Vitamin D supplemented routinely by doctors to avoid fractures and strengthen bone has been controversial after a recent article published in JAMA. The US preventive service task force has been raising the alarm since early 2012 regarding the abuse of this vitamin. It stated that there is ‘insufficient’ data to suggest that it benefits older adults without osteoporosis or vitamin D deficiency.
Hence on a normal healthy (Bone healthy) elderly individual, it seems to have no role. But still, it acts as first-line management in adults suffering from Vitamin D deficiency or osteoporosis.
Jia Guo Zhao in his study by doing a metanalysis of 33 studies involving 50000 on hospitalized adults over the age of 50 concluded that regardless of the vitamin D dose intake , gender, calcium supplement in food …ptophylactic dosage of vitamin D and calcium supplements did not seem to prevent fractures in these elderly adults.
Then why do we prescribe these in the Indian population routinely.?
Its because most of our population is vitamin D deficient.
Why are they deficient…?
(Cont as won’t I get my vitamin F from sunshine?)