Findings from a review on vitamin D showed the various health benefits provided by vitamin D and the consequences of vitamin D deficiency. Without vitamin D, the small intestine would only be able to absorb 10 percent to 15 percent of our dietary calcium intake, which could lead to osteoporosis. Other health consequences of vitamin D deficiency include:
Exposure to sunlight supplies us the majority of our vitamin D our bodies require. Darkly pigmented skinned people are the exception because they require 10 to 15 times exposure to the sun to get the same effect as lighter skinned people.
For those people who don’t get adequate amounts of sunlight, experts recommend a minimum of 1,000 IU vitamin D to maintain healthy levels in their blood. A high number of vitamin D deficiency cases have been found in infants who are solely breastfed from adults who have darker skin or lower exposure to the sun. Vitamin D has also often been misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia.
Many studies have shown how effective sunlight is with producing vitamin D in the skin. Since few foods contain vitamin D, sunlight provides us with most of the vitamin D we need.
Vitamin D deficiency has been becoming a growing epidemic across the world and is contributing to many chronic debilitating diseases.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition March, 2004;79(3):362-371
This is probably one of the best summaries on vitamin D published to date as it chock full of exciting tidbits on vitamin D. Dr. Michael Holick is the author and he is one of the top experts on vitamin D in the world. You can read a review of his excellent new book "The UV Advantage" in next week's newsletter. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN), in which this review was published, is one of the leading nutritional journals in the world.
During exposure to sunlight, a form of cholesterol is actually activated through the sunlight to form vitamin D3. Interestingly, lifeguards and sun worshippers have never been reported to suffer from vitamin D intoxication due to excessive exposure to the sun. It would appear that there is a feedback mechanism that limits too much vitamin D from being produced due to excessive sun exposure. However, this is not true from taking oral vitamin D supplements, which is why testing of vitamin D levels is highly advised if you are taking oral vitamin D supplements.
Interestingly, people with very darkly pigmented skin require 10 to 50 times the exposure to sunlight to produce the same amount of vitamin D3 in their skin as does a white person. This is important as very few foods naturally contain vitamin D. Good sources of vitamin D are:
So why do we need vitamin D? For a variety of reasons. Without vitamin D, the small intestine absorbs no more than 10 percent to 15 percent of dietary calcium. This can lead to secondary hyperparathyroidism that can cause osteoporosis. However there are major additional consequences of vitamin D deficiency such as those mentioned in the review.
One of the most intriguing, important and unappreciated biologic functions of vitamin D is its ability to down-regulate hyperproliferative cell growth. Normal and cancer cells that have a vitamin D receptor often respond to vitamin D by decreasing their proliferation and enhancing their maturation.
Although breastfeeding has become very popular it has actually increased vitamin D deficiency as there is very little vitamin D in breast milk. Kids were designed to get it from the sun, not from the breast, and that really is the ideal source to get it from and the one that we should all really strive for. However, for those of us unable to get sun exposure the cod liver oil certainly makes a lot of good sense.
Related Articles:
Breakthrough Updates You Need to Know on Vitamin D Vitamin D for Cancer Odds are You Need Additional Vitamin D, and Cod Liver Oil is Not Sufficient Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency RDA for Vitamin D Too Low for Those with Little Sunlight Exposure Vitamin D May Prevent Skin Cancer
Breakthrough Updates You Need to Know on Vitamin D
Vitamin D for Cancer
Odds are You Need Additional Vitamin D, and Cod Liver Oil is Not Sufficient
Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency
RDA for Vitamin D Too Low for Those with Little Sunlight Exposure
Vitamin D May Prevent Skin Cancer