Vitamin D problem in stroke patients

By Geoff Michaels, June 6th, 2013 | Health | 0 Comments

Vitamin D deficiency among stroke survivors may raise the risk of hip fracture.
Research shows that people who have had a stroke are two to four times more likely to break a hip than the general population. Japanese doctors at the Hirosaki University School of Medicine have been looking at the reasons why.

They analysed the levels of a breakdown product of vitamin D - a ‘marker’ for levels of the vitamin - in a group of 236 stroke patients, aged 65 or older. Eighty eight patients were definitely deficient, while another 76 were rated as having insufficient levels of vitamin D. Only 72 had normal levels.

Over the next two years, the number of fractures was 7.1 times higher in the deficient group compared to the insufficient group. And there were no fractures in the group whose levels were normal.

It may be that older age and prolonged immobility may contribute the vitamin D deficiency - because both factors were more pronounced in the deficient group. Whether supplementation would decrease the risk of hip fracture in stroke patients is the next question to be answered.