Low serum25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in healthy young males.

摘要

It is a well-known fact that vitamin D is essential not only for calcium balance, but also for a number of other functions such as immune system, glucose homeostasis, liver, skeletal muscles, and adipocytes. In view of these considerations it was with great interest that we read the articles written by Giusti at al. (1) and Papapetrou et al. (2) demonstrating low concentrations of 25(OH)D in hospitalized and institutionalized elderly people, respectively. In line with these data, our most recent report showed that 97.5 of post-menopausal women treated for osteoporosis had 25(OH)D concentrations <75 nmol/l (3). However, although there is considerable evidence that vitamin D deficiency is a frequent disorder in the elderly, in our opinion, data about the vitamin D status in young adults are still insufficient. Nevertheless, this issue has been set as one of the goals of our Genetics Of Osteoporosis Study (GOOS).