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Michael F. Holick, MrOs Is D-ficient, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 94, Issue 4, 1 April 2009, Pages 1092–1093, https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2009-0388
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Vitamin D deficiency is now being recognized as one of the most common medical conditions in the world (1). In the United States, the press coverage of the vitamin D deficiency epidemic and grassroots efforts to promote awareness about vitamin D for health have now made the 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] assay the most-ordered hormone assay in the United States. There continues to be debate as to what the optimal blood level of 25(OH)D is. Vitamin D deficiency is defined as a 25(OH)D level below 20 ng/ml (2), vitamin D insufficiency as 21–29 ng/ml, and vitamin D sufficiency as 30 ng/ml or above (3, 4).
In this issue of JCEM, Orwoll et al. (5) report that 72% of men older than 65 yr throughout the United States were vitamin D insufficient. Vitamin D insufficiency was especially common in men living in northern communities and among the oldest and the most obese. The investigators used a state-of-the art, liquid chromatography tandem mass spectroscopy assay for measuring the serum 25(OH)D. This method not only gives an absolute quantitative level of total 25(OH)D but also provides the blood level of 25(OH)D3 and 25(OH)D2 individually (6).
