Franconia
Dietary supplements: can you compensate for vitamin deficiency with tablets?
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Increased mortality and the lack of vitamin D are all in one close relationship, Parallels were found especially in people of younger and middle age. It is also frightening that the vitamin D deficiency has been linked in particular to deaths caused by diabetes.
Vitamin D deficiency study: 78,581 patients examined for study
Many studies have already shown the connection between increased mortality and the lack of vitamin D. However, a large part of the research can be traced back to the examination of older test subjects. Here, an impact on the results by an increased rate of vitamin D supplementation cannot be excluded.
Between 1991 and 2011, a total of 78,581 patients (31.5% male, average age at 51 years) were measured in the laboratory medicine department of the General Hospital in Vienna for vitamin D levels in the body. The researchers in the new study used data from the records and compared them with the Austrian death register. If possible, the patients were followed up for up to 20 years (average time was 10.5 years).
High vitamin D level: 40 percent reduction in the risk of death
The mean value for the blood level of vitamin D was 50 nmol / l. This value could then be compared with a low blood level – 10 nmol / l – and a high blood level – 90 nmol / l – of vitamin D.
It emerged from these observations that a low vitamin D blood level was associated with a two to three-fold increase in the risk of death. The greatest effect (2.9-fold increased risk) was observed here in patients aged 45 to 60 years.
A 30-40 percent reduction in total mortality was seen with a blood level of 90 nmol / l. Here, too, the greatest effect was seen in test subjects aged 45 to 60 years (40 percent reduction in risk). Only in patients over the age of 75 was there no statistically significant connection between the risk of death and the vitamin D blood level.
Cause-specific mortality: people with diabetes react particularly to deficiency
In the study, the scientists also examined the relationship between cause-specific mortality and vitamin D blood levels. The researchers were surprised to see that the largest connection could not be established with cardiovascular diseases or cancer, but that a completely different disease reacted most intensively to a vitamin D deficiency.
It turned out that patients who had diabetes and were in the vitamin D deficiency group (less than or equal to 50 nmol / l) were 4.4 times more likely to die from the disease than that Diabetes sufferers who were not in the deficiency group. It is particularly important for people suffering from diabetes that the vitamin D content in the body is well regulated and that there are no deficiency symptoms.
At the end of the study, the scientists came to the clear conclusion that their data “confirm a strong connection between vitamin D deficiency (below 50 nmol / l) and increased mortality”. According to the team, the association is “most pronounced in younger and middle age groups and in causes of death other than cancer and cardiovascular disease, especially diabetes.”
It is recommended that everyone always keep an eye on their own vitamin D content in the body to avoid deficiency symptoms and an increased risk of death.
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