Vitamin D in cardiovascular and renal disease prevention

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is a well-known public health problem. In the last ten years nephrologists have rec­ognized chronic kidney disease not only as a public health problem but also as one of the major cardiovascular risk fac­tors. There are observational data that support the concept that vitamin D is involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovas­cular and renal disease or that at least vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for these diseases. In this brief review epidemi­ological data will be presented and the biological mechanism of the vitamin D effect on cardiovascular and renal disease will be discussed.

Keywords

• vitamin d
• renal disease
• cardiovascular disease