Vitamin D deficiency in children can’t be fixed with supplements. Here’s why – LifeNews

Vitamin D has many benefits and is crucial for the bone health of the human body. It is important to emphasize that childhood fractures are a major public health challenge worldwide.

Experts say fractures in children can cause long-term disabilities and reduced quality of life.Vitamin D is important for strong bones, but a new study finds that vitamin D supplements do not improve bone strength or prevent fractures in children with vitamin D deficiency.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Queen Mary, University of London has revealed that supplements may not be the solution to strengthen children’s bones.

Interestingly, this study contradicts the common belief that vitamin D is good for bone health.

To understand the benefits of vitamin D supplementation and its role in reducing fracture risk and improving bone strength in primary school children, a team of scientists collaborated with partners in Mongolia, a country with a high burden of fractures and a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency.

“It is surprising that continuous high-dose supplementation of vitamin D in vitamin D-deficient children did not show any benefit on fracture risk or bone strength. In adults, vitamin D supplementation is most effective in preventing fractures when calcium is given at the same time. Hence, the fact that trial participants were not given calcium along with vitamin D may explain the lack of results in this study,” Dr Gamma Davasambu, associate professor at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, told ANI.

The researchers also revealed that children with rickets were excluded from the study for ethical reasons.

“Therefore, our findings are only relevant for children with low vitamin D levels who do not develop bone complications. Adequate vitamin D intake is important for preventing rickets and should not be ignored, and the UK government guidelines recommending 400 IU of vitamin D per day remain important and should be followed,” he added.

Over a three-year period, 8,851 Mongolian children aged 6 to 13 years received weekly oral vitamin D supplements, the researchers said.

“95.5% of participants had vitamin D deficiency at baseline, and the study supplement was highly effective in raising vitamin D levels to the normal range; however, there was no effect on fracture risk or bone strength, measured in a subset of 1,438 participants using quantitative ultrasound,” the study states.

The findings of this study were recently published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.