Elderly falls linked to vitamin deficiency

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Elderly falls linked to vitamin deficiency

09:30 01 December 03 NewScientist.com news service

An unexpected risk factor for the potentially fatal falls suffered by many

elderly people has been discovered - vitamin D deficiency.

 

Researchers in Australia found that being severely deficient increased the risk

of falls and that supplements reduced their number. The study of over 1500

women, led by Leon Flicker of the University of Western Australia in Perth, also

found that severe vitamin D deficiency is surprisingly common in Australia.

 

Vitamin D is produced in the skin when it is exposed to sunlight, so the

assumption had been that deficiency would not be a problem in sunny countries.

But the new study found that almost half of elderly women in high-level

residential care, though not bedridden, were severely deficient.

 

Furthermore, a fifth of elderly women who were healthy enough to live in

low-level residential care were also severely deficient. Both groups of women

had an average age of 84 years.

 

The deficient women had blood levels so low that the same levels in a growing

child would cause bone abnormalities such as rickets, says research team member

Caryl Nowson, of Deakin University in Melbourne.

 

 

Brain and brawn

 

 

Women in the study who were less severely vitamin D deficient were less likely

to fall, with a doubling of vitamin D levels reducing their risk by 20 per cent.

That association existed even when other risk factors, such as the use of

sedatives, were taken into account.

 

An unpublished study by the same team shows that supplements reduce the number

of falls and the number of breaks caused. The supplements only need to be given

every few months because the body can store vitamin D.

 

Vitamin D is best known for its role in healthy bones. But there is growing

evidence that it is also essential for muscle and brain function. A decrease in

either of these could cause old people to fall.

 

 

Fortified food

 

 

Falls are a leading cause of death and disability in old people. When a person

in their eighties breaks a hip, there is a 30 percent chance they will die

within a month. In the UK and the US, where people are exposed to less sun,

vitamin D deficiency is recognised as a potential problem, and food is

fortified.

 

 

 

 

Synthetic vitamin D boosts bone growth

30 September 2002

Low vitamin D linked to diabetes

2 November 2001

Vitamin link to Alzheimer's disease

8 May 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, elderly people, have a greater requirement for vitamin D, because they

do not make it so efficiently. " We're discovering that Vitamin D deficiency is

the deficiency of the elderly, " says Nowson.

 

The cause, believes osteoporosis expert Philip Sambrook, of the University of

Sydney, is " partly because the women were stuck in nursing homes, and partly

because of the strong Australian public health message about sun and skin cancer

risk " .

 

But 20 minutes of sunlight, which can be taken at the beginning and end of each

day when the sun is less strong is still required, he says.

 

Journal reference: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (vol 51, p 1533)

 

Rachel Nowak, Melbourne

 

 

 

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