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"NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Important news for seniors: A daily dose of vitamin D cuts your risk of falling substantially, researchers reported today. But not just any dose will do. "It takes 700 to 1000 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day and nothing less will work," Dr. Heike A. Bischoff-Ferrari, who directs the Center on Aging and Mobility at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, noted in an email to Reuters Health. Those recommendations - which are higher than those by the U.S. Institute of Medicine -- are based on the results of eight studies that looked at vitamin D supplements for fall prevention among more than 2,400 adults aged 65 and older. Falls were not notably reduced with daily doses of vitamin D lower than 700 IU. An analysis of all eight studies, posted online today in the British Medical Journal, add weight to several others which have shown that vitamin D improves strength and balance, and bone health in the elderly, the researchers note."

"NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Low vitamin D levels in the body may be deadly, according to a new study hinting that adults with lower, versus higher, blood levels of vitamin D may be more likely to die from heart disease or stroke. Vitamin D is an essential vitamin mostly obtained from direct sunlight exposure, but also found in foods and multivitamins. Dr. Annamari Kilkkinen, at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues compared blood levels of vitamin D and deaths from heart disease or stroke over time in 2,817 men and 3,402 women in Finland."