Here is my counter-review of the recent headline news article that might make you wary of taking vitamins, titled “Vitamin D Supplements May Be a Double-Edged Sword.” This article was written by F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE, and published on March 14, 2024, in MDedge Family Medicine (https://www.mdedge.com/familymedicine/article/268256/womens-health/vitamin-d-supplements-may-be-double-edged-sword?ecd=WNL_EVE_240316_mdedge).
This was a summary review of a peer-reviewed paper titled “Long-Term Effect of Randomization to Calcium and Vitamin D Supplementation on Health in Older Women: Postintervention Follow-up of a Randomized Clinical Trial,” published in the Annals of Internal Medicine Journal.[1]
The conclusion of this study reads, “Calcium and vitamin D supplements seemed to reduce cancer mortality and increase cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality after more than 20 years of follow-up among postmenopausal women, with no effect on all-cause mortality.” NOTE that the lead word is calcium, not Vitamin D, which Dr. Wilson chose to emphasize.
Dr. Wilson concluded from the study, “I can tell you that for your “average woman,” vitamin D supplementation likely has no effect on mortality. It might modestly reduce the risk for certain cancers while increasing the risk for heart disease (probably through coronary calcification). So, there might be some room for personalization here. Perhaps women with a strong family history of cancer or other risk factors would do better with supplements, and those with a high risk for heart disease would do worse.”
What Dr. Wilson’s article omits is that this isn’t a vitamin D study at all; it’s a calcium study where patients took 1000 mg of calcium carbonate (a poor form of calcium) along with only 400 IUs of vitamin D. This misrepresentation and bias against supplements are frustrating and repetitive.
Calcium carbonate supplementation, especially at 1000 mg daily, isn’t good for heart health or any health condition. It can increase the risk of vascular calcifications.
Continue reading “Caution: Recent Study Claims Vitamin D Supplementation Could Raise Cardiovascular Disease Risk”
