Endocrine Abstracts

Research carried out over the last 10 years has supported a wider role for vitamin D in human health, with proposed beneficial effects for cancer, inflammation and infection and cardiovascular disease. A key component of this new perspective on vitamin D is the increased risk of common human diseases associated with decreased circulating levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25D), more commonly referred to as vitamin D-deficiency. Although 25D is the major serum form of vitamin D, it...

I have established that low levels of vitamin D at birth increase the risk of schizophrenia in later life in two independent large Danish case/control studies. I have also shown such exposures are associated with increased rates of autism in a large Dutch general population cohort. I have developed an animal model of Developmental Vitamin D (DVD) deficiency which produces phenotypes that mimic many of the symptoms of schizophrenia. In our latest study we have shown the hormona...

Calcium and phosphorus represent the main building material for bone stiffness. The supplier of these bone minerals is the hormone calcitriol, which originates from vitamin D, itself made by sunshine in human skin. Requirement for bone mineral supply is highest during phases of rapid growth, such as in the foetus, infant and pubertal child, making them particularly vulnerable.Deprivation of calcium, whether through low dietary calcium intake and/or low v...