Older people with insufficient levels of vitamin D may be at an increased risk of dying from heart disease than those with adequate levels of the vitamin, says a new study from the University of Colorado, Denver School of Medicine. Compared to people with optimal vitamin D status, those with low vitamin D levels were three times more likely to die from heart disease and 2.5 times more likely to die from any cause, according to results of a study with 3,400 Americans. “Current dosage recommendations for vitamin D supplementation appear to be inadequate in most older adults to support these higher [vitamin D] levels that are associated with optimal general health and reduced mortality,” wrote the researchers in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Higher blood levels of vitamin D may double survival rates of colorectal cancer patients according to the results of a new study from Harvard researchers. People with the highest average levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-(OH)D) – the non-active storage form of the vitamin – had a cancer-specific mortality half that of people with the lowest average levels. Furthermore, high levels of the vitamin were associated with an overall mortality level 40 % lower than people with the lowest average levels, state the Boston-based researchers led by Prof Kimmie Ng, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Low levels of vitamin D may increase the risk of dying from all causes by 150%, according to the results of a new study that included 714 independently living, elderly women between the ages of 70 to 79 who were participating in the Women's Health and Aging Studies I and II and who were followed for 6-years on average. For the study Johns Hopkins researchers worked in collaboration with scientists from Wake Forest University, National Institute on Aging, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University. It was found that women with blood levels of the inactive form of Vitamin D, lower than 15.3 nanograms per millilitre were more likely to die from causes such as heart disease and cancer, than women with higher levels (above 27 ng/ml).