Vitamin D Supplements Fail to Prevent Bone Fractures in Large Clinical Trial

An additional dose of vitamin D most likely gained’t make the typical individual’s bones any stronger. New analysis from a large-scale, placebo-controlled, and randomized medical trial out Wednesday has discovered no proof that taking vitamin D dietary supplements reduces the chance of bone fractures in wholesome older adults.

The research comes from researchers on the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. The workforce appeared via knowledge from an present analysis undertaking: the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL). More than 25,000 adults over the age of fifty with no main well being issues had been randomized to usually take vitamin D and omega-3 dietary supplements or a placebo, they usually had been tracked over 5 years.

The trial was primarily meant to search out out whether or not taking these dietary supplements diminished individuals’s danger of most cancers or heart problems (it in the end found a attainable small profit from omega-3 on coronary heart assault prevention and no profit from vitamin D on any measure). But the research’s design meant that a wide range of well being outcomes had been additionally measured over its size—together with documented bone fractures.

Nearly 2,000 instances of bone fractures occurred through the research interval. But sadly, these taking vitamin D didn’t seem like any extra shielded from growing them than the placebo group. No attainable profit was seen when trying extra particularly at any of the several types of fracture we are able to get, equivalent to hip or wrist fractures, nor was there any distinction when accounting for elements like an individual’s age, gender, or baseline weight.

In different phrases, irrespective of how onerous they tried, the researchers merely discovered a whole lack of proof for the advantages of vitamin D in stopping damaged bones—at the very least for these with none preexisting dangers. The workforce’s findings had been published within the New England Journal of Medicine.

Vitamin D does play a vital position in sustaining good bone well being, particularly because it helps us soak up two different vital vitamins, calcium and phosphorus, from the meals we eat. So when individuals don’t get sufficient of it, they’ll develop a severe dysfunction referred to as rickets, which is characterised by weakened bone and skeletal deformities. Aside from fixing an individual’s deficiency, different analysis has suggested that individuals with sure bone-related problems like osteoporosis can profit from added vitamin D supplementation. Without these clear indications, although, it appears unlikely that vitamin D will do a lot for the typical individual.

“Overall, the results from this large clinical trial do not support the use of vitamin D supplements to reduce fractures in generally healthy U.S. men and women,” stated lead writer Meryl LeBoff, chief of the Calcium and Bone Section within the Endocrine Division at Brigham, in a statement. “These findings do not apply to adults with vitamin D deficiency or low bone mass or osteoporosis. Most participants in the trial were not deficient and may have already reached the vitamin D level needed for bone health.”

While it could be tempting to take vitamin D dietary supplements simply in case, they aren’t fully freed from danger. It’s attainable to overdose on vitamin D, and in severe sufficient instances, individuals have ended up within the hospital after taking an excessive amount of vitamin D. Really, except you and your physician are certain that you just want them, taking dietary supplements in your well being is usually ineffective at greatest and actively dangerous at worst.