2 Studies: Vitamin D Benefits Still Not Clear

Current evidence still doesn’t show any clear benefits from taking vitamin D pills, 2 new reports say. One report looked at hundreds of studies, including those that pulled together results from prior studies. The authors found that vitamin D’s effects have been examined closely for only 10 conditions. And there’s only enough evidence to say that vitamin D levels could affect 1 of them, the authors said. They found an apparent link between vitamin D levels late in pregnancy and the birth weight of children. The other new study examined previous studies that focused on death rates. Fourteen of the most reliable studies, known as known as randomized controlled trials, found an average 11% lower risk of death among those taking vitamin D3 pills. But death rates were up slightly for people taking vitamin D2. However, these studies were mostly small and included mostly older adults.