Study: Seniors low in vitamin D

Adequate levels considered crucial to healthy bones

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 24, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Many of Colorado's seniors aren't getting enough vitamin D, a nutritional gem that can prevent osteoporosis and may also guard against cancer, strokes, heart attacks and multiple sclerosis, a new study shows.

Researchers at University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora recruited 80 seniors, ages 65 to 89, and found that three-quarters of them had insufficient levels of vitamin D.

That's probably because they thought the old recommended levels were sufficient, said Sunny Linnebur, associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy in Denver.

"It was a surprise because in Denver we have so much sun," she said Wednesday. "And these were ambulatory elderly, people who can walk around and go outside. We were expecting more of them to have normal levels of vitamin D."

Sara Jane Barru, of Denver, said she assumed she was getting plenty of vitamin D, but when a test found her levels were low she eagerly jumped into the study. She said she started taking a lot more vitamin D while in the study "and I'm continuing to keep it up there."

"It's almost impossible to get it in food," she said. "You almost have to get a supplement unless you're out in the sun. And as you get older, all of those old abuses of lying out in the sun as a kid catch up with you, so that's not really a good option.

"It didn't really make a difference in how I feel, but it may prove to make a difference in what happens to me," Barru said on her increased vitamin D intake.

The study appears in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.

The patients most likely to be extremely low in vitamin D were those not taking any supplements and those who are obese, because the vitamin gets lost in the fat, researchers said.

The truth is that it is very hard for Americans to get enough vitamin D in their regular diets, Linnebur said. It's found in fatty fish, egg yolks, milk and orange juice, but seniors would have to drink eight cups of milk and orange juice a day to get enough.

In the 1980s it was assumed that people could overdose on vitamin D, so maximum allowances were set, Linnebur said. "Now we believe it's very difficult to get too much vitamin D," she said.

Vitamin D is crucial to bone health, Linnebur said, which means that people who don't have adequate levels as they age are more prone to breaking bones when they fall. And, in turn, they're more prone to fall if their bones are weak.

Muscles also have vitamin D receptors, which help maintain stability.

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2897

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