vitamin D pills useless, say researchers Vitamin D supplements provided protection from few, if any, other diseases. Photo: Suzanne White It is good for your bones, it wards off rickets in children, but spending money on vitamin D supplements to prevent cancer and other non-skeletal diseases could be a waste of money, the medical journal The Lancet says. The finding is the latest attack on the very healthy and growing supplement industry, estimated to generate $1.5 billion in Australian sales a year. Only last month the US journal Annals of Internal Medicine said most vitamins and mineral supplements did not prevent chronic disease or death, that their use among healthy adults was not justified, that they wasted money and that they should be avoided. While evidence supports the importance of vitamin D for bone health, Lancet's editorial said the results of myriad randomised controlled trials were "almost unanimous" in concluding vitamin D supplements provided protection from few, if any, other diseases. "It looks increasingly likely that low vitamin D is not a cause but a consequence of ill health," said The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal. The sunshine vitamin has been touted as giving protection against cancer, heart attack, diabetes, dementia and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. But the French review of nearly 500 studies that appeared in The Lancet found its benefits in reducing the risk of diseases were largely unconfirmed in 172 randomised controlled trials. "Associations between vitamin D and health disorders reported by investigators of observational studies are not causal," lead author Philippe Autier said. Low vitamin D could be the result of inflammatory processes involved in the occurrence and progression of disease. About 70 per cent of Australians take some form of vitamin or mineral supplement, many of which include D3. It is estimated that about 50 per cent of Americans, 30 per cent of Britons and many Australians take standalone D supplements. The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia has estimated that at least half the 4 million tests for vitamin D deficiency taken each year should not have been done. It recommended testing and supplements only for people with conditions such as osteoporosis or chronic kidney failure, which are known to decrease vitamin D, or for those with dark skin. A college spokesman, Paul Glendenning, said the Lancet article reflected the latest thinking on vitamin D. Other medical organisations, including the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society and the Endocrine Society, had reached similar conclusions. Dr Glendenning said there was no evidence to support widespread screening of the population or treatment with supplements. with Bloomberg