Vitamin D and Health

Although heavy going at times I attended an interesting update on Vitamin D at Truro today. Basically Vitamin D seems ... well ... vital not only for bones but for soft tissues as well(1). It would be interesting to explore the relationship with diabetes, Type 1 in particular, in more detail. I had been aware of a lot of the work but haven't looked into it ... Vitamin D being a dreary subject I suppose. I wonder why that is? Is it because its been written about for such a long time. If it had a name like 'pro-hormone D123' it might not induce indifference so readily.

The conclusions seemed to be that trying to raise your Vitamin D levels to at least 75 nmol/L is another reason for cycling to work and if we go surfing to wear a shorty wetsuit. Marvellous.

1. Bouillon R, Carmeliet G, Verlinden L, et al. Vitamin D and Human Health: Lessons from Vitamin D Receptor Null Mice. Endocrine Reviews. 2008;29(6):726-776. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2583388/?tool=pubmed [Accessed December 10, 2009].