Vitamin D Supplementation

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An important article to read...JeffVitamin D Supplementation in the Age of Lost Innocence328 2 March 2010 ls of Internal Medicine Volume 152 • Number 5"Despite the promise for disease prevention suggestedby available studies, we believe that the evidence for widespreaduse of high-dose vitamin D supplementation in thegeneral population remains insufficient. The 2 metaanalysesin this issue indicate that the randomized trial dataon the cardiovascular effects of high-dose vitamin D supplementationare very limited (15, 16). In addition, trialsof antioxidant vitamins have taught us that we cannot anticipatesmall risks of presumed safe interventions that,when applied to hundreds of millions of persons, couldresult in thousands of detrimental events (22, 23). Conductinglarge randomized trials of high-dose vitamin D3supplementation in general population settings should be apublic health research priority. We must better define theoptimal dose, the real benefits, and the potential harmfuleffects of vitamin D supplementation. These trials shouldinclude participants of both sexes and various ages andraces or ethnicities, and measure baseline concentration ofcirculating 25(OH)D3 in study participants to determinewhether efficacy or potential harm depends on vitamin Dstatus. Enthusiasm for vitamin D supplementation must betempered by the loss of innocence from trials of antioxidantsupplements that showed not only no health benefitbut also harms. We need to better understand vitamin D’sbenefits and harms so that we can maximize the net healthgains across all segments of the population."I agree!jeff