Vitamin D is essential for strong bones and healthy growth. We get most of our exposure to vitamin D in the skin through sunshine because most foods that contain the vitamin don’t have enough of it to make a difference. The reliance on sunlight to give us the vitamin can mean some of us suffer from a lack of sufficient vitamin D, which can particularly affect young children in the form of rickets and in older people through osteomalacia, a softening of the bones.
The Belgian research was carried out by a team from the University of Leuven who undertook their study because there has been little research into how the very old are affected by low vitamin D levels.
They examined the data for 367 people all aged over 80, calculating their vitamin D levels to reveal that 21.5% were deficient in vitamin D, 32.9% insufficient and 32.7% were severely insufficient. Only 12.8% of those involved in the study had sufficient levels of vitamin D, demonstrating to the researchers that low levels of vitamin D were more typical of the elderly.
However, the team’s analysis of participants’ ability to stay balanced, in grip strength and in walking speed had no link with vitamin D levels, sufficient or insufficient. Other factors taken into consideration, such as smoking habits, gender, calcium levels and diuretic use, confirmed the researchers’ conclusion that there is no association between vitamin D levels and physical ability after the age of 80.
Their results of the study were published in the journal Age and Ageing with the team concluding that more research is required into whether vitamin D supplements would be effective for the very elderly.