Vitamin D and Calcium: Another Recommendation Withdrawn
Kristen Sparrow • March 07, 2013
I never could get myself to take that Calcium.
February 25, 2013, 5:00 pm
No Vitamin D and Calcium for Older Bones
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
A government task force formally recommended on Monday that healthy postmenopausal women avoid taking low daily doses of vitamin D and calcium to ward off bone fractures.
The group, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts in prevention and primary care, based its recommendations on extensive reviews of more than a hundred studies. They characterized low doses as 400 international units or less of vitamin D and 1,000 milligrams or less of calcium.
Taking those amounts daily, the task force wrote in its recommendations, “has no net benefit for the primary prevention of fractures.” But there is good evidence, the group said, that taking them could increase the likelihood of kidney stones.
The task force also looked at the use of the supplements in men and premenopausal women. The group concluded it was unable to “assess the balance of the benefits and harms” of using the supplements to prevent fractures in these groups.
The recommendations, however, do not apply to people with osteoporosis or vitamin D deficiencies, the task force said.
