Friday, August 15, 2008
Delving into Vitamin D
I've been wondering about all this new research on the mortality benefits of Vitamin D for a while now. (Do Americans really get that little sunshine? Could there be some confounding factor, such as that sedentary and sickly people don't spend time outside?) So I was excited to see that the NIH is a little suspicious too. They recently convened a conference to investigate the existing evidence on Vitamin D. I haven't had time to fully review the resulting 20 research papers, but I'm interested in the practice perspective on this issue. Have any patients asked you about Vitamin D? Are you testing their levels? And are you recommending that patients increase their intake--by sun exposure, diet or supplements?
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
1:02 PM
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2 Comments:
I have been testing patients for 25 OH vit D for some time now. It has become part of my standard assessment of patient's who report they have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia or osteoporosis. I advise both groups that I feel that a thorough assessment was indicated when such diagnoses were made. My assessment included 25 OH vit D for both, and in addition, PTH if there was exisitng osteoporosis. The numbers of patients I found to have true vit D deficiency was initially a little surprising. But almost all of them were older women, not very active, not eating especially well, and frequently with GI issues of some type (and thus possible malabsorption). These women are all at high risk of having osteoporosis, and thus, fragility fractures, and I do believe there is a clear association between fragility fractures and increased mortality. I think an awareness of the frequency of vitamin D deficiency merely makes clearer the complex picture of bone health (or lack thereof) in the elderly and it's enormous importance in assessing health.
Thanks for your comment. That's interesting that you're finding so many women with low vitamin D. What kind of therapy are you recommending in those who are deficient?
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