Disclaimer:
Information of the supplement below is not intended to cure any diseases or illnesses. Although supplement has positive impact towards health and performance it is not for everyone and it is advised to consult with professionals before utilizing. It is also important to know that supplement is not designed to replace daily habits. You will still need to eat whole food, sleep 7-8 hours, drink water, and daily exercises. While you are consider start utilizing supplement, it is also important to improve your overall lifestyle.
Water-soluble and fat-soluble
Vitamin D is also known as sunshine vitamin because primary way of receiving vitamin D is exposing our skin to UV sunlight. However, vitamin D deficiency in the U.S. is at 42% as of 2018. This number undoubtedly have increased due to recent COVID-19 because of stay home order.
Vitamin D is commonly known for building strong bone by help absorbing calcium. Vitamin D also plays very important role in creation of hormones.
Before going to vitamin D, let’s talk about basics of vitamins. There are two types of vitamins. Water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins. Water-soluble vitamins are vitamin C and B complex and doesn’t stay in your body for long term. Therefore, majority of times body excretes excess intake of water-soluble vitamins. Fat-soluble vitamins are the vitamin A, D, E, K and can store in your fat and liver.
How Vitamin D work
Vitamin D can be obtained by exposure to UV sunlight, consuming food sources such as fish, liver, pastured eggs, UV exposed mushrooms and supplementation.
When body is exposed to the UV sunlight, the skin absorbs the light and covert cholesterol under our skin to vitamin D3 as entering the bloodstream. Then the vitamin D3 is sent to liver where vitamin D3 is converted to hormone then sent to kidneys.
Vitamin D Deficiency
How we absorb UV sunlight is different depending on our skin color. Darker the skin color the harder it is to absorb UV sunlight so vitamin D deficiency may be higher when they live in place where there is less sunlight. Therefore, those who have darker skin color, living in an area that has less sunlight or have tendency to stay indoor will likely to have vitamin D deficiency.
Vitamin deficiency can cause osteopenia or osteoporosis due to inability to retain calcium. As mentioned earlier vitamin D is converted to hormone that is responsible for more than 5% of our DNA which includes immune system, brain functions, cardiovascular system, and sex hormones.
For example, Somalis living in Sweden are severely deficient in vitamin D and autistic population are increasing. Another statistic has found that African American population living in the U.S. has 20x less vitamin D than Caucasians and during recent COVID-19 African American had higher impact compared with Caucasians. We also know that elderly and obese populations can have very low amount of vitamin D because less exposure to UV sunlight as well as inability to convert UV sunlight to hormone.
How to Get More Vitamin D
Most effective way to get vitamin D is from exposure to UV sunlight. However, this may not be so easy depending on daily activity, skin color, weather and so on. We can also get vitamin D from food sources such as fish, pastured eggs, liver, and UV exposed mushroom. Depending on type of diet you are following, this option may be difficult. Easiest way to get adequate amount of vitamin D is through supplementing.
Although 5000 IU is typically recommendation for supplementing, it will be wiser to get advisory from your physician and get tested on your current vitamin D level. Remember, based on your skin color and diet required vitamin D level can vary from person to person. 5000 IU seem to be tolerable upper limit, however based on your current vitamin D level, you may need more. Before taking vitamin D supplement, please consult with your physician for better results.
Kota Shimada
Reference
Forrest KY, Stuhldreher WL. Prevalence and correlates of vitamin D deficiency in US adults. Nutr Res. 2011 Jan;31(1):48-54. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2010.12.001. PMID: 21310306.
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