Most patients taking steroids have suboptimal vitamin D levels and should take supplements to prevent drug-induced osteoporosis, Australian experts advise.
These supplements should, at the minimum, be 1800 IU/daily, the authors of the meta-analysis involving 25 studies and almost 900 patients concluded.
Although it was clear that vitamin D supplementation was beneficial in the treatment of steroid induced osteoporosis, the extent to which steroids compromised vitamin D status was unclear, the authors from Monash University in Victoria wrote in the JCEM.
Furthermore, there was some debate internationally around what the optimal dose of vitamin D should be in these patients.
While the US Endocrine Society suggested patients taking steroids require two to three times more vitamin D than healthy people of the same age,...
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