Popular vitamin won’t prevent a fall or fracture in older adults, health panel says. But here’s what can help

CNN — Vitamin D and calcium are essential for overall health, but don’t reduce the risk of falls or fractures in generally healthy older adults, according to a new draft recommendation from the US Preventive Services Task Force. “When we did the 2018 recommendation, we did not have a sufficient number of male participants in the studies of fractures and falls with vitamin D. Since that time, there’s been enough to at least draw some conclusions, and we’ve drawn the same conclusion – it’s not helpful in terms of prevention,” said task force member Dr. Goutham Rao, chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and chief clinician experience officer for the University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, Ohio. “Taking supplemental calcium, with vitamin D to facilitate absorbing calcium, fills in what someone may not be able to achieve based on diet alone.” The USPSTF draft recommendation specifically recommends against supplementation with vitamin D, with or without calcium, for the primary prevention of fractures in postmenopausal women and men ages 60 or older who live in their own homes in the community and not nursing homes, long-term care facilities or are hospitalized. “We found that supplementation with vitamin D versus placebo in the largest randomized control trial – including 25,871 adults enrolled from 50 states – did not reduce fracture risk, and this was in generally healthy middle-age and older adults,” said study author Dr. Meryl LeBoff, chief of the calcium and bone section in the Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension Division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the new USPSTF draft recommendation.