How can vitamin and mineral deficiencies lead to bone disease?
There are multiple vitamins (A, B, C, D, E, and K) and five chief minerals essential for a holistic body growth and development that are calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc and potassium. Calcium is required for developing strong teeth and bones. Moreover, calcium also facilitates the multiple functions including regulation of blood pressure, hormonal pathways, muscles, nerves and vascular functions. The calcium is acquired by various food sources such as milk, cheese, vegetables and cereals, tofu and juices. The major cause of calcium deficiency or hypocalcemia is ageing which decays with the increasing age and bones become less dense and brittle. The symptoms of this problem are numbness, pain and spasm in muscles, and bone that may lead to bone disease osteopenia and osteoporosis. Osteopenia refers the decreased bone density. To absorb calcium from food sources Vitamin D is an essential component. The deficiency of vitamin D is induced by the lack of sun exposure. The reason of such deficiency may include certain medications, and kidney failure (Holick and Chen, 1080-1086).
Vitamin D is synthesized in skin while being exposed to UV rays of sunlight or obtained from any food source. Following a hepatic process of hydroxylation 25-hydroxyvitamin D it reaches the cell, it attaches itself to Vitamin D-receptor and afterwards it is attached to the responsive gene related to calcium binding protein. After the translation and transcription mechanism, this complex is turned into a protein named osteocalcin which regulates the calcium absorption in the gut. Thus, due to the lack of vitamin D, proper calcium complex is not synthesized that hampers its absorption causing osteomalacia. In this condition, the possibility of forming new bone or osteoid is hampered. Insufficiency of Vitamin D results in the elevation of parathyroid hormone to bone resorption, and fewer density conditions. Vitamin D and PTH serum show a negative relation. Various studies have confirmed that Vitamin D and its receptor are essential components for active calcium absorption, functioning of osteoclasts and osteoblasts as well as longitudinal bone growth. Bone mineralization process is reliant on the calcium concentration in the milieu where Vitamin D metabolites play a considerable role in building basic calcium complex and avoiding bone related problems (Lips 4-8).
Works Cited
Holick, Michael F., and Tai C. Chen. "Vitamin D deficiency: a worldwide problem with health
consequences." The American journal of clinical nutrition87.4 (2008): 1080S-1086S.
Lips, P. "Vitamin D physiology." Progress in biophysics and molecular biology 92.1 (2006):
4-8.
