It is advisable to take your vitamin D levels seriously. A recent study has found low vitamin D levels are related to premature death.

Researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA ) conducted the study — published within the journal Annals Of Internal Medicine — which found the severity of vitamin D deficiency was closely linked to increased mortality risk.

“While severe vitamin D deficiency is rarer in Australia than elsewhere on the earth, it could still affect those that have health vulnerabilities, the elderly, and people who don’t acquire enough vitamin D from healthy sun exposure and dietary sources,” first writer, Josh Sutherland, and a Ph.D. student at UniSA, said, reported SciTechDaily.

Vitamin D is a necessary nutrient needed by the body to make sure good, healthy bones and muscles.

“Our study provides strong evidence for the connection between low levels of vitamin D and mortality, and that is the primary study of its kind to also include respiratory disease-related mortality as an final result,” Sutherland continued. “We used a recent genetic method to explore and affirm the non-linear relationships that we’ve seen in observational settings, and thru this, we’ve been able to provide strong evidence for the connection between low vitamin D status and premature death.” 

Speaking of challenges in conducting efficient studies on the relation between vitamin D and death risk, Sutherland said, “Vitamin D deficiency has been connected with mortality, but as clinical trials have often didn’t recruit individuals with low vitamin D levels – or have been prohibited from including vitamin deficient participants – it’s been difficult to ascertain causal relationships.”

For the study, the researchers scrutinized 307,601 records from the UK Biobank, which has participants recruited between March 2006 and July 2010.

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Senior investigator and Director of UniSA’s Australian Centre for Precision Health, Professor Elina Hyppönen, said more research will help inform public health strategies, which, in turn, will help formulate national guidelines.

“The take-home message here is straightforward – the secret’s within the prevention. It shouldn’t be ok to take into consideration vitamin D deficiency when already facing life-challenging situations when early motion could make all of the difference,” Hyppönen said. “It is rather vital to proceed public health efforts to make sure the vulnerable and elderly maintain sufficient vitamin D levels all year long.”

One other vitamin, B3, is within the news. A study has found the vitamin B3 complement nicotinamide riboside (NR), promoted as an anti-aging product, may increase cancer risk and brain metastasis.

“Some people take them [vitamins and supplements] because they robotically assume that vitamins and supplements only have positive health advantages, but little or no is understood about how they really work,” co-author Elena Goun explained. “For this reason lack of information, we were inspired to review the fundamental questions surrounding how vitamins and supplements work within the body.”