The amount of vitamin D patients take to improve outcomes of biophosphate therapy should be above 33 ng/ml. The Institute of Medicine recommended 20-30 ng/ml for normal, healthy people last fall, but Dr. Bockman’s study shows that a circulating vitamin D level above 33 ng/ml has a seven-fold greater likelihood of favorable outcomes.
For the study, researchers studied the charts of 160 patients who had undergone two BMD scans and were prescribed one of four biophosphate drugs. At the study’s conclusion, 89 patients were responders and 71 were non-responders. Only 16.8 percent of responders had vitamin D levels less than 33 ng/ml, while 54.9 percent of non-responders reported the same low levels.
Non-responders were higher in patients as the level of vitamin D decreased.
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