LONDON (Reuters) - Giving vitamin D and calcium supplements to elderly patients
who suffer from osteoporosis does not prevent them breaking bones, researchers
said on Thursday.
People with osteoporosis, or brittle bone disease, have an increased risk of
fractures, particularly if they have already broken a bone.
Doctors often recommend supplements of vitamin D and calcium but scientists
at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland say they don't work.
"Our trial indicates that routine supplementation with calcium and vitamin
D3, either alone or in combination, is not effective in the prevention of
further fractures in people who had a recent low-trauma fracture," said
Professor Adrian Grant, who headed the research team.
In research published online by The Lancet medical journal, Grant and his
team studied 5,300 elderly people who had fractured a bone during the previous
10 years.
They were randomly divided into four groups which were given supplements of
vitamin D, calcium, both, or a placebo. After following up the patients for up
to 62 months, nearly 700 patients had broken a bone but there was no difference
in the number of fractures in the different groups.
"We need to consider other strategies for secondary fracture prevention,"
said Grant.
Drugs known as bisphosphonates, which maintain bone density, could be a
better alternative, Grant added.
Osteoporosis causes the bones to become thinner and more likely to break.
Although it affects both sexes, women are four times more likely than men to
suffer from the illness.
There is no cure for osteoporosis but medicines can slow and sometimes
prevent bone mineral loss.
