BOSTON: A study suggests the common practice of prescribing vitamin D supplements to fill the gap does not have any benefit for older women’s bones or muscle strength.
The study included 230 women younger than 75, but past menopause, who had low vitamin D levels. The women did not have risk factors for other kinds of bone complications. They were divided into three groups and given various doses of vitamin D3, or cholecalciferol, over a year: none (placebo), 800 IUs daily (low-dose) and 50,000 IUs twice monthly (high-dose).
Although the high-dose supplement group achieved the goal of raising their vitamin D levels to 30 nanograms per millilitre, they did not show any benefit in bone density testing, muscle strength measures or a sit-and-stand test, which assesses risk for falls…