Vitamin D reduces mortality by 6 percent

A study in the July issue of Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews analyzed the influence of different forms of vitamin D on mortality. In the 50 trials that provided data for their analyses a total of 94,148 participants were randomly assigned to either vitamin D or no treatment or a placebo. The mean age of participants was 74 years. The mean proportion of women was 79%. The median duration of vitamin D administration was two years. The findings suggested that vitamin D3 reduces mortality by about 6%, which corresponds to 200 participants that need to be treated over a median of two years to save one additional life. Another supplemental form of vitamin D, vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), as well as the active forms of vitamin D (alfacalcidol and calcitriol) had no significant effect on mortality. In conclusion, they found evidence that vitamin D3 decreases mortality in predominantly elderly women.

Bonnie - for the cost of pennies per day, reducing mortality by 6 percent is a pretty good deal. Of course, this does not take into account the other myriad benefits vitamin D provides. For example, four months of vitamin D3 supplementation reduced risk factors for type 2 diabetes by improving the function of insulin-producing cells in pre-diabetic subjects by 15-30%, according to a new study in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Please make special note that they only found evidence with vitamin D3, not the synthetic form vitamin D2.