Vitamin D supplementation improves neuromuscular function in older people who fall.
Dhesi JK, Jackson SH, Bearne LM, Moniz C, Hurley MV, Swift CG, Allain TJ.
Age Ageing. 2004 Nov;33(6):589-95.
PMID: 15501836
doi:10.1093/ageing/afh20 9
CONCLUSIONS: vitamin D supplementation, in fallers with vitamin D insufficiency, has a significant beneficial effect on functional performance, reaction time and balance, but not muscle strength. This suggests that vitamin D supplementation improves neuromuscular or neuroprotective function, which may in part explain the mechanism whereby vitamin D reduces falls and fractures.
Urgent action needed to improve vitamin D status among older people in England!
Hirani V, Tull K, Ali A, Mindell J.
Age Ageing. 2009 Nov 23. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 19934073
CONCLUSIONS: poor vitamin D status of older people continues to be a public health problem in England. Hypovitaminosis D is associated with many risk factors and poor health outcomes. There is now an urgent need for a uniform policy on assessment and dietary supplementation of vitamin D in older people to prevent poor vitamin D status and its negative consequences
Effects of vitamin D and calcium supplementation on falls: a randomized controlled trial.
Bischoff HA, Stähelin HB, Dick W, Akos R, Knecht M, Salis C, Nebiker M, Theiler R, Pfeifer M, Begerow B, Lew RA, Conzelmann M.
J Bone Miner Res. 2003 Feb;18(2):343-51.
PMID: 12568412
A single intervention with vitamin D plus calcium over a 3-month period reduced the risk of falling by 49% compared with calcium alone. Over this short-term intervention, recurrent fallers seem to benefit most by the treatment. The impact of vitamin D on falls might be explained by the observed improvement in musculoskeletal function.
Can vitamin D supplementation prevent winter-time blues? A randomised trial among older women.
Dumville JC, Miles JN, Porthouse J, Cockayne S, Saxon L, King C.
J Nutr Health Aging. 2006 Mar-Apr;10(2):151-3.
PMID: 16554952
CONCLUSIONS: Supplementing elderly women with 800 IU of vitamin D daily did not lead to an improvement in mental health scores.
"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."
Effects of vitamin D supplementation on strength, physical performance, and falls in older persons: a systematic review.
Latham NK, Anderson CS, Reid IR.
J Am Geriatr Soc. 2003 Sep;51(9):1219-26. Review.
PMID: 12919233
DOI: 10.1046/j.1532-5415.2003.51405.
Conclusion: Although there is insufficient evidence that vitamin D supplementation alone improves physical performance in older people, some data suggest a benefit from vitamin D combined with calcium supplementation, but this requires confirmation in large, well-designed trials.