Health Tips Tuesday: study examines effectiveness of Vitamind D supplements

(WGGB/WSHM) - A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that taking a Vitamin D supplement did not result in a lower risk of fractures in those without a vitamin deficiency.

Dr. Robert Baldor, chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Baystate Franklin Hospital, joined Western Mass News to discuss the findings, the benefits of Vitamin D, and if people should take a Vitamin D suplement to promote bone health if you don’t have a Vitamin D deficiency.

What is the takeaway from this study if you dont have a Vitamin D deficiency? Should you still consider taking the supplement?

Baldor: “Vitamin D is one of those supplements that people take and, in fact, over a billion dollars in Vitamin D sales last year. Some take Vitamin D for bone health, heart disease, cancer, and some take it to prevent COVID-19. Vitamin D is necessary for phosphorus and calciumn or bone health. The latest study says Vitamin D for healthy people is not beneficial.”

Do we get enough Vitamin D without taking a supplement?

Baldor: “We do get Vitamin D from the sun, but it has to be about 20 minutes of the noon sunlight during the summer in order to make Vitamin D, and you have to have skin exposure, but in the northern hemisphere, we don’t make a ton of Vitamin D. Milk and orange juice, fish, sardines, and salmon are high in Vitamin D, so I think a supplement is still benefited.”

Is there a certain age group that would benefit more so from taking the Vitamin D supplements, especially maybe in the winter time, when we have less exposure to the sun?

Baldor: “We do recommend that infants take supplements of Vitamin D ‘til about the age of seven. We are worried about bone health, but any woman who is 65 should be getting a bone density scan. We are talking about primary prevention. I still feel that people should take about 800 to 1,000 units of Vitamin D a day, which is safe and equal to that effiecent level requirement of Vitamin D.”

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