Risk & prevention can be viewed as two sides of a coin. One can view the risk of something happening as equivalent to how to prevent that event. Well, at least that's my fractured understanding. Less than a month ago, the US Preventive Services Task Force came out w/several recommendations for vitamin D & calcium, one of which was that low dose vitamin D really didn't amount to much for primary prevention.
Well, in a meta-analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week, the authors searched online for any studies relating to vitamin D, calcium & fracture rate. They found 11 randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trials (this is gold standard stuff here) of oral vitamin D supplementation with(out) calcium compared to both placebo & calcium alone. As might be expected, the participants were predominantly female (upwards of 90%), avg age mid-70s, half of whom were institutionalized, w/avg 25OH vitamin D in deficient range at 18.8ng/mL.
After manipulating the data, the authors concluded that only "high" dose vitamin D (>800IU/d) was linked to a statistically significant 30% reduction in hip fracture and 14% reduction in non-vertebral fracture. More importantly, the authors noted that 25OH vitamin D >24ng/mL was adequate for fracture prevention. As noted previously, we have much to learn from Goldilocks in getting things just right.
Tweet
No comments:
Post a Comment