Vitamin D and health

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of nutrients to human health, particularly vitamin D. This book reviews the versatility of vitamin D in enhancing the immune system and its potential role in combating many chronic diseases. While vitamin D’s role in enhancing bone health is well established, recent studies demonstrated the safety and efficacy of peri-operative vitamin D supplementation in cardiac patients and its impact on post-operative outcomes. The beneficial effects of vitamin D against cancer, highlights the need to establish its role in retarding early stages of cancer development as well as its effective threshold value. The beneficial role of vitamin D against diabetes is discussed while its ability to mitigate cognitive decline and dementia is premature due to the lack of adequately controlled randomized studies. While there is a higher prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in obese individuals, the impact of supplementation on weight loss in humans is not very strong. In contrast, there is sufficient evidence supporting a bidirectional relationship between celiac disease and vitamin D status. The final chapter provides strong evidence for the ability of vitamin D to reduce the severity and death from such viral diseases as influenza, COVID-19 and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Latest information on the possible mechanisms of action by the active metabolite of vitamin D, 1,25(OH)2 in immune cells.The beneficial roles of vitamin D in bone health, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers, and celiac disease.The increasing evidence for vitamin D’s ability to reduce the risk of severity and death from viral diseases such as influenza, COVID-19, and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).