In the latter years interest in vitamin D has grown: various studies and articles were written on this subject. Even though vitamin D importance for metabolism and structure of bone tissue is well-known recent studies have revealed even greater significance for human body. It was proven that vitamin D is important for most human body tissues (36 human body tissues were found to have receptors that are sensitive to vitamin D including brain, lung, thyroid, heart muscle, pancreatic p cells, immunity system cells) and can influence different processes happening in human organism. That is why vitamin D may be related with greater risk to develop diseases such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, some forms of cancer, autoimmune diseases and others. Because of the vitamin D importance for human organism it is clear that there has to be an adequate concentration of vitamin D in plasma. However, about 50% of population has this vitamin deficiency for various reasons such as geographical location, lifestyle changes and others.
Vitamin D deficiency is a very relevant problem between pregnant women because different studies have shown that this deficiency can cause various health disorders for mother and newborn. It was shown that pregnant women with low vitamin D concentration in plasma statistically significantly more often were diagnosed with gestational hyper tension or preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, sexually transmitted infections, preterm labour, caesarean delivery.
Other risk group for vitamin D deficiency is breast-fed babies because they get initial vitamin D supply from mother. If mother has low vitamin D concentration baby will not get enough of this vitamin. These children develop rachitis, more often contract airway diseases and other infectious diseases. That is why on purpose to ensure sufficient vitamin D concentration in babies plasma in Lithuania prophylactic vitamin D therapy is recommended independently whether they are breast-fed, formula-fed or fed with normal food.
