Vitamin D May Not Have Cardioprotective Benefits

More bad news for the cure du jour.

Data from a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled trial has cast real doubt on the alleged cardioprotective benefits of vitamin D. Researchers performing the small study report that treatment with vitamin D for four months had no significant effect on endothelial function, vascular stiffness, or inflammation in healthy postmenopausal women.

"At this point in time, from the standpoint of heart-disease prevention, we have no evidence to prescribe vitamin D to patients, and we have no evidence not to give it," senior investigator Dr James Stein (University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI) told heartwire. "We have other agents that have been proven effective to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. In the US, with many patients taking the supplement and many physicians prescribing it, some of whom are megadosing it, what we really have going on is a massive, uncontrolled experiment."

Oops.