Metabolismo, fuentes endógenas y exógenas de vitamina D

At present, we know that vitamin D behaves as a hormone with multiple functions in the body. The best studied and most important of all its actions is related with bone health. Adequate deposits of the vitamin maintain the calcium-phosphorus metabolism within normality limits. The main natural sources are solar radiation and fish oil induced cutaneous synthesis of the hormone. In certain situation, cutaneous synthesis is not completely effective. This, together with the fact that natural foods contain scarce amounts of vitamin D, causes a large part of the population to be at risk of having a deficit/insufficiency of this micronutrient. Thus, different authors recommend the intake of functional foods and drug supplements of the vitamin. However, fortification of natural foods, as is presently done, has several problems. Furthermore, there are no universally accepted recommendations for the amount of vitamin D that should be taken as a drug supplement and which population should take it. The data available indicate that most of the population would benefit from taking 800 IU of vitamin D combined with calcium.