The "Sunshine Vitamin": Benefits Beyond Bone?

The "sunshine vitamin": benefits beyond bone?

Published by Oxford University Press 2007. Although vitamin D is best known for its role in strengthening bone and preventing rickets, it is increasingly apparent that it may have beneficial health effects beyond the skeletal system, among them perhaps the prevention of a number of diseases, including cancer ( 1 ). These health effects have been the focus of two recent National Institutes of He...

Sunshine and the cardiovascular benefits – a dose of sunshine!

Vitamin D: beyond bone

In recent years, vitamin D has been received increased attention due to the resurgence of vitamin D deficiency and rickets in developed countries and the identification of extraskeletal effects of vitamin D, suggesting unexpected benefits of vitamin D in health and disease, beyond bone health. The possibility of extraskeletal effects of vitamin D was first noted with the discovery of the vitami...

Cell defenses and the sunshine vitamin.

—The Editors I t was called the sunshine cure, and in the early 20th century, before the era of antibiotics, it was the only effective therapy for tuberculosis known. No one knew why it worked, just that TB patients sent to rest in sunny locales were often restored to health. The same “treatment” had been discovered in 1822 for another historic scourge, rickets—a deforming childhood condition c...

Vitamin D Sufficiency through Sunshine in Infants?

Vitamin D is vital for human health, and its deficiency may result in hypocalcemic seizures and rickets in infants and children. The optimal cut-off of serum 25(OH)D levels to define vitamin D deficiency are yet to be established. While, the Endocrine Society of USA has suggested serum 25(OH)D < 20 ng/mL to define vitamin D deficiency [1], the Institute of Medicine (IOM), USA recommends a cut-o...