MONDAY, June 10, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Empirical vitamin D supplementation is recommended for people ages 1 to 18, ages 75 and older, pregnant people and those with high-risk prediabetes, according to a clinical practice guideline from the Endocrine Society published online June 3. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Marie B. Demay, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues have developed clinical guidelines for the use of vitamin D to reduce disease risk in people who are not candidates for vitamin D treatment.
The researchers recommend empiric vitamin D supplementation for children aged 1 to 18 years because it may prevent nutritional rickets and reduce the risk of respiratory infections. They recommend empiric vitamin D supplementation for adults aged 75 years and older because it may reduce the risk of death, for pregnant women because it may reduce the risk of preeclampsia, intrauterine death, preterm birth, small for gestational age, and neonatal death, and for high-risk prediabetic individuals because it may reduce the risk of progression to diabetes. The optimal dose of empiric vitamin D supplementation is not yet clear. The committee recommends daily vitamin D supplementation for nonpregnant individuals aged 50 years and older who are indicated for vitamin D supplementation, but does not recommend empiric vitamin D supplementation beyond current dietary reference intakes to reduce risk in healthy adults younger than 75 years. They found no evidence to support routine 25-hydroxyvitamin D screening in the general population.
“Healthy people who may benefit from high-dose vitamin D supplements include those over 75 years of age, pregnant women, adults with prediabetes, and children and adolescents under 18, but we do not recommend routine testing of vitamin D levels for any of these groups,” DeMay said in a statement.
The authors disclosed ties to Amgen and Dexcom.
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