Vitamin D Retrospective Study and Role With Disease

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a heightened risk for developing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and osteopenia/osteoporosis. Vitamin D is made in the skin when it is exposed to sunlight and it is also obtained from the diet and dietary supplements. Older people, individuals with high skin pigmentation, obese and sedentary individuals have low levels of Vitamin D because pigmentation blocks Vitamin D production in the skin, aging and physical inactivity are associated with reduced exposure to sunlight, and obesity is associated with the storage of Vitamin D in fat preventing its utilization by muscle, bone and other tissues that require its metabolic action. These conditions are also associated with heightened risk for developing type 2 diabetes, glucose intolerance, hypertension, and osteopenia/osteoporosis in older and obese individuals. This is particularly heightened in older women who tend to have increased body fat, are more physically inactive and are at high risk for central obesity and its metabolic consequences of diabetes, hypertension and osteoporosis.