Vitamin D and Health Outcomes: State-of-the-Art Review of Triangulated Evidence and Ongoing Controversies - PubMed

5 hours ago

Vitamin D has a well-established role in skeletal health, particularly in preventing rickets, osteomalacia, and reducing fracture risk in deficient and older populations.
Modest extra-skeletal benefits of vitamin D include reduced cancer mortality, protection against autoimmune disorders (especially multiple sclerosis), and lower risk of acute respiratory infections like COVID-19, primarily in individuals with low baseline vitamin D levels.
No consistent evidence supports vitamin D's role in cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, obesity, or most neuropsychiatric outcomes, suggesting limited or non-causal effects.
Vitamin D's health benefits follow a non-linear, threshold-dependent relationship, with risks concentrated at low levels and limited benefits beyond sufficiency.
Methodological challenges such as assay variability, non-linear dose-response relationships, and RCT designs enrolling vitamin D-replete populations contribute to inconsistent findings.
The review advocates for targeted vitamin D supplementation strategies focused on correcting deficiency rather than universal population-wide supplementation.

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