Current Events in June 2019

Everyone can agree that robocalls are a nuisance. But when they occur with unending frequency and are aimed at a busy hospital’s phone lines, patients’ lives can hang in the balance.

The Washington Post reports Tufts Medical Center in Boston is grappling with a plague of robocalls, nearly all of which are scams. Hospital officials report phone lines are tied up for hours with these needless calls, preventing real patients from getting through and interrupting vital intra-hospital communications.

On one April day last year, the hospital counted more than 4,500 robocalls within a two hour period, causing multiple phone lines to ring constantly. When the calls were answered, the voice on the other end was usually speaking Mandarin, threatening whoever answered with deportation unless they turned over their sensitive personal information.

4.74 billion robocalls in May

The call-blocking app YouMail reported earlier this month that Americans put up with 4.74 billion robocalls in May. The fact that the number was down 9 percent from the all-time high in March was small consolation. It was still a lot of calls.

According to YouMail, U.S. consumers have received nearly 25 billion robocalls so far this year, with volumes averaging 152.9 million robocalls per day and 1,769 robocalls per second. 

"It's great to see robocall volumes continue to head in the right direction," YouMail CEO Alex Quilici said earlier this month. "However, we have still exceeded 25 billion robocalls so far this year, which equals over 5 billion robocalls per month."

In May, six types of scams accounted for more than 100 million calls each. Health and health insurance scams are among the most prevalent. But there are also student loan scams, interest rate reduction scams, search engine optimization scams, and a tried-and-true favorite, Social Security scams.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed new rules to help clarify that voice service providers may block illegal and unwanted calls as the default option before they reach consumers' phones.  The agency has also issued a mandate to telecom providers to find a way to block robocallers from disguising their location by spoofing local telephone numbers.

While the health benefits of coffee have long been debated, a new study has revealed that the popular beverage could help consumers fight obesity. 

According to researchers, coffee can help the body produce more brown fat, which is how the body fights off fat-forming cells and ultimately leads to a healthy weight. 

“This is the first study in humans to show that something like a cup of coffee can have a direct effect on our brown fat functions,” said researcher Michael Symonds. “The potential implications of our results are pretty big, as obesity is a major health concern for society and we also have a growing diabetes epidemic and brown fat could potentially be a part of the solution in tackling them.” 

More caffeine 

According to Symonds, it was the researchers’ knowledge of brown fat and how it works in the body that prompted this research. 

“Brown fat works in a different way to other fat in your body and produces heat by burning sugar and fat, often in response to cold,” he said. “Increasing its activity improves blood sugar control as well as improving blood lipid levels and the extra calories burnt help with weight loss. However, until now, no one has found an acceptable way to stimulate its activity in humans.” 

After determining how much caffeine was necessary to stimulate brown fat production in stem cells, the researchers moved their study to humans by using a thermal imaging technique that allowed them to evaluate brown fat production in a non-invasive way. 

The thermal imaging allowed the researchers to assess the brown fat production immediately after a participant finished a cup of coffee. Symonds explained that brown fat is typically stored in the neck, making the researchers’ job rather easy. After the participants finished a cup of coffee, they immediately knew where to look to see if the beverage did the trick. 

The study revealed that coffee increased the production of brown fat in the participants, and they plan to continue these studies using caffeine supplements to pinpoint which stimulus is doing the work. In the future, they hope to create a tangible method for those looking to lose weight. 

“The results were positive and we now need to ascertain that caffeine as one of the ingredients in the coffee is acting as the stimulus, or if there’s another component helping with the activation of brown fat,” said Symonds. “Once we have confirmed which component is responsible for this, it could potentially be used as part of a weight management regime or as part of a glucose regulation programme to help prevent diabetes.” 

Perrigo Company is recalling 23,388 35-oz. (992-gram ) containers of Parent's Choice Advantage Infant Formula Milk-Based Powder with Iron.

The product may be contaminated with pieces of metal

No adverse events have been reported to date.

The product was sold exclusively at Walmart stores nationwide

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled product should look for Lot Code C26EVFV with a "use by" date of February 26, 2021, on the bottom of the package.

Use of the recalled product should be discontinued, with the product returned to any Walmart store for a refund.

Consumers with questions may contact Perrigo at (866) 629-6181.

As you might expect a toy brand to do, Toys 'R' Us is making a comeback but is taking baby steps.

Less than a year after closing the doors on the toy store chain, the owners of the bankrupt company’s assets have reportedly decided to give the business another chance.

Fortune magazine reports people close to the decision-making process say Toys R Us stores will open in about a half-dozen markets during the holiday season. The sources say former Toys 'R' Us executive Richard Barry is leading the initiative to reopen toy stores that are significantly smaller than the old Toys R Us locations.

Other changes are reportedly in store. The new locations will emphasize experiences, providing play areas where children can test drive new toys. In other changes to the business model, Toys 'R' Us may implement a consignment system where vendors can offer products without Toys 'R' Us adding them to its inventory.

A spokesperson for Barry’s new company, Tru Kids, declined to comment on the company’s or its CEO’s plans.

Tru Kids

Tru Kids launched earlier this year after Toys 'R' Us closed all its U.S. locations. At the time, Barry said that Tru Kids is exploring several business plans, including stand-alone stores and pop-up shops.

"We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to write the next chapter of Toys’R’Us by launching a newly imagined omnichannel retail experience for our beloved brands here in the U.S. In addition, our strong global footprint is led by experienced and passionate operating teams that are 100% focused on growth,” Barry said back in January.

Tru Kids has opened 70 stores in Asia, India, and Europe. The company said it would focus on growing the Toys 'R' Us brand and e-commerce traffic.

Tru Kids did not announce which markets it would target for new Toys 'R' Us stores, but will likely face stiff competition when it does. Both Target and Walmart moved quickly last year to enhance their toy sections, hoping to fill the gap by Toys 'R' Us’ absence.

The reborn Toys 'R' Us will reportedly offer products from MGA Entertainment, one of the best-selling toymakers in the world. MGA Entertainment produces products that include Little Tikes, L.O.L. Surprise! and Bratz dolls.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from a group of health insurance companies that say the government owes them $12 billion in losses stemming from an Obamacare program.

The insurers cite Health and Human Services Department statistics to back their claim of being owed $12 billion from the government.

The challenge centers around a program called “risk corridors,” which promised to protect insurance companies from losses they might incur as a result of enrolling previously uninsured individuals with pre-existing conditions under the Obamacare Act.

The group of insurers -- which includes Moda, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Maine Community Health Options, and Land of Lincoln Mutual Health Insurance Company -- say they are still entitled to the money that was said to have been set aside for them by the government.

A lower court ruled last year that insurers aren’t owed the money they were promised due to the addition of a provision that limited payments under the "risk corridors" program. Insurers say the ruling would enable the federal government to pull a “bait-and-switch” on them by retaining the payments.

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by a 2-1 vote last year ruled in the case that Congress, in passing the appropriations riders, implicitly repealed its statutory obligation to pay them at all,” Reuters reported. “The insurers appealed, arguing that Supreme Court precedents require much more explicit legislative language to eliminate a previously adopted payment obligation.”

The Supreme Court is set to hear the insurance companies’ challenge this fall.

On Monday, Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) will introduce the Designing Accounting Safeguards to Help Broaden Oversight and Regulations on Data, or DASHBOARD, Act. 

The bill would require tech companies with 100 million or more monthly users to reveal the monetary value of their user dataset, as well as allow users to delete all or some of their personal data. Additionally, the bill would require companies to disclose to users the types of data it collects and how that data is used.  

Once per year, major tech companies would be required to disclose the aggregate value of all of their users’ data to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC would be tasked with coming up with methods for calculating the value of user data. 

"If you're an avid Facebook user, chances are Facebook knows more about you than the U.S. government knows about you," Warner said in an interview with Axios on Sunday night. "People don't realize one, how much data is being collected; and two, they don't realize how much that data is worth."

Informed decisions

The measure aims to shed light on how much each consumer’s data is worth to individual tech companies, which might ultimately help customers make more informed choices when deciding which social media services to use. 

“For years, social media companies have told consumers that their products are free to the user. But that’s not true — you are paying with your data instead of your wallet,” Warner said in a press release. 

“The overall lack of transparency and disclosure in this market have made it impossible for users to know what they're giving up, who else their data is being shared with, or what it's worth to the platform,” he added. 

The introduction of the bill comes at a time when lawmakers are deciding how best to regulate major players in the big tech industry. Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has proposed breaking up big tech companies to prevent individual companies from wielding too much power and stifling competition. 

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice is preparing an antitrust investigation into Google, and the Washington Post reported that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is preparing to focus on overseeing Amazon. 

A new study explored a unique symptom common to over five million cancer survivors: chronic pain.

According to researchers, cancer survivors are twice as likely to struggle with chronic pain compared with those who never had the disease.

“This study provided the first comprehensive estimate of chronic pain prevalence among cancer survivors,” said researcher Dr. Changchuan Jiang. “These results highlight the important unmet needs of pain management in the large, and growing cancer survivorship community.”

Pain by the numbers

To see the stark contrast in cancer survivor’s chronic pain versus the general population, the researchers consulted data from the National Health Interview Survey. Set up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the dataset estimates that nearly 5.4 million cancer survivors struggle with chronic pain, which translates to about 35 percent of all cancer survivors in the United States.

The researchers found that more money goes towards medical bills for these patients, and many struggle with sticking to pain management treatments. As a result, quality of life takes a hit when the pain becomes persistent after the disease has been treated.

Outside factors such as poor insurance coverage and employment status also increased the risk of developing chronic pain, as did the type of cancer. Those who had uterine, bone, throat, or kidney cancer were more likely to experience severe chronic pain.

With this information, the researchers hope that medical professionals and legislators realize how prevalent this issue is, and they hope more work is done to ensure that cancer survivors are living as comfortably as possible.

Beyond the disease

A recent study found that young cancer survivors are dealing with far more than just the physical ramifications of the disease, as finding work and dealing with the medical costs can be overwhelming.

Nearly 60 percent of the study’s participants reported being unable to physically complete certain tasks at their jobs, while over 50 percent had trouble doing certain tasks because of treatments.

The financial burden was especially severe, with some survivors having to file for bankruptcy; others had to borrow upwards of $10,000 to cover medical costs.

"The results of this study are important because they describe the challenges faced by adolescent and young adults during and after cancer treatment that could uniquely impact both educational and work-related opportunities," said researcher Betsy Risendal, PhD.

Researchers from security company SafeBreach have warned that a flaw in Dell’s troubleshooting software, SupportAssist, has left “millions” of users vulnerable to having their computer remotely taken over by attackers.

“According to Dell's website, SupportAssist is preinstalled on most of Dell devices running Windows,” the researchers noted in an advisory. “This means that as long as the software is not patched, the vulnerability affects millions of Dell PC users.”

The flaw, which is considered “high-severity,” enables hackers to replace harmless DLL files loaded during PC-doctor Toolbox diagnostic scans with DLLs containing a malicious payload. Affected products include Dell SupportAssist for Business PCs version 2.0 and Dell SupportAssist for Home PCs version 3.2.1 and all prior versions.

Gives hackers system-level access

The vulnerability was first reported to Dell on April 29, and Dell deployed a fix for CVE-2019-12280 in late May. In a recent statement, the company said "more than 90 percent of customers have downloaded the update and are no longer at risk."

However, unpatched systems are still vulnerable to privilege escalation attacks. Dell recommends that all owners of Dell computers running the Dell SupportAssist software update to the latest version right away if they haven’t already done so, or if they don’t have automatic updates enabled.

Dell SupportAssist for Business PCs version 2.0 and Dell SupportAssist for Home PCs version 3.2.2 contain a fix for the vulnerability.

The spring home-buying season has gotten off to a slow start in 2019, but it appeared to gain a little traction in May. Sales of existing homes rose for the first time in two months, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Sales closing in May rose 2.5 percent from April’s lackluster showing, but figures were down 1.1 percent from May 2018. The increase was likely spurred by pent-up demand from the two previous months, as well as another factor working in buyers’ favor -- interest rates have fallen below 4 percent again.

"The purchasing power to buy a home has been bolstered by falling mortgage rates, and buyers are responding," said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

Home prices still rising

While the cost of a mortgage went down last month, the cost of a house kept going up. NAR reports the median existing home price for all housing types in May was $277,700, up 4.8 percent from May 2018. It was the 87th straight month of year-over-year price increases.

Inventory has been a primary cause of rising home prices since there remains more demand for housing than the available supply. Inventory levels have increased slightly in recent months; in May, available homes were up 2.7 percent from 12 months earlier.

A lack of available homes usually means homes sell faster than they did in the past, even in markets where sales have slowed in recent months. In May, the average home stayed on the market only 26 days, which was two days longer than April.

In May, inventory levels amounted to a 4.3 months supply of available homes, up slightly from a year ago. But Yun says the pool of available homes is still too small. "Solid demand and inadequate inventory of affordable homes have pushed the median home price to a new record high," he said.

Not enough homes for sale

Yun says the market continues to be shaped by a growing housing shortage, the mirror image from a decade ago when a wave of foreclosures produced a glut of unsold homes. Since then, homebuilders have been less active, building fewer houses, especially in the lower-priced, entry-level price range.

"More new homes need to be built," Yun said. "Otherwise, we risk worsening the housing shortage, and an increasing number of middle-class families will be unable to achieve homeownership."

C&S Wholesale Grocers of Westfield, Mass., is recalling an undetermined amount of ready-to-eat and not-ready-to-eat meat and poultry products.

The products may have suffered temperature abuse during transit, which may have resulted in the growth of spoilage organisms or pathogens.

Temperature abuse may result in the growth of the proliferation of Staphylococcus aureus, Shiga-toxin producing E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.

The ready-to-eat and not-ready-to-eat meat and poultry products were sold on June 17, 2019, at Target stores at 98 Veterans Memorial Highway in Commack, N.Y., and 160 North Research Place in Central Islip, N.Y.

The complete list of products and UPC code numbers for products sold at the Commack, N.Y., store can be found here.

The complete list of products and UPC code numbers for products sold at the Central Islip, N.Y., store can be found here.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled products should not consume them, but discard or return them to the place of purchase. They may also contact Target at (800) 440-0680 for assistance and a full refund in the form of a Target gift card.

Consumers with questions about the recall may contact C&S Wholesale Grocers by email at foodsafety@cswg.com.

H.E. Industrial is recalling about 8,500 electric garage heaters.

The heating element can overheat, posing a fire hazard.

No incidents or injuries have been reported in the U.S.

This recall involves the Profusion Heat electric garage heaters with model number HA22-48M.

The heaters are red, have a grill on the front and a handle on the top, a measure about 13 inches high and 10 inches wide.

The label, located on the back of the heater, contains the model number. The thermostat control is located at the bottom of the heater on the back.

The heaters, manufactured in China, were sold at Menards and Northern Tool stores and online at www.menards.com and www.northerntool.com from August 2014, through March 2019, for about $100.

What to do

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled heaters. Contact H.E. Industrial to get a full refund or return the heaters to a Northern Tool store for a full refund or a gift certificate for heaters purchased at Northern Tool stores. For heaters purchased at Menards, contact H.E. Industrial for a full refund.

Consumers may contact H.E. Industrial toll-free at (888) 538-0082 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (ET), by email at service@hena.ca or online at https://www.home-easy.ca/ and click on “Recall Information” at the top of the page for more information.

For many young college students, managing money is still a foreign concept. Bright-eyed and naive students often take advantage of those “free” credit cards being hawked on campus, and the less responsible ones can use those funds for less “necessary” expenses.

This can all come to a head after graduation when bills start showing up in the mailbox, as some loans can take decades to pay if not managed responsibly.

The layers of credit or repayment are deep. Not only for students, but many parents can’t pass a quiz on student loans, either. It’s a problem made even more exhausting because 90+ percent of outstanding student loan volume is managed by a vast network of non-banks for servicing and debt collection, all of which have their own ways of managing credit accounts.

Sadly, when many students get their student loan wake-up call, the dominoes of life can start to fall. A student’s career choice might be affected, as can aspirations of starting a business or family, purchasing a home, or saving for retirement.

Repayment can be even tougher for women and people of color. The Washington Center for Economic Growth found that one-third of all women and more than half of African-Americans say their student loan repayment obligations make them unable to meet essential expenses.

Help is on the way

That hair-pulling might be getting some relief. The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) just released a report recommending mandatory financial literacy courses for college students.

“Courses taught by institutions of higher education can improve students’ financial knowledge, build key financial literacy skills, and promote sound financial actions during and after their education,” the report found.

The report pointed to research proving that point. “Students from states with financial education provided in high school had higher credit scores and lower delinquency rates on consumer credit as they reached adulthood. College students who took a personal finance course in high school were more likely to save and pay off their credit cards and less likely to max out credit cards,” the report stated.

The Treasury and Commission’s push for financial literacy has support from the Trump administration. Last year, Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin submitted a report to the White House dittoing the complexity of student loans, repayment plans, and program features. Mnuchin said those three prongs “make the program difficult for borrowers to navigate and increase the difficulty and cost of servicing.”

Potential fixes

In the Treasury’s way of thinking, the Department of Education should establish and publish minimum effective servicing standards to “provide servicers [with] clear guidelines for servicing and help set expectations about how the servicing of federal loans is regulated.”

The Treasury also pointed out that, with today’s dependence on digital communication, credit providers should make better use of that avenue for performance monitoring and management of those loans.

The report’s baseline recommendation is that colleges need to address these issues by teaching financial literacy and improving decisions related to student borrowing, including:  

• Providing clear, timely, and customized information to inform student borrowing;

• Effectively engaging students in financial literacy and education;

• Targeting different student populations by use of national, institutional, and individual data;

• Communicating the importance of graduation and major on repayment of student loans; and

• Preparing students for financial obligations upon graduation.

The report says colleges should also augment its communication with student borrowers by taking steps such as:

• Ensuring that their financial aid offer letters are clear, timely, and customized, and provide students with a clear sense of their borrowing obligations;

• Providing students with annual debt letters, which incorporate the following best practices, to ensure that students have a clear sense of their total borrowing obligations;

• Offering incentives to complete the repayment on time (or earlier);

• Dedicating staff to advise students on loans, majors and obstacles to graduation; and

• Providing emergency financial assistance.

The bottom line

“Helping students and their families avoid the pitfalls associated with financing higher education, and empowering them to make optimal financial choices, should be a priority of all institutions of higher education,” wrote FLEC.

If the commission had two wishes, it would be that 1) everyone -- lenders and colleges -- come together and create a list of best practices for teaching financial literacy and provide information about making financial decisions, and; 2) that colleges get this done while students are enrolled, and not after graduation.

In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Apple said the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs on Chinese goods could result in “a reduction of Apple’s U.S. economic contribution.” The company said the new round of tariffs could also have an impact on its global competitiveness.

“The Chinese producers we compete with in global markets do not have a significant presence in the U.S. market, and so would not be impacted by U.S. tariffs. Neither would our other major non-U.S. competitors. A U.S. tariff would, therefore, tilt the playing field in favor of our global competitors,” the letter said.

The letter was filed during the seven-day public comment period for proposed tariffs on about $300 billion in Chinese goods. Apple, which is expected to launch its new iPhones in September, says the tariffs in question would impact almost all of its devices, including the iPhone, MacBook, AirPods, and Apple Watch.

"We urge the US government not to impose tariffs on these products," the company said.

If the tariffs go into effect, Apple is considering moving between 15 and 30 percent of its hardware production out of China to avoid them, the Nikkei Asian Review reported.

China’s top technology company Huawei has also been feeling the effects of the Trump administration’s trade talks. Earlier this week, the company warned investors that its smartphone shipments could fall by 40 million to 60 million as a result of America’s trade dispute with China.

Many consumers are confused about the capabilities of driver-assistance systems, such as Tesla’s Autopilot, according to a study released Thursday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

The organization surveyed 2,000 drivers about the following technologies:

• Autopilot (Tesla)

• Traffic Jam Assist (Audi and Acura)

• Super Cruise (Cadillac)

• Driving Assistant Plus (BMW)

• ProPilot Assist (Nissan)

“The name ‘Autopilot’ was associated with the highest likelihood that drivers believed a behavior was safe while in operation, for every behavior measured, compared with other system names,” the IIHS wrote. “Many of these differences were statistically significant.”

Autopilot misconceptions prevalent

Almost half of participants in the survey (48 percent) believed it would be safe to take their hands off the wheel in a Tesla. Asked about ProPilot Assist, only 33 percent of respondents thought that would be a safe move.

“Autopilot also had substantially greater proportions of people who thought it would be safe to look at scenery, read a book, talk on a cell phone or text,” IIHS noted. “Six percent thought it would be OK to take a nap while using Autopilot, compared with 3 percent for the other systems.”

Tesla’s Autopilot feature has been a factor in several incidents. Last May, the Center for Auto Safety and Consumer Watchdog sent a letter to the FTC requesting that the agency investigate how Tesla has marketed the feature.

The groups called Tesla’s use of the name Autopilot “deceptive and misleading” and argued that advertising the enhanced cruise-control system under the name Autopilot could make consumers think the feature makes a Tesla vehicle self-driving.

"Tesla is the only automaker to market its Level 2 vehicles as 'self-driving,' and the name of its driver assistance suite of features, Autopilot, connotes full autonomy," the letter said.

Tesla responds

Responding to the recent IIHS survey, Tesla pointed out that the survey wasn’t of Tesla owners and could therefore provide an inaccurate estimate of how many Tesla drivers are confused about what Autopilot can and can’t do.  

“This survey is not representative of the perceptions of Tesla owners or people who have experience using Autopilot, and it would be inaccurate to suggest as much,” Tesla said in a statement. “If IIHS is opposed to the name ‘Autopilot,’ presumably they are equally opposed to the name ‘Automobile.’”

The company added that it provides owners with “clear guidance on how to properly use Autopilot, as well as in-car instructions before they use the system and while the feature is in use.”

At a court hearing on Friday, a New York official announced that the state attorneys general of Massachusetts, Hawaii, Minnesota, and Nevada have joined a lawsuit aiming to block the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.

In early June, nine states and the District of Columbia sued to stop the $26.5 billion deal from taking place. The lawsuit seeks to stop the merger on the grounds that it will harm competition and raise prices for consumers.

“When it comes to corporate power, bigger isn’t always better,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said of the merger, which would shrink the number of nationwide wireless carriers in the United States from four to three.

Arguments against the merger

T-Mobile and Sprint have argued that joining forces is necessary to deploy 5G wireless networks and effectively compete against Verizon and AT&T. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has said it intends to approve the merger.

However, lawmakers and labor groups have argued that if the two companies are combined, it would harm competition, raise prices, and lead to over 28,000 lost jobs.

“Millions of Americans rely on mobile devices at work, at home, and to organize their lives. Competition between the mobile companies has resulted in better coverage and cheaper, more reliable service for all of us,” Attorney General Maura Healey told Cape Cod Today.

“Our year-long investigation found that the proposed merger would give the new company the power to raise prices, significantly reduce competition for customers, lower quality, and cost thousands of retail workers their jobs. We are challenging this merger to protect a service that matters to everyone.”

The Department of Justice, which has been hesitant to approve the deal, has requested that T-Mobile and Sprint sell Boost Mobile in order to receive approval. Dish Network is reportedly negotiating the purchase of spectrum and Boost Mobile from the two companies, according to Bloomberg.

Achieving the right levels of vitamin D can be tricky for many consumers, and now a new study conducted by researchers from Michigan State University points to one way vitamin D supplements aren’t helping consumers.

The researchers found that taking vitamin D supplements did not reduce the risk of consumers developing cardiovascular disease, despite previous findings that suggested otherwise.

“We thought it would show some benefit,” said researcher Mahmoud Barbarawi. “It didn’t even show a small benefit. This was surprising.”

Risks for heart health

The researchers analyzed over twenty previous clinical trials that included over 83,000 patients to see if vitamin D supplements were effective for reducing patients’ risk of cardiovascular disease.

The researchers hypothesized that vitamin D supplements would reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease because insufficient levels of the vitamin were previously linked to increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and death. However, after conducting their analysis, the researchers found that the supplements didn’t reduce the patients’ risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Neither age nor gender played a role in the outcome, but according to Barbarawi, diet and exercise could affect consumers’ vitamin D levels and their subsequent risk of cardiovascular disease.

While not helpful for heart health, Barbarawi says he does not recommend completely swearing off vitamin D supplements, as they were found to be effective for other ailments, such as those suffering from osteoporosis.

Moderation is key

Vitamin D consistently makes headlines, especially in the summer months, as it can soothe the skin after an intense sunburn. Previous research has shown that having too much or too little of the vitamin can affect just about anything.

But when it comes to supplements, researchers urge consumers to practice moderation, as taking too many can lead to kidney failure.

“Although vitamin D toxicity is rare owing to a large therapeutic range, its widespread availability in various over-the-counter formulations may pose a substantial risk to uninformed patients,” said Dr. Borne Auguste.