Sufficient evidence exists to support standard practice of helping patients reach “natural” vitamin D levels (40 ng/ml) before undergoing surgery, according to two researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Drs. Paul J. Igler and Kirk J. Hogan conducted a review of studies on vitamin D levels and surgical outcomes, finding that in 26 of 31 relevant studies higher vitamin D levels resulted in reduced risk of infection, cancer, death and pain. Because there is little risk or cost to increasing an individual’s vitamin D levels, the researchers believe that, while a cause and effect relationship has not been proven, natural vitamin D levels should be the standard for surgical patients until proven otherwise.

“We contend that learning whether it is safe to deviate far from ancestral levels of vitamin D in patients facing the trauma of surgery, and the demands of healing, is an overarching question, and that until this answer is in hand measurement and supplementation as indicated is preferred to the no-action approach of the status quo,” the researchers wrote.

Click here to read further analysis from Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council.

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