REVIEW - High prevalence of vitamin D inadequacy and implications for health

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Mayo Clin Proc. 2006 Mar;81(3):353-73. Links

High prevalence of vitamin D inadequacy and implications for health.

Vitamin D, Skin and Bone Research Laboratory, Section of Endocrinology,

Diabetes, and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of

Medicine, Boston, Mass 02118, USA. mfholick@...

During the past decade, major advances have been made in vitamin D research

that transcend the simple concept that vitamin D is Important for the

prevention of rickets in children and has little physiologic relevance for

adults. Inadequate vitamin D, in addition to causing rickets, prevents

children from attaining their genetically programmed peak bone mass,

contributes to and exacerbates osteoporosis in adults, and causes the often

painful bone disease osteomalacia. Adequate vitamin D is also important for

proper muscle functioning, and controversial evidence suggests it may help

prevent type 1 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and many common cancers.

Vitamin D inadequacy has been reported in approximately 36% of otherwise

healthy young adults and up to 57% of general medicine inpatients in the

United States and in even higher percentages in Europe. Recent

epidemiological data document the high prevalence of vitamin D inadequacy

among elderly patients and especially among patients with osteoporosis.

Factors such as low sunlight exposure, age-related decreases in cutaneous

synthesis, and diets low in vitamin D contribute to the high prevalence of

vitamin D inadequacy. Vitamin D production from cutaneous synthesis or

intake from the few vitamin D-rich or enriched foods typically occurs only

intermittently. Supplemental doses of vitamin D and sensible sun exposure

could prevent deficiency in most of the general population. The purposes of

this article are to examine the prevalence of vitamin D inadequacy and to

review the potential implications for skeletal and extraskeletal health.

PMID: 16529140

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus & db=pubmed & cmd=R\

etrieve & dopt=abstractplus & list_uids=16529140

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