Vitamin D: Everything You Need to Know to Live Healthy

When it comes to vitamin D, you need to know a lot about it. This nutrient is a fat-soluble vitamin that can affect about 2,000 genes in your body. It is also known as “sunshine vitamin” as it’s produced in your skin in response to sunlight.

This vitamin has several important functions in your body. One of the most important role it plays is in the absorption of calcium and phosphorous, keeping your bones and teeth healthy, letting your immune system function well, and helping in resistance against some diseases like osteoporosis (fragile bones).

What Roles vitamin D plays

The main functions of vitamin D are as following:

• Maintains skeletal and dental health 
• Keeps your nervous system functional
• Helps immune system work properly 
• Improves mental and brain health 
• Maintains good metabolic health
• May prevent cancer, heart disease, and other diseases

Results of  Vitamin D deficiency

Vitamin D deficiency is a very common health problem in developed countries including the USA. Many people think that their everyday foods contain enough vitamin D to avoid deficiency. But they are really wrong and actually suffer from deficiency as foods contain very little amount of this nutrient.

How your will know if you’re vitamin D deficient? You can be sure via blood testing but there obviously a number of signs and symptoms to figure out if you are likely to deficient. Sign and symptom include:

 

•     Depression 
•     Overweight
•     Bone ache
•     Head sweating
•     Gut trouble

If you suffer from any of them, you should test your blood to know if you have vitamin D deficiency.

Following are the possible health conditions related to vitamin D deficiency:

• Osteoporosis (bone fracture)
• Autoimmune diseases
• Cardiovascular disease
• Respiratory infections and flu
• Multiple sclerosis
• Schizophrenia
• Dementia
• Fibromyalgia
• Type 2 diabetes
• Colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers

How much vitamin D you need

You blood test result disclose if you are vitamin D sufficient or deficient. And if yours is under 12 ng/mL you are deficient whereas above 20 ng/mL is considered as sufficient.

Following are the recommended amount of vitamin D intake (detailed):

• Infants (1-12 months) need 400 IU
• Children and adults (1-70) require 600 IU
• Elderly and pregnant or lactating women need 800 IU

Results of excess vitamin D intake

You may hesitate to take vitamin D thinking that it may cause toxicity. The reality is that in rare cases you may experience some problems related to this vitamin’s toxicity if you take very high dose for long time (more).

So do not think of its side effects or overdose related health problems. Just ensure that you take the sufficient amount of it.

Sources of vitamin D

Although your foods may contain some vitamin D, the best source of vitamin D is sunshine.  

Sunshine

When your skin gets exposure to UV radiation from the sun, vitamin D is formed in the skin. And sunlight is the best source of vitamin D.

But the question is – how long should you get exposure to sunshine to get the required amount of the vitamin?

This is actually a tricky question. The amount of sunshine exposure needed for adequate amount of the vitamin varies from person to person, time to time, and location to location. For example, people with darker skin need longer exposure to sun to get the same amount of vitamin D compared to white people and in winter you need to get exposure to sunshine for longer compared to in summer.

The easier answer is in winter you need to sunbathe for 30-45 minutes while in summer 10-15 minutes of sun exposure is enough. The larger part of your skin gets exposure to sunlight, the quicker you get the vitamin. And it is better to get exposure to sun in the morning while you walk.

Food sources

Very few foods contain good amount of vitamin D.

Food sources of vitamin D include:

•     Cod liver oil: 500 IU (12 mcg) in 1 teaspoon (5 g)
•     Salmon: 447 IU (11 mcg) in 85 g
•     Tuna, canned in water: 154 IU (4 mcg) in 85 g
•     Beef liver: 42 IU (1 mcg)
•     Whole egg: 41 IU (1 mcg)
•     Mushroom: 375 IU per mushroom (84 g)

And there are some good vitamin D supplements available on market. Most of the good companies supply 1 year packages with very low price. So, if you want to take supplements, you can buy it from amazon.

Conclusion

In short words, I would like to say that vitamin D is a most important nutrient that everyone need. And sunbathing is enough for most us to get the everyday required amount of the vitamin.

But if you are not able to get exposure to sunshine for adequate vitamin D, you should be a bit smart to choose your foods. And if you are deficient of vitamin D, you can take supplements.


I would like to hear feedback from you in the comment. And if you have any queries let me know.