Vitamin D supplements are not enough for your children

Despite vitamin D's role in bone mineralization, the research suggests that supplements may not be the answer to strengthening bones in children. It challenges the common belief about the benefits of vitamin D for bone health.

However, no clinical studies have ever been done to see whether vitamin D supplementation can protect children against bone fractures.

To determine whether vitamin D supplementation would reduce the risk of bone fractures or increase bone strength in schoolchildren, researchers from Queen Mary and Harvard worked with partners in Mongolia, a country with a particularly high fracture burden and a high prevalence of vitamin D -shortage. . The study, published in Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology today, December 1, represents the largest randomized controlled trial of vitamin D supplementation in children to date.

Over the course of three years, 8,851 schoolchildren aged 6 to 13 in Mongolia received a weekly oral dose of vitamin D supplementation. 95.5 percent of participants were vitamin D deficient at baseline, and the study supplements were very effective at raising vitamin D levels to the normal range. However, they had no effect on fracture risk or bone strength, measured in a subgroup of 1,438 participants using quantitative ultrasound.

The study's findings are likely to prompt scientists, doctors and public health specialists to reconsider the effects of vitamin D supplements on bone health.

Dr. Ganmaa Davaasambuu, associate professor at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said: “The absence of any effect of sustained, generous vitamin D supplementation on fracture risk or bone strength in children with vitamin D deficiency is striking.”

“In adults, vitamin D supplementation works best for preventing fractures when calcium is given at the same time – so the fact that we did not offer calcium in addition to vitamin D to subjects may explain the null findings from this study,” ANI quoted him as saying. proverb.

Professor Adrian Martineau, Head of the Center for Immunobiology at Queen Mary University of London, added: “It is also important to note that children found to have rickets during screening for the trial were excluded from participation, because this would not have been the case. it is ethical to offer them a placebo (dummy medication).”

“Our findings are therefore only relevant for children with a low vitamin D status who have not developed bone complications. The importance of adequate vitamin D intake for the prevention of rickets should not be ignored, and UK government guidelines recommending a daily intake of 400 IU of vitamin D remain important and should continue to be followed,” he added to.

(With ANI inputs)

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Updated: Dec 5, 2023 06:40 IST