DISTRIBUTION OF VITAMIN D IN BODY AFTER ADMINISTRATION OF MASSIVE DOSES

Abstract

Since my report¹in 1928 on the efficacy of massive doses of vitamin D in the treatment of rickets, numerous communications²have appeared abroad which corroborate my findings. In the second half of the winter 1937-1938 I further confirmed my observation that rickets and tetany can be cured by peroral administration of a single dose of 600,000 international units of vitamin D and that the curative effect of this treatment is superior to that of the daily administration of small doses. These results can be explained only as due to the retention and storage of this massive dose of vitamin D. From my first experimental studies¹I have drawn the conclusion that rats are able to retain and utilize vitamin D given in one or in several massive doses. Recently Windorfer^2hshowed that this is true of infants. He advanced definite evidence that on the average