• Neil J L Gittoes.
• Department of Endocrinology, University Hospitals Birmingham and University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK neil.gittoes@uhb.nhs.uk.
• Clin Med (Lond). 2015 Dec 1; 15 Suppl 6: s54s57s54-7.

AbstractVitamin D deficiency is a public health concern. Mediated by classical endocrine effects, vitamin D deficiency is causally linked with bone and calcium disorders. Non-endocrine actions of vitamin D are also widely recognised and these effects are mediated by local tissue activation of vitamin D bringing about intracrine effects in non-classical sites. Supported by large volumes of observational studies linking low circulating vitamin D with negative outcomes for many common disease states, there is growing interest that vitamin D may be central to the pathology and outcomes of many common diseases, including cardiovascular, cancer and autoimmune conditions. This article explores the quality of evidence linking vitamin D and various disease outcomes, and furthermore describes some of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of vitamin D action that may help explain some of the incongruity of data observed in observational versus interventional studies of vitamin D supplementation.© Royal College of Physicians 2015. All rights reserved.

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