Vitamin D Deficiency: A Major Public Health Problem?

"During the past decade, we've learned two remarkable things about vitamin D. First, many adults and children in the U.S. and other developed nations have vitamin D deficiency (JW Gen Med Mar 20 1998). Second, the adverse health effects of vitamin D deficiency could extend well beyond bone disease to encompass excess risk for cancer (particularly colon, prostate, and breast), hypertension, autoimmune diseases (e.g., multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes), and other diseases. Vitamin D deficiency also might be associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality."

Read more in Journal Watch, December 31, 2009.