Vitamin D deficiency early in pregnancy is associated with a five-fold increased risk of preeclampsia, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences reported this week in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

600,000 cases a year of breast and colorectal cancer could be prevented each year by adequate intake of vitamin D, according to researcher

Surprising findings by Queen’s researchers have shed new light on how the sunshine vitamin D – increasingly used to treat and prevent cancer and other diseases – is broken down by our bodies.

Most Americans fail to get the calcium and vitamin D they need, but this shortfall could be affecting more than their bones. It may, at least in part, be one reason behind the epidemic of type 2 diabetes, suggests new research conducted at Tufts University.

Many otherwise healthy children and adolescents have low vitamin D levels, which may put them at risk for bone diseases such as rickets. African American children, children above age nine and with low dietary vitamin D intake were the most likely to have low levels of vitamin D in their blood, according to researchers from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Key milk nutrients, calcium and vitamin D, may do more than just help keep your bones strong. Increasing intake of calcium and vitamin D could reduce the risk for cancer in women by at least 60 percent, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

It's not yet clear why overweight elderly adults have low levels of vitamin D in their blood. However, researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (USDA HNRCA) have found that lack of sun exposure may not account for low levels of vitamin D in elders who are overweight.

Women who consume higher amounts of calcium and vitamin D may have a lower risk of developing premenopausal breast cancer, according to a report in the May 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Scientists have shown that a single 2.5mg dose of vitamin D may be enough to boost the immune system to fight against tuberculosis (TB) and similar bacteria for at least 6 weeks. Their findings came from a study that identified an extraordinarily high incidence of vitamin D deficiency amongst those communities in London most at risk from the disease, which kills around two million people each year.

Older adults who don't get enough vitamin D - either from their diets or exposure to the sun - may be at increased risk for poor physical performance and disability, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.