Vitamin D is required for strengthening bones and we attain
this essential vitamin from sunlight exposure. Deficiency of vitamin D in
children causes growth retardation and skeletal deformities while in adults
this deficiency leads to osteoporosis, fractures, muscle weakness, infectious
diseases and osteopenia.
An analysis conducted by Heike Bischoff et al and published in the New England
Journal of Medicine 2012, aimed at assessing the effects of vitamin D as per
the actual consumption of every volunteer rather than the randomly assigned
dose to each participant.
The experts collected data from 11 double-blind randomized, controlled trials
of oral vitamin D supplementation with or without calcium in contrast to
placebo or only calcium in volunteers aged 65 years or above.
Researchers collected from 31,022 volunteers with 3770 cases of non-vertebral
fractures and 1111 incidents of hip fractures. They compared and analyzed the
occurrence of hip and non-vertebral fractures among the treatment group, with
actual vitamin D consumption, and the control group.
An important finding of the study was that the volunteers who randomly received
vitamin D showed non-significant reduction of 10 percent in the risk of hip
fracture and a reduction of 7 percent in risk of non-vertebral fracture.
The benefits of high level of vitamin D intake were seen to remain consistent
in the subgroups defined by dwelling type, age group, calcium intake and
baseline 25-hydroxyvitamin D level.
Another important point highlighted was the role of 25-hydroxyvitamin D level
above 60 nmol per liter in the prevention of fractures.
The scientists thus concluded that in people aged 65 years or above vitamin D
supplementation in high doses were quite favorable in the prevention of any
non-vertebral and hip fracture.
Reference:
A Pooled Analysis of Vitamin D Dose Requirements for Fracture Prevention; Heike
Bischoff et al; N Engl J Med 2012; 367:40-49