Carole Baggerly, founder and director of GrassrootsHealth. “Many people walk away from our seminars raving about the high quality of information and education. GrassrootsHealth can now provide this information and certify practitioners in medical practices and clinics around the world. “

About GrassrootsHealth:

GrassrootsHealth is a nonprofit public health research organization dedicated to moving public health messages regarding vitamin D from science into practice. GrassrootsHealth is currently running the D*action population intervention program to solve the vitamin D epidemic worldwide. Under the D*action umbrella, there are programs looking at the entire population as well as targeted programs for breast cancer prevention. GrassrootsHealth also runs the ‘Protect Our Children NOW!’ program which aims to reduce the complications of vitamin D deficiency encountered during pregnancy and early childhood.

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