Vitamin D Has No Beneficial Effects on Muscle Health, New Review Finds | Medication

Vitamin D has no beneficial effect on muscle function, strength or mass in non-athletes and in some cases may even have a negative effect, according to a new review of previous studies published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

“The data regarding the effects of vitamin D on muscle function are inconsistent,” said lead author Dr Lise Sofie Bislev of Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University and colleagues.

“The differences between observational and placebo-controlled studies are an indisputable fact. “

“The objective of our study was to investigate the effects of vitamin D supplementation versus placebo on muscle health.”

For their systematic review and meta-analysis, the authors performed a systematic search of randomized controlled trials published up to October 2020 in Medline, Embase, and Google Scholar.

They included studies in humans (excluding athletes) on vitamin D2 or D3 supplementation versus placebo, regardless of the form of administration (daily, bolus and duration) with or without calcium co-supplementation.

The predefined endpoints were maximum muscle strength measured as grip, elbow flexion, elbow extension, knee flexion, and knee extension.

A total of 54 randomized controlled trials involving 8,747 people were included. The majority of studies have used doses above 2800 IU / day.

Overall, there was no benefit of vitamin D over placebo in improving muscle health.

On the contrary, vitamin D appears to have detrimental effects in terms of increasing the time spent performing the so-called ‘timed up and go’ test, a decrease in maximum force at knee flexion and a tendency to a reduced score of short physical performance. drums.

“Care should be taken to recommend vitamin D supplementation to improve muscle strength and function in people with normal or slightly altered vitamin D status,” said Dr Bislev.

“However, we need to study further whether this can benefit the muscles of people with severe vitamin D deficiency.”

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Lise Sophie Bislev et al. Vitamin D and muscle health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized, placebo-controlled trials. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, published online August 17, 2021; doi: 10.1002 / jbmr.4412