Causes and Consequences of Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin involved in the regulation of calcium homeostasis, glucose metabolic pathway and renin expression. It is also capable of immunomodulation and anticancerogenic activity. Vitamin D status of inhabitants at some geographical latitudes is insufficient because of limited ultraviolet-B radiation. The question that arises from this is what the appropriate vitamin D concentration for maintaining health is and how much dosage is needed to prevent its deficiency. When measuring 25-hydroxyvitamin D, insufficiency starts at levels lower than 75 nmol/l. The purpose of this review is to inform how simple it is to provide the appropriate body amount of vitamin D as well as to elucidate vitamin D involvement in mechanisms of some other diseases besides its well-known roles in bone remodelling disorders (e.g. rickets, osteoporosis).