More than half of the population in Spain has vitamin D. A study now question the benefits of supplementation

Vitamin D, in reality, is not strictly a vitamin. It is a prohormone. Even so, in this article we will continue to identify it as a vitamin by familiarity. Anyway has a fundamental role in the proper functioning of our body. Our body is able to produce it When we expose ourselves to sunlightalthough we can also get it from some foods or Taking supplements. Its importance lies in its ability to favor the absorption of calcium and phosphorus inside our intestine, so without it our bones would become fragile.

However, this is not all. It also has the ability to improve muscle function, to activate some defensive cells of our immune system, to regulate blood pressure, and even reduce the level of inflammation of our body. In many regions of Spain, the Sun abounds for a good part of the year, and, even so, more than half of the Spanish population, between 50 and 60%, has an insufficient level of vitamin D (less than 30 ng/ml).

This is the percentage defended by a good part of the most recent studies, such as, for example, the one prepared by the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition In 2023, although this figure varies depending on the age and sex of the people collected in the report. Unfortunately many of these studies are not available publicly, but most of them argue that up to 60% of the general population has an insufficient level From this prohormone, as we have just seen. And if we stick to people 65 years of age or older, this figure is triggered until 80%.

Vitamin D supplements are in question

It is not easy to explain why in a country as sunny as Spain so many people of all ages have an insufficient level of vitamin D, but the most reasonable thing is to assume that it is due to a combination of several factors. On the one hand, many people avoid exposing themselves to sunlight during those hours in which this radiation source is more intense to prevent the appearance of skin cancer. And when they do they protect with solar creams that are capable of blocking up to 95% of the synthesis. In addition, a part of the population has acquired habits that invite you to spend more time at home and less outdoors.

The diet can help us fight this lack, but the figures given by scientific studies show that in Spain we do not consume with the necessary abundance foods rich in vitamin Dsuch as wild salmon, sardines, cod liver oil or mushrooms. In these circumstances, the intake of calcifediol supplements, which is one of the types of vitamin D that circulate in our blood system, is the solution by which doctors usually opt to remedy this deficit.

However, during the last decades Several scientific studies They have questioned the efficacy and benefits of the intake of vitamin D through supplementation. One of the most recent It has been led by Dr. Cynthia Thompson, of the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Public Health College of the University of Arizona (USA), and is very interesting because it tries to statistically evaluate two consequences of taking vitamin D supplements that other studies had only insinuated: the possibility that they reduce the risk of having cancer, but, at the same time, they increase that of suffering a heart disease.

This random essay has lasted seven years and involves 36,282 women. Those who were randomly assigned the vitamin D supplementation and calcium supplementation experienced a 7% reduction in the cancer mortality rate. However, those same people also experienced a 6% increase in mortality from cardiovascular diseases. These figures are significant From a statistical point of view, but they do not allow us to reach a definitive conclusion in regard to general mortality.

According to Dr. F. Perry Wilsonfrom Yale University (USA), vitamin D supplementation probably does not affect mortality, although it could slightly reduce the risk of some forms of cancer. However, it could also increase the risk of heart disease presumably due to the calcification of arteries. Whatever it is important that we keep in mind that the results of this study, and of those who have preceded it, are not conclusive, although, yes, they give us valuable clues that are worth taking into account.

Image | Darina Bellonogova

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