Avitaminosis

Vitamin Deficiency
Classification and external resources
Specialty	endocrinology
ICD-10	E50-E56
ICD-9-CM	264-269
MeSH	D001361
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A vitamin deficiency can cause a disease or syndrome known as an avitaminosis or hypovitaminosis. This usually refers to a long-term deficiency of a vitamin. When caused by inadequate nutrition it can be classed as a primary deficiency, and when due to an underlying disorder such as malabsorption it can be classed as a secondary deficiency. An underlying disorder may be metabolic as in a defect converting tryptophan to niacin. It can also be the result of lifestyle choices including smoking and alcohol consumption.

Examples are vitamin A deficiency, folate deficiency, (scurvy), vitamin D deficiency, vitamin E deficiency, and vitamin K deficiency. In the medical literature, any of these may also be called by names on the pattern of hypovitaminosis or avitaminosis + [letter of vitamin], for example, hypovitaminosis A, hypovitaminosis C, hypovitaminosis D.

Conversely hypervitaminosis is the syndrome of symptoms caused by over-retention of fat-soluble vitamins in the body.

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