NOW Foods - Vitamin D: Helping Decrease Falls and Fractures in the Elderly

Vitamin D: Helping Decrease Falls and Fractures in the Elderly

By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, November 23, 2005, abstracted from “Should Older People in Residential Care Receive Vitamin D to Prevent Falls? Results of a Randomized Trial” in the November 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

In the elderly, one of the biggest risks for by osteoporosis and cost the healthcare system $17 billion in 2001.¹ Compared with children, elderly persons who fall are 10 times more likely to be hospitalized and eight times more likely to die as the result of a fall.²

Women are especially susceptible to falls and fractures. One in three women aged 70 and older fall each year³ with one-third of all fractures occurring in older women in residential care.⁴ Now a new study⁵ has found that helping the elderly decrease their number of falls and fractures may be as easy as taking a vitamin D supplement.

In the study, researchers studied 6,500 elderly people in 60 different took placebo pills. Each group also took 600 mg of calcium carbonate daily.

For the researchers, the vitamin D group had 27% less falls, had an 18% less risk of ever falling, and a 31% decreased risk of fracture from falling. Surprisingly, patients instructed to take only half of the prescribed amounts had even better results, falling 37% less, having a 30% decreased risk of ever falling, and a 32% decrease risk fracture from falling.

For the researchers, “Older people in residential care can reduce their incidence of falls if they take a vitamin D supplement for two years even if they are not initially classically vitamin D deficient.”

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Danville, CA. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at mailto:ChiroDocPSUalum@msn.com or visiting his website www.CompleteChiropracticHealthcare.com

Reference:

¹ National Osteoporosis Foundation Website “Fast Facts” www.nof.org/osteoporosis/diseasefacts.htm

² Runge JW. The cost of injury. Emerg Med Clin North Am 1993;11:241-53

³ Gillespie LD, Gillespie WJ, Robertson MC et al. Interventions for preventing falls in elderly people. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2003;(4): CD000340

⁴ Pocock NA, Culton NL, Harris ND. The potential effect on hip fracture incidence of mass screening for osteoporosis. Med J Aust 1999;170: 486–488

⁵ Flicker, L. (2005). "Should older people in residential care receive vitamin d to prevent falls? Results of a randomized trial." J Am Geriatr Soc 53(11): 1881-8