Want to get enough vitamin D? Try supplements — or sunshine

This morning, I swallowed a small translucent capsule I’d popped out of the blister pack I keep next to the coffee pot. I’m not sure what’s in this little pill, but I’ve taken one with breakfast every day for more than two years and will keep taking them for at least two more years. Like almost 26,000 other women and men, I’m part of the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL, otherwise known as the VITAL study. Every day we take identical pills, but half of us are getting 2,000 IU of vitamin D and the rest of us are taking a placebo. We’re also taking another capsule that contains either a gram of omega-3 fatty acids or a placebo. We don’t know which groups we’re in — and neither do the researchers. I volunteered for the study because I had read so many promising reports about vitamin D and had a lot of questions: Does it prevent heart attacks and strokes? Does it reduce the risk of cancer? Does it prevent bone fractures? The VITAL study was designed to answer all three. By the end of 2017, we’ll know who got vitamin D and who got the placebo, and whether the vitamin D group had lower rates of those health problems than the placebo group. We’ll also have similar information about the effects of the omega-3 fatty acid capsules, and the effects of vitamin D in combination with them. Why VITAL is vital So far, numerous small studies have failed to show conclusively that taking vitamin D supplements prevents cardiovascular disease or cancer, and in 2014 the US Prevent...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Drugs and Supplements vitamin d vitamins Source Type: news