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Sport & Health

New vitamin D measurement method discovered

Vitamin D measurement method

Researchers at the Medical University of Graz have developed a more reliable method of assessing vitamin D levels.

The human body can largely produce vitamin D itself under the influence of sunlight; a smaller proportion is obtained from food. If there is a vitamin D deficiency, the body cannot absorb calcium from food, which is why bones become decalcified.

Drawing better conclusions

Until now, vitamin D testing has only determined a value that represents an inactive precursor of the vitamin and does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about how the amount of vitamin D available in the body is actually utilised.

The new vitamin D measurement method would make it possible to draw better conclusions about processes in the body and better assess which patients actually have a vitamin D deficiency and could benefit from supplementation, explains Markus Hermann from the Institute for Medical and Chemical Laboratory Diagnostics at the Medical University of Graz.

Not all deficiencies are the same

And indeed, the distinction between vitamin D deficiency and functional vitamin D deficiency reduces the number of cases relevant for vitamin D supplementation by around 20 per cent. While the addition of the vitamin is beneficial in the case of a functional vitamin D deficiency, more recent scientific studies question the usefulness of a supplementary supply of vitamin D in fundamentally healthy people.

Follow-up studies will now investigate the consequences of a functional vitamin D deficiency on bone density and the risk of bone fractures.

 

We have every reason to be proud of our researchers! what Austria's scientists are capable of is truly ingenious!

#supergenius. We make positive things visible.

Source: red, steiermark.ORF.at

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