With the sunny summer season just around the corner, thoughts turn naturally to all things related to sunshine. Vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin because the sun converts its precursor into the active vitamin (D-3) in your skin. It is one of the four fat-soluble vitamins along with A, K, and E. It also has close relatives in life forms as distant as fungi. Ergocalciferol, or D-2, is commercially derived from plant products and often added to milk or sold as supplements. It is less potent and shorter acting than D-3.
Vitamin D originates in your liver as cholesterol. It undergoes processing in the kidney before it makes it to the skin where, if nature permits, it meets its final processing step to become the active vitamin we all need.
Vitamin D for healthy bones
We have known for a long time that vitamin D was necessary for strong bones. D deficiency manifests as rickets. Vitamin D facilitates the uptake of calcium from the gut. Without active vitamin D in the intestines, calcium cannot be absorbed.
Calcium
This should clear up one common misunderstanding: just consuming more calcium will not result in absorbing more. Adequate calcium in the diet is almost never the reason for weak bones, despite what the dairy industry wants you to believe. With adequate vitamin D, you can pull all the calcium you need even from a dairy-free diet.
Exercise
But even combining vitamin D with adequate calcium (the strategy behind fortifying milk), is not enough. You need exercise, especially resistance training. For that reason, a good gym or health club should be part of your “diet.” Factor in the gym membership fees (for example, check out https://www.gymmembershipfees.com/lucille-roberts-prices/) with what you’re taking. Lucille Robert prices plus the cost of the supplements equals the real price healthy bones.
Hormone D
Recently, we have discovered that vitamin D does more than help regulate calcium. A lot more. In fact, we should really be thinking of vitamin D as a hormone rather than a nutrient. D receptors have been found on most cells of the body and “hormone D” may affect as many as 2,000 of your body’s genes.
Immune function
Among the most important functions D regulates is your immune function. It participates in the fight against infections and cancer.
That’s right. Cancer.
In addition, studies have shown that adequate vitamin D levels reduce the risk of multiple sclerosis, heart disease, depression, fibromyalgia, and even the flu.
D-deficiency
Suboptimal levels of vitamin D can present as weakness, fatigue, aches, and a sense of not feeling well. Weakened bones, which can be diagnosed by a bone density scan, are the classic pathology leading to rickets. People who spend most of their time indoors and live in a climate that doesn’t get much sun are more prone to vitamin D deficiency.
We get our vitamin D from the sun, but also from our diet. Some sources of vitamin D are salmon, sardines, shrimp, egg yolk, and fortified commercial products like milk, cereal, yogurt and orange juice. Because vitamin D is oil soluble, it is important to include a little fat, oil, or butter to enhance absorption.
Should you take vitamin D supplements? And if so, how much? Normal serum levels range from 50 to 100 micrograms per deciliter. Depending on your blood level, you may need more vitamin D. Almost everyone does. The former recommendations (400 – 800 IU a day) appear to be off by a factor of ten.
Don’t be surprised if it takes 5,000 to 10,000 IU a day to reach healthy serum ranges.