Vitamin D and Falls Prevention

Posted Le 8 novembre 2016

On November 2nd, I wished a couple of people Happy Vitamin D Day! (Does EVERYTHING have its own day now? ). and that got me thinking. We have all heard it or read it... Vit D helps prevent falls. But why I asked, or rather HOW? How does Vitamin D help prevent Falls?. It is well documented that Vit D is needed for calcium absorption, and so Vit D supplementation can help prevent or slow bone loss, so IF you fall, you might be less likely to suffer a fracture. But that doesn't address my question. In her book, Falls Prevention Programming, (2012 - Lulu Publishing), Dr. Vicky Scott points out on page 67 that the top reason for falls in the elderly is a history of falls, (Lamb, Ferrcci, Valapto Fried, Guralnik (2003) Risk Factors for Falling in home-dwelling older women with Stroke. Stroke, 34(2) 494-501 ) and the second reason is muscle weakness. For an answer to my question, I turned to Dr. Michael J. Rudolph, who, in a recent article in Fitness Rx Magazine (Fall/Winter 2016, page 96), stated that "studies have shown that Vit D can bind to testosterone receptors, turning on lean muscle building genes:" Further, he says that Vit D can also bind to and activate actual Vit D receptors that activate genes to elicit increased lean muscle (Ramagopaln, SV, Heger, A e tal A ChIP-eq defined genome-wide map of Vit D receptor binding associations with disease and evolution.Genome res. .2010, 2. 1352-1360). So, there you have it.... Vit D helps build lean muscle. If we can get our elderly patients moving, using their lower limbs, and ensure their Vit D supplementation is adequate, we can be assured that we are indeed helping to prevent falls. Now, if we could just have International Beret Wearing Day, all will be well. August J