Crucial Role of Vitamin D in the Musculoskeletal System

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 8; no. 6; p. 319
• Main Authors: Wintermeyer, Elke, Ihle, Christoph, Ehnert, Sabrina, Stöckle, Ulrich, Ochs, Gunnar, de Zwart, Peter, Flesch, Ingo, Bahrs, Christian, Nussler, Andreas K
• Format: Journal Article Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.06.2016; MDPI
• Subjects: Bone Diseases - etiology; Bone Diseases - metabolism; bone health; chronic disease; Dietary Supplements; Humans; muscle pain; Musculoskeletal Pain - prevention & control; Review; supplementation; vitamin D; Vitamin D - metabolism; Vitamin D - pharmacology; Vitamin D Deficiency; supplementation; muscle pain; chronic disease; vitamin D; vitamin D deficiency; bone health
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu8060319

Vitamin D is well known to exert multiple functions in bone biology, autoimmune diseases, cell growth, inflammation or neuromuscular and other immune functions. It is a fat-soluble vitamin present in many foods. It can be endogenously produced by ultraviolet rays from sunlight when the skin is exposed to initiate vitamin D synthesis. However, since vitamin D is biologically inert when obtained from sun exposure or diet, it must first be activated in human beings before functioning. The kidney and the liver play here a crucial role by hydroxylation of vitamin D to 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the liver and to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D in the kidney. In the past decades, it has been proven that vitamin D deficiency is involved in many diseases. Due to vitamin D's central role in the musculoskeletal system and consequently the strong negative impact on bone health in cases of vitamin D deficiency, our aim was to underline its importance in bone physiology by summarizing recent findings on the correlation of vitamin D status and rickets, osteomalacia, osteopenia, primary and secondary osteoporosis as well as sarcopenia and musculoskeletal pain. While these diseases all positively correlate with a vitamin D deficiency, there is a great controversy regarding the appropriate vitamin D supplementation as both positive and negative effects on bone mineral density, musculoskeletal pain and incidence of falls are reported.