{"id":685249,"date":"2026-06-05T04:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T04:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/685249\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T04:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T04:37:16","slug":"vitamin-d-and-calcium-may-not-support-bone-health-as-much-as-thought-study-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/685249\/","title":{"rendered":"Vitamin D and calcium may not support bone health as much as thought: study – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recently released study<\/a> by the British Medical Journal<\/a> (BMJ) is casting doubt on the longstanding belief that calcium<\/a> and vitamin D<\/a> intake can help prevent bone fractures and falls.<\/p>\n

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The review and meta-analysis spanned from 2014 to February 2025, analyzing data from 69 trials across a combined 153,902 participants, 87 per cent of whom were living in communities and 73 per cent of whom were not considered to be at high risk of fractures or falls.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on absolute risk reductions and thresholds considered clinically meaningful, this review found little to no benefits from use of calcium, vitamin D, or combined supplementation on the prevention of fractures and falls,\u201d the research concluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from exercise and drug treatments for osteoporosis, few interventions with moderate or high certainty evidence have been consistently shown to reduce the risk of fractures,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n

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Olivier Mass\u00e9, a pharmacist with CIUSSS du Nord-de-l\u2019\u00eele-de-Montr\u00e9al and one of the authors of the study, said that these results were expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings actually align with a growing body of evidence over the last decade that has cast doubt on the usefulness of routine supplementation in adults,\u201d he said in an emailed statement to Global News.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still many valid indications for taking calcium and vitamin D, such as taking osteoporosis medication, long-term corticosteroids, certain bone or endocrine diseases, following bariatric surgery, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mass\u00e9 also stressed that the results of the study are not to encourage people not to take their calcium and vitamin D supplements, \u201cbut rather that individuals taking them should consult their health-care professional to see if continuing them is still necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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David Goltzman, a professor of medicine and physiology at McGill University, said that the bottom line of the study\u2019s findings is that \u201cif you\u2019re already vitamin D sufficient, you don\u2019t need more vitamin D and calcium.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf we don\u2019t have a sufficient amount of vitamin D, we won\u2019t absorb calcium, and so you won\u2019t have it for your bones. But if you\u2019re already vitamin D sufficient, you don\u2019t need more vitamin D and you probably don\u2019t need more calcium,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, Goltzman said the majority of the population doesn\u2019t know if they are vitamin D sufficient due to these levels not being checked on a routine basis.<\/p>\n

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Goltzman also said that the weather and seasonal changes can also play a role in people being vitamin D sufficient.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the winter months, there is less exposure to sun, and the vitamin D levels may go down and then they go up again in the summer months, where there\u2019s more sun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean everybody in Canada is vitamin D deficient in the winter, just means the levels will fluctuate and some will, in fact, go down.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Both Mass\u00e9 and the study highlight that \u201cfuture trials may evaluate interventions other than calcium, vitamin D, or combined supplementation to prevent fractures and falls.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cPotential areas of investigation include dietary strategies, drug review, educational or behavioural approaches, multi-component interventions, and digital tools for fall prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mass\u00e9 also stated that \u201cmany promising interventions are still understudied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goltzman recommends maintaining regular exercise and ensuring that foods being consumed are rich in vitamin D and calcium to increase those levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they have a diagnosis or they\u2019ve had a fracture, then, you know, everything changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recently released study by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) is casting doubt on the longstanding belief that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[222736,28504,103,5457,97,269,1199],"class_list":["post-685249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-british-medical-journal","tag-calcium","tag-canada","tag-consumer","tag-health","tag-nutrition","tag-vitamin-d"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}