Today i am writing about a vitamin that is widely misunderstood, so i will try to keep it simple, and not overcomplicate it, even if i am known to go that way sometimes. 

Just look at this wonderful formula. But, we do not want you overexcited yet, so i start with the facts. Vitamin D can be synthetized by the human body, if you are exposed to sunlight, anyway, if you are not getting enough sun exposure, than it will be assimilated through diet. There are a lot of factors to consider, like living at the extreme northern and southern latitudes (a very long night), cultural factors (women clothes covering face and most of the body) and some, all these situations can and will lead to vitamin D deficiency. On top of this, there are not many foods with vitamin D present, so if you think you do not get enough sun exposure, you may need supplements (risk groups - young children and home-bound elderly). Just to pull this out of my hat, if you are getting some vitamin D supplement for 60 days in the November-February interval, you should be alright. 

Vitamin D in its active form is also a powerful hormone, and excessive intakes of vitamin D are associated with high Calcium levels in the blood stream and Calcium deposits in the connective tissue and blood vessels. (A little side note, until 18.00 today - 25.11.2020 - you can still participate in our Calcium NFT giveaway here ).

Food sources: Fish liver oils are quite rich in vitamin D, salt water fish also. You can find small amounts in eggs, meat, milk and butter. The fruits and nuts however contains no vitamin D at all. Some countries will fortify milk and cereals with vitamin D, and the infant formula is also fortified. Vitamin D supplementation depends on the duration and intensity of the UV exposure, with other indirect factors like skin tone and colour, age, skin health and how much centimeters squared are exposed. 

Synthesis and absorption of vitamin D - there are a number of compounds in the vitamin D family, all having vitamin activity, and we will look now at the vitamin D3 ( cholecalciferol), found in animal sources, and vitamin D2 (derived from the provitamin ergosterol) which is plant based. 

Under ideal conditions, the vitamin D is all produced in the body, via sun exposure. The cholesterol become 7-dehydrocholesterol, which under UV exposure transforms into provitamin D, the later becoming vitamin D3 boosted by heat. If you get your vitamin D from animal sources, then the D3 form is linked to fatty acids, broken down in the upper part of the small intestine under the action of the pancreatic lipase. They are fat soluble, using a similar pathway with vitamin A, transported by the blood stream attached to chylomicrons to the liver. Here, are converted back into D3 and D2, by the liver first and by the kidney second, using hydroxylation. After this, they are water soluble and can be transported by blood, binded to a specific vitamin D binding protein. The hydroxylation in the liver create calcidiol. The hydroxylation in the kidney create calcitriol. There are many other factors influencing this pathway, like parathyroid hormone, calcium, estrogen, glucocorticoids, calcitonin and the list can go on. 

We stop here now, the next post will be about vitamin D functions. 

Yours truly, 

George

P.S. If you are Romanian, you can also publish your post link in the Publish0x Romanian Community Facebook group for others to read it. 

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Disclaimer: This text also can be re-published on my personal blogs, such as this one.

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