The idea made a lot of sense and was accepted almost without question. Vitamin D tablets can protect bones from fractures. After all, your body needs vitamins so that your gut can absorb the calcium your bones need to grow and stay healthy.
But now, in the first large, federally-funded randomized controlled study in the United States, researchers report that taking vitamin D tablets with or without calcium has no effect on fracture rates. As a result, Published Thursday in The New England Journal of MedicineThis also applies to people with osteoporosis and those who have been diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency by blood tests.
These results followed other conclusions from the same study that were found not to support the long list of claimed benefits of vitamin D supplements.
So for the millions of Americans taking vitamin D supplements and the laboratories doing over 10 million vitamin D tests each year, editorial This article published with the paper has some advice. stop it.
Dr. Stephen R. Cummings, research scientist at California Pacific, writes: Medical Center Laboratory, and Dr. Clifford Rosen, Senior Scientist, Maine Medical Laboratory. Dr. Rosen is editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.
People with conditions such as celiac disease and Crohn’s disease need vitamin D supplements. The same is true for people who lack sunlight and cannot get minerals from foods that are routinely supplemented with vitamin D. such as grains and dairy products.
Such severe vitamin D deficiency is “very difficult in the general population,” says Dr. Cummings.
By making such a powerful statement, the two scientists believe that high doses of vitamin D can cure or prevent various diseases and even extend people’s lives. I know you are up against the vitamin sellers, laboratories, and proponents who claim they can.
Doctors often check your vitamin D levels as part of your regular blood tests.
The study involved 25,871 men aged 50 and over and women aged 55 and over who were assigned to take 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily or a placebo.
This study was part of a comprehensive vitamin D study called VITAL. It came after a group of experts funded by the National Institutes of Health and convened by the now-National Academy of Medicine, a non-profit organization. Investigating the health effects of vitamin D supplements And I found very little evidence. A member of the expert group was supposed to come up with his minimum daily requirement for the vitamin, but found that most clinical trials studying the subject were inadequate, suggesting that vitamin D I questioned whether there was any truth to the claims of improved health.
The prevailing opinion at the time was that vitamin D likely prevented bone fractures. I was thinking.
Dr. Rosen said these concerns have led him and other members of the National Academy of Medicine’s expert group to set what he calls “arbitrary values.” 20 nanograms per milliliter of blood as a target for vitamin D levels To reach that goal, it advises people to take 600 to 800 International Units of vitamin D supplements.
US laboratories have since arbitrarily set 30 nanograms per milliliter as the cutoff point for normal vitamin D levels.
According to Dr. Rosen, the putative relationship between vitamin D and parathyroid levels has not been maintained in subsequent studies. We funded the VITAL exam to get a solid answer about
In the first part of the previously published VITAL, vitamin D Did not prevent cancer or cardiovascular disease trial participants.did not do it Fall preventionimprove cognitive functionreduce Atrial fibrillationChange body compositionn, reduce migraine frequencyimprove Stroke outcomeprotect against macular degeneration or reduce Knee pain..
Another large study in Australia found that People who took vitamins did not live longer..
Joan Manson, M.D., chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School and leader of the main VITAL trial, said the study was so large that it was thought to be associated with osteoporosis or low vitamin D levels. He said it included thousands of people within reach. Or “insufficient”. This allowed the researchers to determine that there was also no fracture reduction benefit from the supplement.
“It will surprise a lot of people,” Dr. Manson said. “However, it seems that only small to moderate amounts of the vitamin are needed for bone health. It’s not as if more money brings greater benefits.”
Dr. Meryl S. LeBoff, lead author and principal investigator of the Bone Study and an osteoporosis specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said he was surprised. She expected profit.
However, she cautioned that the study does not address the question of whether people with osteoporosis or low bone mass should take vitamin D and calcium along with osteoporosis medications. It is said that you need to take D and calcium.
Dr. Dolores Shoback, an osteoporosis specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, will also continue to recommend vitamin D and calcium intake for people with osteoporosis and low bone mass.
It was “a simple intervention and I will continue to prescribe it,” she said.
Others go a little further.
Dr. Sundeep Khosla, professor of medicine and physiology at the Mayo Clinic, continues to advise people with osteoporosis to take vitamin D because it “causes little or no harm and may be beneficial,” recommending 600. Said to recommend. The National Academy of Medicine reports he has up to 800 units per day.
“I tell family and friends who don’t have osteoporosis to take a multivitamin once a day to prevent vitamin D deficiency.
Dr. Khosla himself follows that advice. Many multivitamin tablets now contain his 1,000 units of vitamin D, he added.
But Dr. Cummings and Dr. Rosen even question the very idea of vitamin D deficiency in healthy people.
“What is vitamin D deficiency if vitamin D doesn’t help?” Dr. Cummings asked. “This means you need to take vitamin D.”
Dr. Rosen, who also signed a report for the National Academy of Medicine, has become a nihilist of vitamin D treatments.
“I can’t believe 600 units anymore,” he said. “I don’t think you should do anything.”
