We all see the articles about what it takes to run a successful practice: slick marketing, conflict management, Web pages, team training, appropriate compensation packages, etc. The list is endless. Yet these topics are but condiments on a great hamburger. The substance of the hamburger is the patty. The substance of clinical medicine is a patient's assessment, diagnosis, treatment and plan. Do that well, and you will succeed. Do that poorly, and you must rely on the condiments for success.
Conversely, its absence causes a needlessly high risk of disease and death. For children, lack of vitamin A causes severe visual impairment and blindness, and significantly increases the risk of severe illness, and even death, from such common childhood infections as diarrhoeal disease and measles.
Vitamin D deficiency, or hypovitaminosis D, most commonly results from inadequate sunlight exposure (in particular sunlight with adequate ultraviolet B rays). Vitamin D deficiency can also be caused by inadequate nutritional intake of vitamin D, disorders limiting vitamin D absorption, and conditions impairing vitamin D conversion into active metabolitesâincluding certain liver, kidney, and hereditary disorders.