Vitamin D and Human Skeletal Muscle

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Review

Vitamin D and Human Skeletal Muscle

B. Hamilton 1

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122616574/HTMLSTART

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports

Volume 20 Issue 2, Pages 182 - 190

Published Online: 5 Oct 2009

Vitamin D deficiency is an increasingly described phenomenon worldwide, with

well-known impacts on calcium metabolism and bone health. Vitamin D has also

been associated with chronic health problems such as bowel and colonic cancer,

arthritis, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In recent decades, there has

been increased awareness of the impact of vitamin D on muscle morphology and

function, but this is not well recognized in the Sports Medicine literature. In

the early 20th century, athletes and coaches felt that ultraviolet rays had a

positive impact on athletic performance, and increasingly, evidence is

accumulating to support this view. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies

allude to a functional role for vitamin D in muscle and more recently the

discovery of the vitamin D receptor in muscle tissue provides a mechanistic

understanding of the function of vitamin D within muscle. The identification of

broad genomic and non-genomic roles for vitamin D within skeletal muscle has

highlighted the potential impact vitamin D deficiency may have on both

underperformance and the risk of injury in athletes. This review describes the

current understanding of the role vitamin D plays within skeletal muscle tissue.

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Carruthers

Wakefield, UK