title: Vitamin D insufficiency.
abstract: Vitamin D deficiency, which classically manifests as bone disease (either rickets or osteomalacia), is characterized by impaired bone mineralization. More recently, the term vitamin D insufficiency has been used to describe low levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D that may be associated with other disease outcomes. Reliance on a single cutoff value to define vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency is problematic because of the wide individual variability of the functional effects of vitamin D and interaction with calcium intakes. In adults, vitamin D supplementation reduces the risk of fractures and falls. The evidence for other purported beneficial effects of vitamin D is primarily based on observational studies. We selected studies with the strongest level of evidence for clinical decision making related to vitamin D and health outcomes from our personal libraries of the vitamin D literature and from a search of the PubMed database using the term vitamin D in combination with the following terms related to the potential nonskeletal benefits of vitamin D: mortality, cardiovascular, diabetes mellitus, cancer, multiple sclerosis, allergy, asthma, infection, depression, psychiatric, and pain. Conclusive demonstration of these benefits awaits the outcome of controlled clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. thacher.thomas@mayo.edu
authors.forename: Tom D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Thacher
authors.forename: Bart L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Clarke
mesh_terms: D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000517:prevention & control; D015519:Bone Density; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D003863:Depression / Q000517:prevention & control; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000517:prevention & control; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000517:prevention & control; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control; D010146:Pain / Q000517:prevention & control; D051437:Renal Insufficiency / Q000517:prevention & control; D014807:Vitamin D / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000150:complications* / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D014807:Vitamin D; C104450:25-hydroxyvitamin D