[헬스S] Do modern people who are not exposed to sunlight increase the risk of death due to vitamin D deficiency?

Recently, the number of patients with vitamin D deficiency is increasing. According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, 247,077 patients were treated for vitamin D deficiency last year. Recently, a study published abroad that vitamin D is associated with mortality is attracting attention.

Vitamin is a compound word of vital (vitality) and amine (a type of organic compound) which is essential for the body. Among them, vitamin D plays an important role in bone maturation and mineralization in the blood, as well as helping to boost immunity. Vitamin D is synthesized naturally through UV rays when exposed to sunlight.

Researchers at the University of South Australia in Australia recently published the results of an analysis of the causal relationship between vitamin D deficiency and mortality in 307,601 participants in the UK Biobank.

During the following 14-year period, there were 18,700 deaths. They found that the risk of death dropped sharply when the blood level of vitamin D rose from a low state to a normal level of 50 nmol/L.

For all causes of death, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease, the risk of death at a vitamin D concentration of 25 nmol/L was 25% higher than when the vitamin D concentration was 50 nmol/L.

However, the researchers explained that the study was limited to the white European population and a limitation was the lack of studies on participants with severe vitamin D deficiency.

“This study supports a causal relationship between vitamin D deficiency and mortality,” the researchers said.