Evolutionary Perspective in Rickets and Vitamin D

Modern lifestyle limits our exposure to sunlight, which photosynthesizes vitamin D in the skin, and the incidence of nutritional rickets has been resurging. Vitamin D is one of the oldest hormones; it is photosynthesized in all forms of life from the phytoplankton to mammals. A selective sweep of the promoter of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) happened as soon as Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa; it co-adapted with skin color genes to provide a fine-scale adaptation to latitudes and the levels of exposure to ultraviolet (UV)B radiation along the route out of Africa. Exposure to UVB radiation balances the need for vitamin D photosynthesis and degradation of folic acid by UVB radiation. Skin color follows a latitude distribution: the darkest populations inhabit the tropical belt; and the fair-skinned populations inhabit the northern countries. Due to their greater need for calcium during their reproductive life, the skin color of women is lighter- than that of men. Vitamin D is essential for mineral homeostasis and has a wide variety of non-skeletal functions, of which the most important for natural selection is a regulatory function in the innate immune system. In the human fossil record, vitamin D deficiency coincided with bone tuberculosis. About 6000 years ago, a diet which included cow's milk provided Neolithic humans with twice as much calcium and was more alkaline than that of its Paleolithic predecessors. Adiposity is negatively associated with the vitamin D status and ...
Source: Frontiers in Endocrinology - Category: Endocrinology Source Type: research