Vitamin D

A very important vitamin or hormone that is involved in a number of bodily functions, Vitamin D is quite important for optimizing your health and performance.

Vitamin D is essential for bone health as the body needs appropriate levels to properly absorb calcium. It’s also very helpful for the immune system, having been shown to trigger the body's immune cells to produce antibodies when needed. Additionally, Vitamin D has been shown to protect against hypertension, cancer, some autoimmune conditions, and other physiological diseases. There's also evidence that Vitamin D is helpful for maintaining a healthy mood, thereby implicating its role in mental health as well.

We mostly get our Vitamin D from the sun, or rather, from a chemical reaction that occurs when our skin is exposed to sunlight. Other sources of Vitamin D includes some fish which store Vitamin D in their fat and liver and mushrooms which also do a great job of absorbing sunlight and creating Vitamin D.

Despite getting sufficient sunshine or consuming dairy or fish, many people need to rely on supplementing to get sufficient Vitamin D. If you need to supplement, look for a Vitamin D3 supplement with some kind of fat in the ingredients (e.g. MCT oil or triglycerides.) to help absorption as Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. And for vegans, be aware that many D3 supplements are derived from sheep's wool, so you'll want to look for a supplement that is vegan.

If you want to talk more about Vitamin D or about Vitamin D supplementation, please feel free to send me an email or message via my Contact page and I'll be in touch.

References

1. Vitamin D. Linus Pauling Institute. Oregon State University. https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/vitamins/vitamin-D

2. Berardi RR, Newton G, McDermott JH, et al, eds. Handbook of Nonprescription Drugs. 16th ed. Washington, DC: American Pharmacists Association.

3. Vitamin D. Medline Plus Web site. www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-vitamind.html.

4. Barclay L. Management of vitamin d deficiency reviewed. Medscape Web site. www.medscape.com/viewarticle/712007.

5. The importance of vitamin D. Nature Made Web site. www.naturemade.com/ImmuneHealth/product_vitamin_d.html.