Little health benefit in vitamin D supplements: Auckland Uni study

Vitamin D supplements have no significant effect on preventing heart attack, stroke, cancer or bone fractures, according to a review of scientific evidence.

Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand looked at 40 high-quality trials to see if supplements met a benchmark of reducing risk of these problems by 15 per cent or more.

Previous research had seen a strong link between vitamin D deficiency and poor health in these areas.

But the new study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, strengthens arguments that vitamin D deficiency is usually the result of ill health - not the cause of it.

Its authors, led by Dr Mark Bolland, say there is "little justification" for doctors to prescribe vitamin D supplements as a preventive measure for these disorders.

"Available evidence does not lend support to vitamin D supplementation and it is very unlikely that the results of a future single randomised clinical trial will materially alter the results from current meta-analyses," they write.