Author: Marcia Frellick / Source: Science News
CHICAGO — Taking a vitamin D supplement does not reduce the risk of having a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke or for getting an invasive cancer, according to highly anticipated results of a large clinical trial.
The VITAL trial found no significant difference in cancer or heart health risk between people taking 2,000 international units, or IU, of vitamin D a day and those who took a placebo, researchers reported November 10 at the American Heart Association’s annual scientific sessions. The results dim the luster of a vitamin once hailed as a drug that could strengthen bones and prevent conditions from obesity and diabetes to heart and autoimmune diseases.
“What this does show is that the general population does not need to be taking vitamin D for cardiovascular health or cancer health,” says Erin Michos, a preventive cardiologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who was not involved in the study. “This is the most definitive trial to date on this issue.”
Researchers have known for a long time that people with low levels of vitamin D in their blood are at higher risk for heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and an irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation. But VITAL, a Phase III clinical trial, is the largest randomized trial to specifically test whether boosting levels of the vitamin can prevent cardiovascular disease.
JoAnn Manson, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and her colleagues followed…
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