Vitamin D supplements could prolong your
life, a new European study suggests.
"The intake of usual doses of vitamin D seems to decrease
mortality from any cause of death," said lead researcher
Dr. Philippe Autier, from the International Agency for Research
on Cancer in Lyon, France.
The new finding, published in the Sept. 10 issue of the Archives
of Internal Medicine, is a bit of an anomaly, because the
benefits of vitamin supplements remains uncertain at best. While
they are often touted as a means of reducing risks for cancer
and heart disease, some studies have found supplements have
no effect on these conditions.
For example, other studies have shown that vitamin E has no
effect on cancer, Autier said. And prior research suggests that
multivitamin supplements do nothing to reduce cancer risk, he
added.
But vitamin D may be the exception, according to the results
of this new study.
"This is the first study that shows that taking one vitamin
has an impact on mortality," Autier said. "If you
want to increase your vitamin D intake by taking supplements,
it looks like a great idea."
In the study, Autier, and his colleague Sara Gandini, from
the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy, looked at
data from 18 trials involving more than 57,000 people. Doses
of vitamin D in the trials varied from 300 to 2,000 international
units (IUs), with an average dose of 528 IUs.
Over a follow-up of almost 6 years, 4,777 of the people in
the studies died.
Those who took vitamin D supplements had a 7 percent lower
risk of death compared with those who didn't take the supplement,
Autier and Gandini found.
Nine of the trials had collected blood samples. Those subjects
who took the supplements had a 1.4- to 5.2-fold higher level
of vitamin D in their blood compared to those who did not, the
researchers note.
This finding could lead to new drugs to fight cancer and other
diseases, Autier said. "Vitamin D can reduce the proliferation
of cells; the proliferation of cells is something you see in
cancer," he said.
Autier believes people should take vitamin D supplements in
the range of between 400 and 600 IUs daily. "There is no
need to take more -- that's crazy," he said. "You
have to be careful not to take a dose that's too high,"
he added.
And there's another way to make sure you get vitamin D,
which is important to the uptake of calcium needed for healthy
bones. That's to get a moderate amount of sun exposure each
day, since the skin uses sunlight to produce its own vitamin
D.
