Thyroid disease and vitamin D deficiency

Abstract

Vitamin D is an important vitamin that not only regulates calcium, but also has many other beneficial actions. Not many endocrinologists realize this, but several articles published over 20 years ago showed that patients with hypothyroidism have low levels of vitamin D. This may lead to some of the bone problems related to hypothyroidism. It was thought that one of two mechanisms may explain the low levels of vitamin D in patients with hypothyroidism, 1) the low levels of vitamin D may be due to poor absorption of vitamin D from the intestine or 2) the body may not activate vitamin D properly. Other articles have demonstrated that patients with Graves disease also have low levels of Vitamin D.