Vitamin D Insufficiency in a Sunny Environment: a Demographic And
IMAJ • VOL 12 • DECEMbEr 2010 ORIGINAL ARTICLES Vitamin D Insufficiency in aS unny Environment: A Demographic and Seasonal Analysis Yael Oren1*, Yinon Shapira MD1*, Nancy Agmon-Levin MD1,2, Shaye Kivity MD1,3,4, Yaron Zafrir MD1, Arie Altman MD1,2, Aaron Lerner MD5 and Yehuda Shoenfeld MD1,2 1Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, affiliated with Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel 2Department of Medicine B, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel 3Departments of Medicine A & C, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel 4Rheumatic Disease Unit, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel 5Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit, Carmel Medical Center, affiliated with Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute ofT echnology, Haifa, Israel n recent years, vitamin D has been attracting considerable ABSTRACT: Background: Hypovitaminosis D has been shown to be I attention. It is becoming increasingly clear that this vitamin extremely common in various regions around the world, has a wide range of biological activity in addition to the clas- mostly at high latitudes. Israel is characterized by certain sic endocrine pathway, emphasizing the importance of this features – cultural (e.g., ethnic isolates) and geographic hormone in many aspects of general health. Studies suggest (e.g., sunny climate) – that have been identified for their that vitamin D insufficiency plays a role in the development possible association with vitamin D status. of cancer, autoimmune diseases, hypertension, infectious dis- Objectives: To conduct an ecological study on a repre- eases, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disor- sentative sample of the population of Israel, testing vitamin ders, asthma, as well as several psychiatric conditions such as D status across age groups, genders, ethnic groups, and schizophrenia, depression and dementia [1-5].
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