Daily D and calcium keep fractures away

DAVIS, Calif., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Taking both vitamin D and calcium daily reduces bone fracture risk, a U.S. researcher says.

John Robbins of the University of California, Davis, in the Sacramento area says this holds true whether a person is young or old, male or female, or has had fractures in the past.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, includes 70,000 patients from the United States and Europe including data published in 2006 from clinical trials conducted at University of California, Davis, as part of the Women's Health Initiative.

"What is important about this very large study is that goes a long way toward resolving conflicting evidence about the role of vitamin D, either alone or in combination with calcium, in reducing fractures," study co-author Robbins said in a statement.

"Our WHI research in Sacramento included more than 1,000 healthy, postmenopausal women and concluded that taking calcium and vitamin D together helped them preserve bone health and prevent fractures," he said. "This latest analysis, because it incorporates so many more people, really confirms our earlier conclusions."

Robbins was part of an international team of researchers led by Copenhagen University in Denmark, who analyzed the results of seven large clinical trials from around the world.