Vitamin D and Calcium: Superfluous Supplements

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SARAH TAKHAR
Staff Writer

The body needs Vitamin D and calcium to improve bone density and to prevent bones from being brittle and fragile. So are Vitamin D and calcium supplements helpful in avoiding fractured bones? The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a panel of health experts that advises the government on treatment guidelines, reviewed past research in an attempt to find an answer.
The conclusion thus far is that adding 400 International Units (IU) of Vitamin D and 1,000 mg of calcium a day decreases the risk of fractures in women who have reached menopause. However, these supplements also slightly increase their risk of developing kidney stones.
What Vitamin D does is help the body maintain strong bones by absorbing calcium from food and supplements. The Food and Nutrition Board recommends that people from ages one to 70 receive 600 IU’s of Vitamin D daily. For calcium, children from ages four to eight and adults from ages 19 to 70 should receive 1,000 mg daily. Since hormonal changes are more severe during the ages of nine to 18, adolescents of that age need to take in 1,300 mg of calcium daily to help keep the body in balance.
“Kids do not need supplements because they can get Vitamin D and calcium from many places. For example, if they spend time outside, they can get Vitamin D from the sun and calcium from milk. Unless they are lactose intolerant or cannot go outside, they should be sufficient in their levels of Vitamin D and calcium,” school nurse Anita Man said.
The USPSTF still recommends adults aged 65 and up to take Vitamin D and calcium supplements to help prevent falls. However, the studies do not have enough evidence to support regular use of either supplement for healthy men and women. Only a patient with osteoporosis, insufficient Vitamin D and calcium or brittle bones should consider taking supplements.
“We are not saying, ‘Don’t get your daily requirement.’ We are just looking at whether there is any benefit to adding a bunch of stuff on top of your daily requirement,” Virginia Moyer, a pediatrics professor at Baylor College of Medicine said, according to Time Magazine.