Vitamin D Supplements Do Not Improve Cholesterol

Vitamin D has been touted for its beneficial effects on a range of human systems, from enhancing bone health to reducing the risk of developing certain cancers. But it does not improve cholesterol levels, according to a new study conducted at The Rockefeller University Hospital. A team of scientists has shown that, at least in the short term, cholesterol levels did not improve when volunteers with vitamin D deficiency received mega-doses of vitamin D. The finding is published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

The researchers, led by Manish Ponda, MD, an assistant professor of clinical investigation in Jan Breslow’s Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism, studied 151 people with vitamin D deficiency. The study participants were given either 50,000 IUs of vitamin D3 or a placebo weekly for eight weeks. Participants’ cholesterol levels were measured before and after treatment.

Correcting vitamin D deficiencies with high doses of oral vitamin D supplements did not change cholesterol levels, Ponda and his colleagues found, despite effectively increasing vitamin D to recommended levels. Vitamin D levels nearly tripled in the group that received supplements, but were unchanged in the placebo group.

“Our study challenges the notion that replenishing vitamin D improves cholesterol,” says Ponda. “In fact, a biologic response to vitamin D was correlated with an increase in LDL cholesterol.”

Source: Rockefeller University