Secondary sources includedietary intake of foods naturally richin vitamin D such as salmon, codliveroil, sundried mushrooms or vitamin D fortified foods. However, reduced cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D could be attributed to limited UV exposure owing to increased skin pigmentation, topical application of sunscreen, certain sociocultural practice sandurban lifestyle. It has been presumed that Indians are vitamin D sufficient due to adequatesunshine throughout the year. The major source of vitamin D is exposure to sunlight.
This health challenge mandates effective nutritional policies, fortification and supplementation programmes and partnership between government, healthcare and industry to safeguard the health of Indian population at large. Implementation of population-based education and intervention programmes with enforcement of strict regulations could generate awareness and curb unsupervised intake of vitamin D containing dietary supplements. There is a need for marketing and rational prescribing of the appropriate vitamin D supplement in ostensibly healthy Indian population. High market sales of calcium supplements containing calcitriol indicate increasing intake of calcitriol rather than cholecalciferol which could predispose to toxicity. Cholecalciferol, the preferred form for prophylaxis and treatment of vitamin D deficient states, constitutes only 10% of the available market preparations. Most of the supplements contain calcitriol (46.5%) or alfacalcidiol (43%) as tablets (51.1%) and capsules (35.2%). Vitamin D3 is available in the form of cholecalciferol, alfacalcidiol and calcitriol as single ingredient products and in combination with calcium and other micronutrients. The preparations were assessed for total number, different formulations, constituents and amount of each constituent present in the formulation. We aimed to study the composition and availability of various vitamin D preparations in the Indian market, data about which was collected from annual drug compendium.
In our country, as food fortification is lacking, supplementation with pharmaceutical preparations is the only means of treatment of vitamin D deficiency. It is now known that vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide health problem.
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