Vitamin D is an essential vitamin your body needs on a daily basis, but unlike other vitamins, it is not easily found in the foods that you eat. This fat soluble vitamin can be produced endogenously through the exposure of your skin to the sun, or can be found in foods like milk, fish, eggs and cereals. Without this vitamin, your body has difficulties absorbing calcium and maintaining serum calcium and phosphate concentrations. As such, when your body is not getting enough vitamin D or when certain diseases affect your calcium and phosphate levels, your doctor may prescribe additional vitamin D supplements.
Osteomalacia
In some cases, vitamin D may be prescribed for a disorder known as osteomalacia. Osteomalacia is the softening of your bone tissue due to a lack of vitamin D in your body. Vitamin D is essential for maintaining the calcium levels needed for strong bones. As such, prescription vitamin D may make up the difference in the amount of vitamin D you are not getting from other sources, helping restore the mineral levels needed to maintain your bone health. Vitamin D may also be prescribed for other bone-related disorders, such as rickets.
Blood Phosphate Conditions
Vitamin D may also be prescribed for conditions like hypophosphatemia and fanconi syndrome, which cause problems with low phosphate levels in the blood. Hypophosphatemia is literally the lack of phosphate in your bloodstream due to an electrolyte imbalance from conditions like alcoholism or diarrhea. Fanconi syndrome is a disorder which causes phosphate to be released into your urine instead of absorbed into the blood stream by your kidneys. Vitamin D in both cases may help restore phosphate levels closer to normal.
Psoriasis
Psoriasis is a common skin condition which causes your skin to become dry and flaky, and causes the skin to develop white or silver colored scales due to excess skin cell production. A form of vitamin D3 in the topical medication calcipotriene is often prescribed to help slow down the production of excess skin cells from this disorder.
High Blood Pressure and Heart Disease
Vitamin D may also be prescribed to help treat high blood pressure, although the use for this purpose is still under study and debate. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, population studies have shown that there may be a connection between low levels of vitamin D and a greater risk for high blood pressure in those with an overactive parathyroid gland or kidney disease. Lower levels of vitamin D may also be associated with higher risks for heart disease due to low levels of vitamin D contributing to the buildup of cholesterol plaque in your arteries.
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