HYPOVITAMINOSIS D AND MENOPAUSE: STILL AN ISSUE IN 2016?

Vitamin D in menopause is essential for skeleton and metabolic involvement. Our purpose is to introduce the level of evidence regarding menopause – related hypovitaminosis D through a brief review of papers published on PubMed in 2016. The correlation between low vitamin D and risk of falls is a traditional observation. Lack of vitamin D remains one of the major contributors to osteoporotic fractures which have an annual incidence of 8.9 million worldwide. Yale FIT trial referring to menopausal cancer survivors after 12 months of aerobic physical exercise confirmed the bone loss under aromatase inhibitors opposite to tamoxifen is significant, a bone loss that is lower if vitamin D ranges are low. Arzoxifene Generations Trial followed for 5 years menopausal women treated only with vitamin D and calcium and found a fracture risk increase by 46% for each unit of lumbar T-score that decreases. A meta-analysis of 34 studies on 11,090 patients treated with ibandronate showed that hypovitaminosis D at baseline is a predictor of bone mineral density improvement only at lumbar spine. Another study revealed that 77% of menopausal females have 25-hydoxyvitamin D (25-OH D) less than 30 ng/mL while a negative correlation between 25-OH D and waist circumference was found knowing that android fat disposition in women with hipovitaminosis D is a hallmark of metabolic syndrome. Overall, in 2016, PubMed published papers regarding vitamin D in menopause still reflect its deficiency and associated metabolic risk.