Vitamin D: too much of a good thing?

摘要

Vitamin D is increasingly recognised as an important sterol hormone, with some suggesting that it should be renamed ‘hormone D’.1 Vitamin D receptors are widely expressed throughout the body accounting for its regulatory role beyond the confines of the skeleton, including the immune system, pancreas, brain, and cardiovascular system.2 Consequently, vitamin D deficiency is implicated in diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease, and increased mortality.2 Research interest in vitamin D has grown by more than 250% in a decade and publications in 2012 almost equalled the research output for vitamins A, B, C, and E combined.