Frightening conclusions are being drawn from a flawed vitamin D study. Action Alert!

You can almost see the smile on the reporter’s face at The New York Times who wrote the headline: “Study Finds Another Condition That Vitamin D Pills Don’t Help.” The study on which the article is based did indeed conclude that vitamin D supplementation did not reduce the risk of bone fractures compared to placebo. Several glaring problems with the study were completely ignored by the media. Worse still, some have used the study to suggest that measuring vitamin D levels in patients is useless. Unfortunately, this is what we’ve come to expect from mainstream medicine and the media who dutifully pounce on any opportunity to bash supplements.

The most harmful consequence of this study comes from an editorial discussing the results. It argues that, since the study shows that “vitamin supplements do not have important health benefits…there is no justification for measuring [vitamin D levels] in the general population or treating to a target serum level.”