The importance of Vitamin D in preventing osteoporosis
What is Vitamin D?
Vitamin D plays several vital roles. It helps absorb and maintain the amounts of calcium and phosphate in the body. These minerals are needed for strong bones and healthy teeth. In the introduction to my M.Phil thesis, I researched the factors that influenced bone formation and reported that “the build-up of bone during childhood and adolescence including genetic predisposition, diet, physical activity, body composition and smoking (Cooper, Westlake et al. 2006). Genetics factors have been reported to account for almost 80 per cent of the variance in peak bone mass (Davies, Evans et al. 2005; Bonjour, Chevalley et al. 2007). As far as diet is concerned, certain nutrition components have been extensively examined in the literature. Calcium and vitamin D have received particular attention and their associations with bone health in children and adolescents have been studied”.
