Vitamin D Supplements have been found practically useless in a new study out of New Zealand which flies in the face of everything that we have been told.

Vitamin D has been thought helpful in the prevention of many diseases and ailments such as heart attack, stroke, and even depression. However, the new study finds that Vitamin D in supplement form, among other supplements, could be totally useless.

In the study, researchers found that a group of people given a real Vitamin D supplement and a group given a “dummy” supplement had no marked differences in the diseases with which they suffered.

“Our findings suggest that vitamin D supplementation with or without calcium does not reduce skeletal or non-skeletal outcomes in unselected community-dwelling individuals by more than 15%. Future trials with similar designs are unlikely to alter these conclusions,” concludes the study conducted by Health Research Council of New Zealand.

Experts say that the best way to get Vitamin D is from food sources like milk, salmon, tuna, and vegetables like mushrooms.

“The take-away message is that there is little justification currently for prescribing vitamin D to prevent heart attack, stroke, cancer, or fractures in otherwise-healthy people living in the community,” says lead study author Dr. Mark Bolland, according to bio-hormone-health.com.

However, there are still many who would argue that Vitamin D supplementation is absolutely effective. Dr. Michael F Holick, a vitamin D expert and author of “The Vitamin D Solution” book, says that the testing methods done in New Zealand were simply “silly”. He says the results prove nothing since the doses of Vitamin D given test subjects was incredibly small and not what would normally be prescribed.

The RDA for Vitamin D supplementation is only 400 IU per day, yet current research suggests that our daily Vitamin D requirement is closer to 4,000 to 5,000 IU.

Would giving the required dosage have made a difference? I suppose another study will be in order.

Image via Wikimedia Commons