Vitamin D May Add Years to Your Life

by | Jul 1, 2008 | 2007, Longevity, Vitamin D - Mortality, Vitamins

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Those who supplemented with 500 IU of Vitamin D per day had a statistically significant 7% reduction in mortality from all causes.

Known as the “sunshine vitamin”, vitamin D has been found known primarily for bone health. Specifically, combining 400 (1) to 700 IU (2) of vitamin D with 500 mg of calcium has helped decrease hip fractures in the elderly (3). These fractures result in 500,000 hospitalizations, 800,000 emergency room visits, 2.6 million physician visits, 180,000 nursing home placements, and nearly $18 billion in healthcare costs each year (4).

But vitamin D has also proven valuable in other areas of health, including helping maintain healthy blood sugar levels (5) and strengthening immune systems in the elderly (6). Now a new study (7) has found that vitamin D’s health benefits may be extremely far-reaching and apply to all areas of health.

In the study, researchers examined 18 different clinical trials examining vitamin D’s role in total mortality with doses that ranged from 400 to 800 IU per day and average 528 IU per day. What they found was “remarkable” in that those assigned to supplement with vitamin D had a statistically significant 7% reduction in mortality from any cause. This reduction was actually increased to 8% when the study lasted at least 3 years and was also 8% for those studies that compared vitamin D supplementation to a placebo control group.

When attempting to explain why vitamin D has such expansive health benefits, the researchers cite that “through evolution, vitamin D has become integrated into many cellular functions” and “has been shown to be critical for immunity (8) and the production of antibiotic peptides and thus deficiency could contribute to diseases such as tuberculosis (9).”

All of these results led the researchers to conclude that “a more proactive attitude to identify, prevent, and treat vitamin D deficiency should be part of standard medical care.”

Source: Giovannucci, Edward. “Can vitamin D reduce total mortality?.” Archives of internal medicine 167.16 (2007): 1709-1710.

© 2007 American Medical Association

Posted July 1, 2008.

References:

  1. Pratt T. Bone mass and density response to a 12-month trial of calcium and vitamin D supplement in preadolescent girls. J Musculoskelet Neuronal Interact. 2003 Mar;3(1):63-70
  2. Harris SS. Effect of calcium and vitamin D supplementation on bone density in men and women 65 years of age or older. N Engl J Med. 1997 Sep 4;337(10):670-6
  3. Flicker, L. (2005). “Should older people in residential care receive vitamin d to prevent falls? Results of a randomized trial.” J Am Geriatr Soc 53(11): 1881-8
  4. Gass M. Preventing osteoporosis-related fractures: an overview. Am J Med. 2006 Apr;119(4 Suppl 1):S3-S11. Review
  5. Hu FB. Vitamin D and Calcium Intake in Relation to Type 2 Diabetes in Women. Diabetes Care 29: 650-656
  6. Martineau AR. A Single Dose of Vitamin D Enhances Immunity to Mycobacteria. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 176: 208-213. First published online as doi:10.1164/rccm.200701-007OC
  7. Autier P, Gandini S. Vitamin D supplementation and total mortality: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(16):1730-1737
  8. Zasloff M. Fighting infections with vitamin D. Nat Med. 2006;12(4):388-390
  9. Liu PT, Stenger S, Li H, et al. Toll-like receptor triggering of a vitamin D–mediated human antimicrobial response. Science. 2006;311(5768):1770-1773.