Vitamin D is one of the oldest hormones affecting individuals of all ages. The major cause of vitamin D deficiency is lack of sun exposure. It was reported that the efficiency of vitamin D is not limited only to maintaining bone health by managing the calcium homeostasis; it also seems to have anti-inflammatory, immune-modulating and pro-apoptotic properties. Vitamin D has specific receptors in many tissue and organs such as the skin, immune system, pancreas, gonads, brain, prostate, breast, muscle, and large intestine, etc. Recent epidemiological studies have reported that low vitamin D levels are associated with increased cardiovascular mortality, cancer incidence and autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The 25 hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) level should be determined in a patient with suspected vitamin D deficiency. Deficiency is defined as a serum 25(OH)D level below 15 ng/ml, and insufficiency is defined as a serum 25(OH)D level of 15 to 20 ng/ml. To prevent vitamin D deficiency, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants and children receive 400 IU of vitamin D from diet and supplementation. It has been reported that vitamin D up to 2000 U per day does not cause vitamin D intoxication in adult and childhood age groups. According to a report published by the American Medical Institute, when determining tolerable upper limits, oral maintenance doses causing no hypercalcemia, hypercalciuria or ectopic calcification should be taken into account. Therefore, the administration of vitamin D has been reported to be safe at 1000 IU/day for ages 0-1, 2500 IU/day for ages 1-3, 3000 IU/day for ages 3-8, and 4000 IU/day for persons 9 years of age, adults and pregnant women. In adults, vitamin D supplementation of at least 800-1000 U was recommended to reduce fracture and fall rates. In this paper, we review the non-skeletal effect of vitamin D in light of the recent studies.

Keywords: D vitamini, kemik doku dışı etkileri.