Loss of muscle strength is a major risk factor for declining physical activity and function in later life. Vitamin D supplementation may play a role in reducing that loss, a new study has found.
Study participants included adults aged 50 years and older without dynapenia (loss of muscle strength). Within four years, those with vitamin D deficiency had a 70% higher odds of developing the condition than their peers with normal levels of vitamin D. Deficiency was measured as less than 30 nanomoles per liter in the blood, and normal levels were defined as more than 50 nmol/L.
Investigators also analyzed the results when data from adults with osteoporosis were removed. In this case, the risk of developing muscle weakness was 78% higher in participants with Vitamin D deficiency and 77% higher in those with insufficiency (30-50 nmol/L).
Both vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency in seniors raise the risk of weakened muscles, Tiago da Silva Alexandre, of the Federal University of São Carlos in Brazil, and colleagues concluded. Vitamin D plays a key role in the regulation of calcium and phosphorus absorption, helping to maintain muscle and bone health and keep the brain and immune system working as well, they said.
“[I]t’s important to take vitamin D if you have a deficiency or insufficiency,” Alexandre said.
Full findings were published in the journal Calcified Tissue International.
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