High‐dose Vitamin D harmful for bone health in women, reveals study

Researchers do not support the benefit of high‐dose vitamin D supplementation for bone health of postmenopausal women.

Canada: High-dose vitamin D supplementation results in greater losses in total bone mineral density (BMD) in women than in men, suggests a recent study. The findings from the study were presented at the virtual American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) meeting and published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

The results are significant as vitamin D supplementation is administered widely to postmenopausal women for the prevention of osteoporosis. The study raises the possibility of harm from high dose vitamin D supplementation in females.

The study by Lauren A Burt, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada, and colleagues whether three years of high‐dose vitamin D supplementation (400, 4000, 10,000 IU) in healthy vitamin D‐sufficient individuals aged 55‐70 years (serum 25(OH)D 30‐125 nmol/L at baseline), results in a negative dose‐response relationship for bone density and strength and whether the response differs between males and females.