Important news for seniors: A daily dose of vitamin D cuts your risk of falling substantially, researchers say.
But not just any dose will do.
"It takes 700 to 1,000 international units of vitamin D per day — and nothing less will work," Dr. Heike A. Bischoff-Ferrari, who directs the Center on Aging and Mobility at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, noted in an e-mail to Reuters Health Friday.
Those recommendations, which are higher than those from the U.S. Institute of Medicine, are based on the results of eight studies that looked at vitamin D supplements for fall prevention among more than 2,400 adults 65 and older. Falls were not reduced notably with daily doses of vitamin D lower than 700 IU.
An analysis of all eight studies, posted online in the British Medical Journal, add weight to several others that have shown that vitamin D improves strength and balance, and bone health in the elderly, the researchers note.
"Falls are important events to prevent," Bischoff-Ferrari said, "and 700 to 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day is safe and inexpensive."
However, the Institute of Medicine recommends 400 IU a day for adults between 51 and 70, and 600 a day for those 70 and over.)
The findings provide an argument to revise the recommendations, Bischoff-Ferrari said.
Researchers looked at two forms of the vitamin: vitamin D3, or cholecalciferol, which is more potent than vitamin D2 and the body absorbs more readily, or ergocalciferol, the form often found in multivitamins.
"At the higher dose of 700 to 1,000 IU vitamin D, the benefit on fall prevention is significant — at least 19 percent, 26 percent with vitamin D3," Bischoff-Ferrari said.
Although vitamin D3 seemed more potent than D2, forms of vitamin D marketed as "active," such as calcitriol, did not seem to be more effective than standard vitamin D supplements, the researchers found. Such active forms are more expensive and carry a higher risk of elevated calcium levels, which have been linked to hormone problems and cancer.
Moreover, the effect of 700 to 1,000 IU vitamin D daily kicks in "in a few months and is sustained over years, and the benefit is independent of age and present in those living at home and those living in nursing homes," Bischoff-Ferrari noted.
SOURCE: British Medical Journal, online October 2, 2009.
