Research

Hormonal

Vitamin D deficiency causes skeletal muscle atrophy and dysfunction by increasing oxidative stress, disrupting mitochondrial function, and activating the Src-ERK1/2-Akt-FOXO signaling pathway which upregulates muscle-specific E3 ligases (Atrogin-1/MaFbx and MuRF1).

If you are Vitamin D deficient, correcting your levels may help prevent muscle loss and improve mitochondrial function by reducing oxidative stress. However, this is a mechanistic explanation; ensure your levels are normalized rather than megadosed, as excessive Vitamin D can also impair muscle regeneration.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with oxidative stress in skeletal muscle that influences the mitochondrial function and affects the development of skeletal muscle atrophy... The possible signalling pathway triggering the expression of Atrogin-1 involves Src-ERK1/2-Akt- FOXO causing protein degradation.
Katarzyna Patrycja Dzik et al. · European Journal of Applied Physiology · 2019

Why this rating

The paper is a review summarizing various observational and animal studies; it does not present new primary clinical trial data.

Source

Mechanisms of vitamin D on skeletal muscle function: oxidative stress, energy metabolism and anabolic state

Katarzyna Patrycja Dzik et al. · European Journal of Applied Physiology · 2019

DOI 10.1007/s00421-019-04104-x

narrative_reviewCited 345×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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