Possible Health Implications and Low Vitamin D Status during Childhood and Adolescence: An Updated Mini Review

Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency is common in the developing countries and exists in both childhood and adult life. The great importance of Vitamin D is the moderation of calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) homeostasis as well as the absorption of Ca. While insufficiency of vitamin D is a significant contributing factor to risk of rickets in childhood, it is possible that a more marginal deficiency of vitamin D during life span contribute to osteoporosis as well as potentially to the development and various other chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. This paper reviews the metabolism, epidemiology, and treatment of vitamin D and calcium insufficiency as well as its relation to various diseases during childhood and adolescence.

Decreased bone mineral density in young adult IgE-mediated cow's milk–allergic patients

“…As in other studies describing individuals from the Middle East, however, we noted a relatively high number of patients with suboptimal vitamin D levels. 39, 40 We could not find any correlation between the vitamin D levels and the BMD in any of the study groups, which may point to other parameters having a stronger influence on the determination of BMD. However, given the propensity of IgE-CMA patients to have decreased BMD, the normalization of blood vitamin D levels, as well as sufficient physical activity and avoidance of bone-harming substances and drugs, might be of particular significance.…”

Vitamin D in incident nephrotic syndrome: a Midwest Pediatric Nephrology Consortium study

“…The primary outcome of interest was vitamin D deficiency as measured by the 25(OH)D levels in the blood, which is reflective of total body stores [27]. The analysis was performed utilizing two cut-offs for inadequate 25(OH)D levels< 20 ng/ml and<30 ng/ml [8, 10].…”

Vitamin D deficiency among healthy infants and toddlers: A prospective study from Irbid, Jordan

“…Long‐term vitamin D insufficiency is associated with increased risk of several diseases, including diabetes type 1, cancer, and multiple sclerosis 9–12 . A high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency has been reported in infants, children and adolescents from different countries around the world 13 . High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency may be attributed to low sunlight exposure, dark skin 14 and breast‐feeding without vitamin D supplementation 15–17 …”