Vitamin D Deficiency
Increases Fracture Risk
6:36 p.m. ET (2237 GMT) April 27, 1999

NEW YORK, Apr 27, 1999 (Reuters Health) ? Older women who have a vitamin D deficiency may be at greater risk for fractures compared with their peers. Half of women who suffered a broken hip did not have adequate supply of vitamin D, according to a study in the April 28th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The findings suggest that taking vitamin D supplements or increasing sun exposure ? a vital source of the vitamin ? may reduce the risk of fracture that tends to increase with age.

"Supplements of about 800 IU (international units) of vitamin D per day and calcium may be necessary to attenuate bone loss in the winter and to reduce fractures,'' reports Dr. Meryl LeBoff, director of the Skeletal Health and Osteoporosis Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues.

According to 1997 recommendations from the National Institutes of Health, people aged 51 to 70 should consume 400 IU of vitamin D a day and people over 70 should consume 600 IU per day.

The study included 98 women past menopause who had hip replacement surgery, either because of a fracture or for elective joint replacement. Of the 68 women undergoing elective hip replacement, 17 had the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis, and 51 did not.

The researchers found that 50% of the 30 women who had a hip fracture were deficient in vitamin D. Overall, the women with hip fractures had lower vitamin D than those undergoing elective surgery ? regardless of whether or not they had osteoporosis.

"Vitamin D is required for efficient absorption of dietary calcium and for normal mineralization of bone,'' the authors write. Reduction in vitamin D levels impairs calcium absorption and increases parathyroid hormone production, a factor that can cause bone loss.

SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association 1999;281:1505-1511.