Vitamin D: the supplement we all need


Vitamin D plays a multifactorial role, acting at a bone metabolism level, and stimulating the effective and correct action of the immune system while contributing to slowing the depositing of visceral fat mass, among other things.

We often make the mistake of thinking that living in a country with considerable hours of sunlight throughout the year means that the sun will provide us with enough vitamin D, but nothing is further from the truth. This exposure to sunlight is not enough (something we can see in the epidemiological data, which reveal a general deficit in the population), and supplementation is required.

Dr. Francisco Martínez Peñalver – Neolife Medical Team


Vitamin D was first used therapeutically as a result of its beneficial effects on bone metabolism.

Vitamin D is probably one of the 5 most written-about molecules in recent years, and, of course, the most published and reviewed in the area of supplementation.

Vitamin D plays a multifactorial role, acting at a bone metabolism level, and stimulating the effective and correct action of the immune system (which also explains its antitumor effect) while contributing to slowing the depositing of visceral fat mass and even encouraging the inhibition of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in the genesis of certain atrial arrhythmias.

vitamin D

The classic effect, and the first reason for using vitamin D therapeutically, is its beneficial impact on bone metabolism. Vitamin D critically regulates calcium levels. It participates in the intestinal absorption of calcium, in its reabsorption in the kidney and in bone mineralization, while at the same time inhibiting the secretion of parathyroid hormone, which has a negative effect on bone formation.

In terms of its effects on the human immune system, two studies can provide an example. In the first of these, a statistically significant association was established in school-age children between high levels of vitamin D and a lower incidence of ear and gastrointestinal tract infections (1). The second of the articles demonstrates that vitamin D supplementation is a useful weapon in adolescent patients with latent tuberculosis infection who refuse to follow anti-tuberculous treatment (2). There are many more, especially regarding its protective effect in respiratory infections in patients with a chronic disease at this level (asthma, COPD, etc.).

The relationship between obesity and vitamin D was explored in a review of the literature conducted in 2015 that stated that vitamin D deficiency is 35% more frequent in obese patients than in patients without this problem, regardless of the patients’ age or place of origin (3).

It has been observed that the majority of patients affected by colon cancer have deficient levels of vitamin D, and that, together with chemotherapy, it is advisable to replenish levels of this vitamin (3). This same association between cancer and low levels of vitamin D is seen in other tumors such as those of the lungs or prostate, even though the pathophysiological mechanism that underlies it is still not very clear.

We often make the mistake of thinking that living in a country with considerable hours of sunlight throughout the year means that the sun will provide us with enough vitamin D (which is produced in the skin due to the effect of solar radiation). Yet nothing is further from the truth. This exposure to sunlight is not enough (something we can see in the epidemiological data, which reveal a general deficit in the population), and supplementation is required, just as it is in Scandinavian countries from an early age.

Therefore check your vitamin D levels and don’t make do with the 30ng/ml range suggested by your family doctor, but rather look for a range of excellence of between 60 and100 ng/ml.

At Neolife we’re firmly committed to correcting the levels of vitamin D until its range of excellence is attained. Due to the holistic way in which we examine our patients, vitamin D will provide an improvement in cardiovascular protection, neurocognitive function and in the musculoskeletal system, all mainstays on which we base our medicine.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

(1) Palframan KM et al. Vitamin D-binding protein is inversely associated with the incidence of gastrointestinal and ear infections in school-age children. Epidemiol Infect. 2018 Jul 30:1-7;304(17):1903–743.

(2) Kim EH et al. Vitamin D supplementation as a control program against latent tuberculosis infection in Korea high school students. Epidemiol Health. 2018 Jul 27.

(3) Pereira-Santos M et al. Obesity and vitamin D deficiency: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Obes Rev. 2015 Apr;16(4):341-9.

(4) Savoie MB et al. Vitamin D levels in patients with colorectal cancer before and after treatment initiation. J Gastrointest Cancer. 2018 Jul 30.