Do you take vitamin D supplements? They may not have the health benefits that you once thought. A recent study has found that vitamin D does not seem to have significant benefits for heart health, cancer prevention or even bone health in healthy people.
In order to get a better sense of the effects of vitamin D supplements, the researchers reviewed data from 40 previous studies, according to USA Today. After examining these studies, the researchers concluded that healthy people are very unlikely to get any benefit from the supplements. In addition, they found that additional studies are likely to be futile.
That said, supplements could have some benefits for those who are not healthy. Researchers found that institutionalized people who take these vitamins may receive some benefit when it comes to preventing hip fractures, according to Bloomberg. Yet the overall findings show that taking these supplements may not be beneficial.
"Existing evidence does not lend support to the commonly held believe that vitamin D supplementation in general prevents osteoporosis, fractures and non-skeletal diseases," said Karl Michaelsoon, professor of orthopedics at Uppsala University in Sweden, in a comment accompanying the article. "The impression that vitamin D is a sunshine vitamin and that increasing doses lead to improved health is far from clear."
The public spends about $28 billion per year taking vitamins, according to USA Today. Yet studies like these highlight the importance of understanding the effects of these vitamins on the body. If there's no discernible benefit, then it's likely that you may not want to keep taking that vitamin D supplement every morning.
That said, it's important not to oversimplify decades of research on vitamin D. Those suffering from vitamin D deficiencies or those who are institutionalized would certainly benefit from supplements.
The findings are published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
