Despite research suggesting that Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent among Americans, an influential advisory group decided not to endorse it saying that its benefits are not sufficiently supported by evidence so as to include it as part of medical care routine.
On Monday, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of health experts on prevention and evidence-based medicine whose recommendation are widely adopted, opted not to endorse vitamin D deficiency screening that a growing number of people are now availing of.
"The USPSTF concludes that the evidence on screening for vitamin D deficiency to improve health outcomes in asymptomatic adults is insufficient and the balance of benefits and harms of screening and early intervention cannot be determined," reads the USPSTF draft recommendation statement.
The panel contended that it isn't clear if healthy adults with low levels of Vitamin D could benefit from taking Vitamin D supplements and since there is not enough evidence to serve as basis for either endorsing or advising against routine vitamin D screening, panel members said that testing should be considered on a case by case basis with those showing symptoms of deficiency urged to discuss screening with their doctors.
"We really just don't have enough evidence to say one way or the other whether screening for vitamin D has a health benefit," said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, from the USPSTF.
Low levels of Vitamin D is associated with rickets, a condition characterized by soft bones and skeletal deformities, cognitive impairment, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and even increased risks of early death. Vitamin D, which occurs naturally in fish liver oils, egg yolks, and fortified grain and dairy products as well as produced by the body with exposure to sunlight, is also found to play an important role in preventing and treating a number of medical conditions including multiple sclerosis, hypertension and glucose intolerance.
Although a deficiency of the vitamin has been linked with a host of health problems studies failed to show that taking vitamin D supplements can prevent those problems in healthy albeit vitamin D deficient individuals.
Individuals who are prone to vitamin D deficiency are those who avoid the sun, vegans and those with milk allergies but it remains unclear what level of the vitamin would classify someone as deficient. One group of physicians, however, The Endocrine Society, urges people who are at risk for Vitamin D deficiency including pregnant women as well as obese and dark-skinned individuals to undergo screening.
