Vitamin D supplements pointless for preventing heart disease, cancer, study finds

A new study now finds that Vitamin D supplements have little impact on risk of heart disease.

The study, presented at the American Heart Association conference found that participants' vitamin D levels had no effects on cancer risk or preventing serious heart issues as heart attacks and strokes.

Vitamin D, which the skin makes from sun exposure, has been a hot topic among both the medical community and the general public for years due to long-held beliefs that it promotes heart health. 

Vitamin D is naturally found in foods including milk, eggs and fatty fish, but many foods are now fortified with it.

Notably, a 2009 study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported that lower levels of vitamin D was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

The new study, led by Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, looked at the effects of vitamin D in preventing heart disease and cancer.

After involving 26,000 participants, who were divided into three sub groups and followed for five years and, at the end of the study period, they concluded that the vitamin did not lower the risk of heart disease or cancer.

The authors wrote that supplementation with vitamin D did not result in a lower incidence of invasive cancer or cardiovascular events than placebo.

Vitamin D did seem, however, to reduce cancer deaths - but not diagnoses - by around 25 percent.