Vitamin D Deficiency Symptoms & Treatments

Key Points about Vitamin D Deficiency and Dependency

Vitamin D deficiency is common and results from inadequate exposure to sunlight and inadequate dietary intake (usually occurring together) and/or from chronic kidney disease.

The deficiency can cause muscle aches and weakness, bone pain, and osteomalacia.

Deficiency may be suspected in patients who have a history of little exposure to sunlight, have a low dietary intake, as well as typical symptoms and signs (eg, rickets, muscle aches, bone pain), or bone demineralization seen on x-rays.

Vitamin D status is usually assessed by the measurement of the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH) D) concentration.

Health professionals do not need to routinely test vitamin D status in asymptomatic people. Empiric vitamin D supplementation without testing can be justified for patients who have no overt risk factors or evidence of deficiency but are thought to have inadequate sun exposure or dietary intake.

To treat vitamin D deficiency, advise supplemental vitamin D.

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Endocrine Society Recommendations

The Task force for the Endocrine Society makes the following recommendations:

For children 1-18 years of age who are vitamin D deficient, suggest treatment with 2,000 IU/d of vitamin D3 for at least six weeks or with 50,000 IU once a week for at least six weeks to achieve a blood level of 25(OH)D above 30 ng/mL, followed by maintenance therapy of 600-1,000 IU/day.

For adults those have vitamin D deficiency can be treated with 50,000 IU of vitamin D3 once a week for eight weeks or its equivalent of 6,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily to achieve a blood level of 25(OH)D above 30 ng/mL, followed by maintenance therapy of 1,500-2,000 IU/day.

In obese patients, patients with malabsorption syndromes, and patients on medications affecting vitamin D metabolism, endocrine society suggest a higher dose (two to three times higher; at least 6,000-10,000 IU/day) of vitamin D to treat vitamin D deficiency to maintain a 25(OH)D level above 30 ng/mL, followed by maintenance therapy of 3,000-6,000IU/day.