Bone strength from calcium, vitamin D limited, study shows

For years, doctors have been telling older women to take calcium and vitamin D tablets to protect their bones as they age.

Now, the biggest study ever to examine the value of that advice suggests the supplements convey only limited protection: They failed to protect against most fractures in the mostly low-risk women.

At the same time, the supplements did seem to offer some benefit against hip breaks among women over 60 and those who took the pills faithfully. The study is “not as ringing an endorsement of calcium as one might like,” said one of the researchers, Norman Lasser at New Jersey Medical School.

Even so, he and other experts are urging women to stick with government advice to keep taking the supplements. “We don’t want to send the message to people to throw away their calcium pills, which was my wife’s first reaction,” Lasser said.

The findings were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The outcome affects an enormous number of people since an estimated 10 million Americans have break-prone bones because of osteoporosis.