Vitamin D improves outcomes in chronic kidney disease cases: study

Taking vitamin D may cut the risk of premature death by one fourth in patients with moderate-to-severe chronic kidney disease, a new study finds.

Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle tracked 1,418 patients who had moderately to severely reduced kidney function. All of them had high levels of parathyroid hormone, which rises when calcium levels fall in a person's bloodstream due to kidney disease. It can lead to bone loss.

One group of patients received the drug calcitriol, a form of vitamin D, to lower the levels of parathyroid hormone. The other group did not receive the drug.

Over the two-year study period, taking calcitriol reduced mortality by 26 per cent. Those participants who took calcitriol also were less likely to develop end-stage kidney disease requiring dialysis.

As a result, taking calcitriol reduced the need for dialysis and reduced mortality by 20 per cent cumulatively.

"Oral calcitriol use is associated with lower mortality in non-dialysis patients with chronic kidney disease," write the authors. They believe that vitamin D decreases inflammation and improves glucose tolerance of kidney patients, meaning their insulin production is stabilized.

They suggest randomized trails be undertaken to further evaluate the health consequences of vitamin D supplementation.

Two million Canadians have or are at risk of kidney disease, according to the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

The study was published online Wednesday in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.