Data from experimental studies suggest that vitamin D receptor activation exerts anti-cancer effects on virtually all steps of carcinogenesis. Epidemiological data support an inverse association of vitamin D serum levels and vitamin D receptor polymorphisms with cancer incidence and mortality. Based on this promising rationale for use of vitamin D and its analogues in cancer prevention and trea...

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble, seco-steroid hormone. In man, the vitamin D receptor is expressed in almost all tissues, enabling effects in multiple systems of the human body. These effects can be endocrine, paracrine and autocrine. The present review summarises the effects of ageing on the vitamin D endocrine system and on Ca homeostasis. Furthermore, consequences for vitamin D supplementation ar...

Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, has been recognized for almost 100 years as being essential for bone health. Vitamin D provides an adequate amount of calcium and phosphorus for the normal development and mineralization of a healthy skeleton. Vitamin D made in the skin or ingested in the diet, however, is biologically inactive and requires obligate hydroxylations first in the liver to 25-hydrox...