So ask your doctor what you should do.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=123605&CultureCode=en
Taking vitamin D supplements to compensate for vitamin D deficiency
didn’t improve cholesterol — at least in the short term, according to
new research in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, an
American Heart Association journal.
Researchers studied 151 people with vitamin D deficiency who received
either a mega-dose (50,000 internationals units) of vitamin D3 or
placebo weekly for eight weeks. Participants’ cholesterol levels were
measured before and after treatment.
Correcting vitamin D deficiencies with high doses of oral vitamin D
supplements did not change cholesterol levels, researchers found. This
was despite effectively increasing vitamin D to recommended levels.
Vitamin D levels nearly tripled in the group that received actual
supplements, but were unchanged in the placebo group.
“Our study challenges the notion that vitamin D repletion improves
cholesterol levels” said Manish Ponda, M.D., M.S., study lead author and
assistant professor of clinical investigation in Dr. Jan Breslow’s
laboratory of biochemical genetics and metabolism at The Rockefeller
University in New York, N.Y. “These clinical trial results confirm those
from a recent data mining study.”
The researchers also tested the effect of vitamin D supplementation
on more sophisticated biomarker measures of cholesterol, such as
particle size and number. “These measures of cholesterol, which are not
used in routine clinical practice, also did not change in response to
vitamin D therapy,” Ponda said.
As expected, replenishing subjects with high-dose supplements of oral
vitamin D decreased parathyroid hormone levels and increased calcium
levels — physical functional changes that were linked to participants’
increase in low-density lipoprotein (LDL, bad cholesterol).
“For example, participants receiving vitamin D who had an increase in
calcium levels experienced a 7 percent increase in LDL cholesterol,
while those whose calcium levels fell or did not change had a 5 percent
decrease in LDL cholesterol,” Ponda said.
The study questions the use of vitamin D supplements to improve
cholesterol, Ponda said. While the dose of vitamin D in this study was
high, it was appropriate for correcting a vitamin D deficiency over an
eight week period.
However, longer-term studies on the impact of the changes in LDL
cholesterol as a result of high dose vitamin D supplementation are
needed to make stronger recommendations. And questions remain about
whether increasing vitamin D levels with exposure to sunlight, the
predominant natural source, would have a different effect than with
high-dose oral supplements.
To address these issues, Ponda and Breslow will begin another
clinical trial this fall, comparing the effect of oral vitamin D to
ultraviolet light exposure with a longer follow-up period.
I am however taking this because it might help fatigue.
Or maybe to prevent muscle atrophy.
Or fall prevention.
aww boo! I was hoping vitamin D would be a miracle cure all thing.
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