Low Vitamin D Blood Level Linked to Premature Death

The primary form of Vitamin D found in blood is 25-hydroxyvitamin D.  Previously, a National Academy of Sciences report established the cutoff point for all-cause mortality reduction as 20 ng/mL.  Cedric F. Garland, University of California/San Diego (UCSD; California, USA), and colleagues completed a meta-analysis of 32 previous studies, involving data collected on a total of 566,583 subjects from 14 countries, that included analyses of vitamin D, blood levels and human mortality rates. The researchers found that people with lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D  level were twice as likely to die prematurely, as compared to those with higher blood levels of vitamin D.  The study authors report that: “Serum 25(OH)D concentrations less than or equal to 30 ng/mL were associated with higher all-cause mortality than concentrations greater than 30 ng/mL.”