Vitamin D has long been thought to be important to health . This past fall, national pediatric guidelines doubled the amount recommended for kids. And concern over vitamin D deficiency has increased the U.S. demand for testing by 80% to 90% last year, according to an executive quoted by the Financial Times . Now, a large, $20 million government-funded trial is going to study whether vitamin D and fish oil lower the risk of cancer, heart disease or stroke in healthy individuals, reports the Boston Globe . The study will follow 20,000 healthy older adults for five years. The study will also investigate whether vitamin D deficiency is one reason for higher rates of disease in African-Americans. The thought is that it is harder for people with darker skin to make vitamin D from sunlight, and perhaps taking supplements will

reduce the risk of some diseases. Researchers believe this to be the first known nutrient study that targets a particular population, according to the Globe. The goal is for 25% of the participants enrolled to be African-American. The public should be cautious and wait for the findings “before jumping on the bandwagon to take megadoses of these supplements,” JoAnn Manson, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told the Associated Press . “We know from history that many of these nutrients that looked promising in observational studies didn’t pan out.” However, “if something as simple as taking a vitamin D pill could help lower these risks and eliminate these health disparities, that would be extraordinarily exciting,” she said. Photo by fdecomite via Flickr

See more here: 
The ABCs of Vitamin D: What Are its Real Benefits?