Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Aug;7(4):152-9.
doi: 10.1177/1759720X15588521.

More than healthy bones: a review of vitamin D in muscle health

S Bobo Tanner  1 , Susan A Harwell  2
Affiliations
Review

More than healthy bones: a review of vitamin D in muscle health

S Bobo Tanner et al. Ther Adv Musculoskelet Dis. 2015 Aug.

Abstract

Vitamin D has known importance to bone health including calcium and phosphate homeostasis and appears to have a role in skeletal muscle health as well. Cases of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency have been associated with poor muscle health. While the exact effects and mechanism of action remains controversial, current data lean towards insufficient vitamin D playing a role in musculoskeletal pain, sarcopenia, myopathy, falls and indirectly via cerebellar and cognitive dysfunction. Sophisticated experimental techniques have allowed detection of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) on skeletal muscle and cerebellar tissue, which if validated in further large studies, could confirm the mechanism of vitamin D in these associations. While further study is required, vitamin D repletion can have a substantial impact on muscle as well as bone health.

Keywords: bone; calcitriol; calcium; cholecalciferol; ergocalciferol; falls; muscle; musculoskeletal pain; myopathy; sarcopenia; vitamin D; vitamin D deficiency; vitamin D receptors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: S.B.T. is a member of the data safety monitoring board at AMGEN, the advisory board at Mallinckrodt, Celgene, and the speakers’ bureau of Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb. He has benefitted from sponsored research from Lilly GSK, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and Janssen.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Vitamin D activation and target cell effects. Reprinted with permission from [Dusso, 2011]. RAS, renin–angiotensin system; RXR, retinoid X receptor ; VDR, vitamin D receptor; VDRE, vitamin D response element.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Al-Said Y., Al-Rached H., Al-Qahtani H., Jan M. (2009) Severe proximal myopathy with remarkable recovery after vitamin D treatment. Can J Neurol Sci 36: 336–339. - PubMed
    1. American Geriatrics Society Workgroup on Vitamin D Supplementation for Older Adults (2014) Recommendations abstracted from the American Geriatrics Society Consensus Statement on vitamin D for prevention of falls and their consequences. J Am Geriatr Soc 62: 147–152. - PubMed
    1. Azali P., Barbasso Helmers S., Kockum I., Olsson T., Alfredsson L., Charles P., et al. (2013) Low serum levels of vitamin D in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. Ann Rheum Dis 72: 512–516. - PubMed
    1. Bischoff H., Borchers M., Gudat F., Duermueller U., Theiler R., Stahelin H., et al. (2001) In situ detection of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 receptor in human skeletal muscle tissue. Histochem J 33: 19–24. - PubMed
    1. Bischoff H., Stahelin H., Dick W., Akos R., Knecht M., Salis C., et al. (2003) Effects of vitamin D and calcium supplementation on falls: a randomized controlled trial. J Bone Miner Res 18: 343–351. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources