Vitamin D supplements will not make you healthier

Vitamin D supplements will not make you healthier

Previous studies have misinterpreted the effects of vitamin D supplements on health.

As reported late last year, most vitamin supplements are relatively useless, or at least fail to offer any material protection against cancer, heart disease or diabetes. Add vitamin D supplements to that list. Though many studies claim that vitamin D offers some health benefits, a study published by The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology suggests otherwise.

The study asserts that previous studies claiming preventative health benefits as a result of vitamin D supplements simply lack compelling evidence. After analyzing 40 controlled, randomized studies, the researchers found that claims of health benefits are a misconstrued interpretation of correlation versus causation.

“Results from intervention studies did not show an effect of vitamin D supplementation on disease occurrence, including colorectal cancer. In 34 intervention studies including 2805 individuals with mean 25(OH)D concentration lower than 50 nmol/L at baseline supplementation with 50 μg per day or more did not show better results,” the authors wrote.

Rather than supplementation causing or contributing to good health, it appears that low levels of vitamin D might be an indicator of poor health. Certain ailments might cause vitamin D levels to drop, leading to the correlation. Healthy levels of vitamin D are an indicator that an individual is healthy, but nothing suggests that vitamin D intake is keeping them that way.

“In elderly people, restoration of vitamin D deficits due to aging and lifestyle changes induced by ill health could explain why low-dose supplementation leads to slight gains in survival,” they said.

Vitamin D supplements are likely not harmful on their own, but they’re also unnecessary. Want more vitamin D? Go outside.

“The main message is that if you are otherwise healthy and active, you are likely to receive enough sunshine to have adequate vitamin D levels and don’t need to take vitamin D supplements,” Said lead researcher Dr. Mark Bolland.

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