The vitamin D epidemic and its health consequences.

By M. F. Holick. Journal of NutriLife, 2005

661 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Vitamin D deficiency is now recognized as an epidemic in the United States. The major source of vitamin D for both children and adults is from sensible sun exposure. In the absence of sun exposure 1000 IU of cholecalciferol is required daily for both children and adults. Vitamin D deficiency causes poor mineralization of the collagen matrix in young children's bones leading to growth retardation and bone deformities known as rickets. In adults, vitamin D deficiency induces secondary hyperparathyroidism, which causes a loss of matrix and minerals, thus increasing the risk of osteoporosis and fractures. In addition, the poor mineralization of newly laid down bone matrix in adult bone results in the painful bone disease of osteomalacia. Vitamin D deficiency causes muscle weakness, increasing the risk of falling and fractures. Vitamin D deficiency also has other serious consequences on overall health and well-being. There is mounting scientific evidence that implicates vitamin D deficiency with an increased risk of type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, cardiovascular heart disease, and many common deadly cancers. Vigilance of one's vitamin D status by the yearly measurement of 25-hydroxyvitamin D should be part of an annual physical examination.

Subfields: Nutrition and Dietetics, Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, Pathology and Forensic Medicine

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a5bcdda1e07d1c091e36c7f03dfe26144b64aaa6

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In Nutrition and Dietetics

In Orthopedics and Sports Medicine

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Citations in the corpus

Resurrection of vitamin D deficiency and rickets. (2006, positive): “This has been linked to increased risk of osteoporosis and fractures later in life (24, 60, 61, 82, 122).”
Depression as a disease of modernity: explanations for increasing prevalence (2012, background): “Inadequate sunlight exposure is the principal cause of the modern epidemic of vitamin D deficiency, which has well-documented associations with diseases of modernity (Holick, 2005).”
Epidemic influenza and vitamin D (2006, neutral): “many of the diseases of civilization [117, 118].”