Last month my Twitter was blowing up with articles questioning the effectiveness of vitamin D, and head-turning titles like:
- “Vitamin D increases risk of falls.”
- “Have we been wrong about vitamin D?”
And my personal favorite.
- “The sun goes down on Vitamin D.”
This was the article I ended up clicking on. Not only because of the title, but because it was shared by someone I assumed would’ve done their due diligence. Boy, was I wrong!
The research study in question was a double-blind randomized control study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, where researchers gave 200 elderly individuals (70yrs +) 1 of 3 monthly doses of vitamin D3:
- 24,000IUs
- 60,000IUs
- 24,000IUs + 300 μg of calcifediol (the prehormone that D3 is converted to)
Only 47.9% of the people in the 24,000IU group ended up falling over the course of 1 year, while 66.9% of the 60,000IU group fell. So, the researchers concluded that:
“Higher monthly doses of vitamin D…had no benefit on lower extremity function and were associated with increased risk of falls compared with 24 000 IU.”
Really?
45/67 people fell while taking 60,000IUs, and 32/67 people fell while taking 24,000IU’s, so high-doses of vitamin D increases our risk of a fall?
That’s 12 more elderly folks out of 200 that had already experienced a fall in the previous year! From a study where 122 people (61%) fell regardless of how much vitamin D they were taking!
What’s worse, is that the media took this evidence and tried to make it seem like Vitamin D supplementation is harmful. Even though the 24,000IU group was unsuccessful in raising their blood levels from clinically deficient levels (<20 ng/mL) to a threshold (<30 ng/mL) that is far from adequate. And even though, ‘not falling’ was never a primary reason for supplementing vitamin D.
As we’ve discussed, low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are a MUCH BIGGER concern than any ‘fall.’ With literally thousands of reliable scientific studies suggesting that D3 deficiency is at the root of disease, and supplementation can DRASTICALLY improve our health and longevity.
- Cancer (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
- Depression (1, 2)
- Obesity (1, 2, 3, 4)
- Diabetes & Heart Disease (1, 2)
- Osteoporosis & Sarcopenia (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
- Neurological Disorders (1, 2, 3)
- Alzheimer’s & Dementia (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
- Loss of Strength & Power (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
And lets be honest, if supplementing vitamin D was your primary method for avoiding a spill, I’d say we’ve got bigger problems.
Stay Lean!
Coach Mike
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