Vitamin D (VD) is essential for bone homeostasis and plays a role in pleiotropic effects on various organs and tissues. In adults, VD deficiency can cause or exacerbate osteoporosis and induce osteomalacia. Vitamin D is required for proper absorption of calcium and its uptake into bone, and a lack of vitamin D is known to cause rickets and osteomalacia, diseases in which bone is too soft due to its lack of calcium.
The effects of vitamin D on osteoblast mineralization are well documented, but reports of the effects of vitamin D on osteoclasts are conflicting, showing both inhibition and stimulation. Mutations resulting in nonfunctional or deleted CYP27B1 cause vitamin D dependency, leading to rickets type 1 (characterized by hypocalcemia, hyperparathyroidism, and decreased bone).
Vitamin D deficiency leads to impairment of the mineralization phase of bone remodeling, leading to an increasing amount of the skeleton being replaced by unmineralized osteoid. Vitamin D is a secosteriod hormone essential for calcium absorption and bone mineralization, which is positively associated with bone mineral density (BMD). Deficiency in vitamin D results in secondary hyperparathyroidism, high bone turnover, bone loss, mineralization defects, and hip and other fractures.
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with decreased numbers of viable osteocytes in human iliac crest biopsies and impaired lacunar function. Vitamin D deficiency results in abnormal bone mineralization and, in severe cases, rickets in children. Vitamin D deficiency impairs bone mineralization and causes bone damage, and can be caused by long lack of exposure to sunshine.
📹 Bone remodeling and repair
What is bone remodeling and repair? Bone remodeling is when old, brittle bone tissue is removed or resorbed and gets replaced …
Can vitamin D deficiency result in poorly mineralized bone?
Vitamin D deficiency can result in the development of rickets in children, particularly among African American infants and children, and osteomalacia in adults. This can lead to a number of adverse effects, including bone fragility, bone pain, and muscle weakness. To increase one’s intake of vitamin D, one may consume foods such as fatty fish, beef liver, cheese, mushrooms, and egg yolks, as these are natural sources of the vitamin. Other food sources of vitamin D include salmon, tuna, mackerel, and cheese.
What vitamin is required for bone mineralization?
The ingestion of foods abundant in vitamin D and calcium is of paramount importance for the sustenance of comprehensive wellbeing. These nutrients are indispensable for the preservation of robust bones and a robust immune system.
How does vitamin D deficiency affect bones?
Hyperparathyroidism, a condition where the parathyroid glands produce too much hormone, can lead to bone weakening and increased fracture risk. Insufficient vitamin D and calcium can also cause skeletal deformities in children aged 6-24 months and muscle weakness in children and the elderly. Other problems from calcium and vitamin D deficiencies include osteoporosis, rickets, and muscle weakness in the elderly.
Does vitamin D affect calcification?
Vitamin D excess may cause vascular calcification through the differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells into osteoblast-like cells, either directly or indirectly through hypercalcemia and hyperphosphatemia. This can lead to cardiovascular disease and vascular calcification. The recommended dietary allowance for a specific population group is the EAR, while the UL is the tolerable upper intake level.
Is vitamin D deficiency due to calcium?
A lack of adequate calcium intake can result in the development of osteopenia, a condition characterised by a reduction in bone mineral density, which in turn can lead to osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a disease that causes bones to become thinner, increasing the risk of fractures, as well as causing pain and affecting posture. This condition may take years to develop. A 2017 study demonstrated that daily ingestion of 500 mg of calcium for a period of two months resulted in enhanced mood and diminished fluid retention.
What does vitamin D deficiency cause?
Low vitamin D levels can lead to bone pain, fractures, muscle pain, and muscle weakness, especially in older adults. Deficit in vitamin D can be caused by factors such as insufficient sunlight exposure, darker skin pigment, malnutrition, kidney or liver failure, certain medications, certain types of cancer, or a family history of vitamin D deficiency or childhood rickets. Severe vitamin D deficiency may also increase the risk of falls.
Does vitamin D deficiency cause calcium deficiency?
Vitamin D is essential for calcium homeostasis and bone metabolism. Chronic or severe deficiency can lead to hypocalcemia, secondary hyperparathyroidism, phosphaturia, and accelerated bone demineralization, resulting in osteomalacia, osteoporosis, falls, and fractures. Most patients are asymptomatic, but mild chronic deficiency can cause chronic hypocalcemia and hyperparathyroidism, increasing the risk of osteoporosis, falls, and fractures, especially in older individuals.
Symptoms of chronic vitamin D deficiency include bone pain, arthralgias, myalgias, fatigue, muscle twitching, and weakness. Fragility fractures may result from chronic vitamin D deficiency, leading to osteoporosis. In children, symptoms include irritability, lethargy, developmental delay, bone changes, or fractures.
High-risk individuals should be evaluated for vitamin D deficiency using serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D measurement. Optimal serum levels are controversial, and there are significant differences in mineral metabolism among different races. The International Society for Clinical Densitometry and the International Osteoporosis Foundation recommend minimum serum levels of 30 ng/mL to minimize falls and fractures in older individuals. However, there is insufficient data on the maximum safe upper level of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and high levels may pose a potential risk of toxicity due to secondary hypercalcemia.
What is decreased mineralization of bone due to insufficient vitamin D?
Vitamin D deficiency is a common nutritional deficiency in both children and adults, leading to osteomalacia, a disorder of bone softening in adults. This deficiency results in abnormal osteoid mineralization, while rickets occurs from deficient mineralization at the cartilage of growth plates in children. Bone remodeling involves several cell types, including osteoclasts, osteoblasts, and parathyroid hormone (PTH) and calcitonin. PTH is secreted by the parathyroid glands in response to hypocalcemia from vitamin D deficiency, attempting to restore normal serum calcium levels.
Bones are the primary target for calcium recruitment, and osteomalacia occurs by extracting calcium from them. Adults affected by processes disrupting vitamin D metabolism and production are at risk for developing osteomalacia and its clinical manifestations.
Does vitamin A affect bone remodeling?
Vitamin A, a fat-soluble compound found in both animal products and vegetables, is essential for normal growth, reproduction, vision, immunity, and pathological processes such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, skin diseases, and obesity. High levels of vitamin A have been considered a risk factor for secondary osteoporosis. The biological effects of vitamin A are due to the activation of nuclear receptors by the retinol metabolite all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) and subsequent regulation of over 500 genes in various cell types.
Nutritional deficiency of vitamin A is a significant public health problem worldwide, with developing countries having a prevalence of vitamin A deficiency as common as 60% of the population. In developing countries, vitamin A deficiency can cause xerophthalmia and blindness in more than 4 million children and numerous early deaths due to infections.
The discovery of vitamin A is not clear, but early observations were made by Russian scientist Nicolai Lunin in 1881, who found that adult mice could live well on milk but were unable to survive on a diet containing protein, fat, carbohydrates, salt, and water unless supplemented with dried milk. Later, it was found that unknown fat-like substances in egg yolk were necessary for good health in mice.
Frederic Gowland Hopkins, a British physician and biochemist, reported that young rats given protein, starch, cane sugar, lard, and minerals gained weight considerably less than those fed the same diet with very small amounts of milk. He concluded that an “accessory factor” present in “astongishly small amounts” in milk is essential for life, although these studies did not show which substance or substances were important.
Sir Frederic Gowland Hopkins shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1929 with Dutch physician Christiaan Eijkman, who had described that beriberi could be cured by a compound present in rice (now known as thiamin or vitamin B).
Which vitamin D deficiency is marked by bone deformation?
Rickets is a condition where children’s bones soften and weaken due to prolonged vitamin D deficiency, often due to rare inherited problems. Vitamin D aids in absorbing calcium and phosphorus from food. Sunlight exposure is the best source of vitamin D, with 10 to 15 minutes of exposure being sufficient. However, dark-skinned individuals, winterers, and those in northern latitudes may not get enough.
Skin cancer concerns also warn infants and young children to avoid direct sun exposure or wear sunscreen and protective clothing. To prevent rickets, children should consume foods containing vitamin D naturally, such as fatty fish, fish oil, and egg yolks, or those fortified with vitamin D.
How does vitamin D affect bone remodeling?
Vitamin D stimulates osteoclastogenesis in immature osteoblast/stromal cells, which mobilizes calcium stores in a random manner. The mechanism of targeting the systemic, humoral regulator to a specific skeleton region remains unclear. A study on mice with vitamin D receptor transgenically elevated in mature osteoblasts (OSVDR) found that vitamin D-mediated osteoclastogenesis was reduced in OSVDR mice on chow and calcium-restricted diets, with effects confined to cancellous bone.
OSVDR osteoblasts had a reduced capacity to support osteoclastogenesis in culture. Vitamin D-mediated reduction in OPG expression was reduced in OSVDR osteoblasts, resulting in a reduced RANKL/OPG ratio compared to the wildtype.
📹 The TRUTH About Osteoporosis and Osteopenia
Calcium is not the most important nutrient for osteoporosis! Find out what nutrients you should be focusing on.
Hi Dr Berg I am 51 years old and have polycythemia Vera since I was 20. Treatment right now: flebotomy every 3 months. Can you help me with a treatment and supplements? Or something else that can help me reverse the condition? 😊 I am really lost in what to take. Right now taking vitamin D with K, zinc, omega 3, Coq10, collagen peptides and some others. But I do not know what can help or not with this condition. Please help 🤗