Vitamin D and health benefits

The most important health benefit of vitamin D is to maintain bone strength, one of its endocrine functions. Vitamin D promotes calcium and phosphorus absorption from the small intestine through the actions of 1,25 dihydroxy vitamin D and reduces urinary calcium excretion. Vitamin D also has many other roles in the body, including modulation of cell growth, immune function, and reduction of inflammation. It has been found that vitamin D receptor is widely expressed in almost all nucleated cells in most organs, including the brain, heart, skin, genital organs, prostate, breast, and pancreas. Beside renal cells, the active form of vitamin D is also released in smooth muscle, colon, and immune cells (Figure 1). There are increasing evidence supporting the possible role of vitamin D in protecting against many cancers, heart disease, fractures and falls, autoimmune diseases, influenza, type 2 diabetes, and depression.