Excess level of Vitamin D increases death rate

Excess levels of vitamin D in the blood are linked with higher death rates, The Daily Mail reported, citing a recent research.

They claim, in a ‘surprising’ finding, that too much of the sunshine vitamin may cause almost as much harm as too little.
 

A new study from Danish researchers found rates of death were 40 per cent up in people with very high levels of vitamin D.
 

The study from University of Copenhagen is based on blood samples from 247,574 patients having tests through their GPs.
 

But British experts said the UK had the reverse problem, with one in four people currently having low levels that put them at risk of deficiency.
 

The study is the largest of its kind using blood samples from the Copenhagen General Practitioners Laboratory.
 

It found a link between higher death rates when vitamin D levels fell to the lowest level - and when they soar to the highest level.
 

The findings show when blood contains less than 10 nanomol (nmol) of vitamin per liter of serum, mortality is more than doubled, being 2.31 times higher than the average.
 

However, if the blood contains more than 140 nmol of vitamin per liter of serum, mortality is higher by a factor of 1.42 - around 40 per cent higher.
 

The lowest mortality rate was at 50 nmol, says a report in the scientific Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Deficiency has been linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, several cancers, and autoimmune conditions as well as osteomalacia, which is the painful manifestation of soft bones in adults.