Vitamin D and calcium combo will reduce the rate of mortality in elders: Study

Aarhus University Hospital has revealed that vitamin D when taken with calcium can reduce the rate of mortality in elders, which, in turn provides a possible means of increasing life expectancy.

According to the researchers, during the last ten years, there has been increasing recognition of the potential health effects of vitamin D, as it was established that calcium along with vitamin D supplements can reduce the risk of fractures.

The researchers at the hospital studied data from eight randomised controlled trials with more than 1,000 participants each, where the the patient data set made up nearly 90% women, with a median age of 70 years.

The Denmark-based researchers said that death was reduced by 9% in those treated with vitamin D with calcium.

Further, the research showed that the death rate among patients was randomised to either vitamin D alone or vitamin D with calcium.

The study found that the reduced mortality was not owing to a lower number of fractures, but because of a beneficial effect beyond the reduced fracture risk.

Aarhus University Hospital researcher and author of the study Lars Rejnmark said that certain studies have suggested calcium with or without vitamin D supplements can have adverse effects on cardiovascular health.

"Although our study does not rule out such effects, we found that calcium with vitamin D supplementation to elderly participants is overall not harmful to survival, and may have beneficial effects on general health," said Rejnmark.