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The National Institutes of Health funded the trial, which recruited 25,871 healthy American men and women age 50 or older, including 5,106 African-Americans. Study participants were divided into four groups and randomly assigned to take place or placebos, and they were followed for 5.3 years on average.
One group took 2,000 IUs (international units) of vitamin D3 and 1 gram of omega-3s every day. A second group was given vitamin D and a dummy pill in place of omega-3. A third group got omega-3s and a vitamin D placebo. And the final group received two placebos.
Pharmavite LLC of Northridge, Calif., Donated the vitamin D agents and matching placebos, and Pronova BioPharma of Norway and BASF donated Omacor, a fish oil under the name Lovaza in the United States.
The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, are being presented at a conference of the American Heart Association in Chicago.
In many ways, the results are not surprising. The current state of health has been limited by a steady state of vitamin D in recent years, as well as high levels of diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, heart disease and depression. Many primary care doctors now routinely test patients' vitamin D levels and report them deficient, and supplement sales have skyrocketed in recent years.
All along, however, have been questioned whether or not they are merely a marker of overall health, and that the threshold for deficiency is too high. The so-called sunshine vitamin is synthesized in the body by the skin, is obese, poor nutrition, and other factors. Certain foods, like fatty fish, eggs and fortified milk, also contain vitamin D.
The Institute of Medicine in 2011 concluded that most Americans get enough vitamin D and that deficiencies have been overstated. The group also noted inconsistencies in their potential for increased blood pressure.
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