The Amazing Health Benefits of Vitamin D - CBN News
The darker the skin the greater the
September 23, 2011
An informative news story by Gailon Totheroh
of CBN News on the amazing health benefits of
Vitamin D. Would you believe this vital
nutrient derived from the sun’s rays has been
shown to stave off some
of the most debilitating and deadly diseases; cancer, diabetes, heart
disease, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases. Please watch to learn more
and share this video with loved ones
Now go out and enjoy the sun!
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What is Vitamin D
Vitamin D is an inert, fat-soluble prohormone. Its primary function is
to allow the body to absorb calcium.
Calcium itself is not commonly in a usable from and without vitamin D,
the calcium we consume would not be added into bones.
Vitamin D helps calcium in almost every stage from the absorption of
calcium out of the foods and supplements we take to the
proper flowing through the bloodstream to the bones that need it.
Vitamin D though is unusable by the body in its normal inert form.
The liver converts the inert form into calcidiol and then the kidneys
will convert it a second time into calcitriol.
Calcitriol is the form that the body uses with calcium.
It’s for this reason that it is important to monitor levels of intake to
prevent vitamin D deficiency.
Vitamin D also plays a role in cell differentiation.
When cells divide, it is called cell proliferation; when cells develop into
different types with different functions, it’s called cell differentiation.
When cells differentiate, proliferation slows down—in other words,
specialized cells don’t grow in number too quickly.
Vitamin D actually stimulates differentiation and
inhibits proliferation. Although proliferation is vital to wound healing, it
can get out of control. Uncontrolled cell growth is the hallmark of cancer.
Vitamin D has been shown to affect a gene that plays a role in the
suppression of colon cancer. It does so by preventing the proliferation of
colon cancer cells. Not bad for a simple nutrient.
Our immune system is also regulated by vitamin D.
The cells of the immune system, most notably the T-cells, carry the VDR.
Vitamin D acts as an autoimmune suppressor—that is, it
attacks itself, like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or inflammatory bowel disease.
A 2007 study showed vitamin D to significantly enhance the
Sunlight:
The sun is the first and primary source of
vitamin D in our bodies.
The deepest layers of the epidermis of the
skin produce a compound called
7-dehydrocholesterol, or pre-vitamin D.
Pre-vitamin D is then acted upon photochemically by UV radiation,
or sunlight, producing vitamin D. The whole process is dependent on the
concentration of melanin, which is a pigmentation compound in the skin
meant to filter UV light.
The darker the skin the greater theconcentration of melanin, and higher melanin
levels mean that it takes the body longer to
produce vitamin D simply because less sunlight
gets through to make the chemical conversion of
pre-D into vitamin D.
This has implications for darker people, as it has been found that, in general,
African Americans have lower circulating blood D levels than the general
population. This leads African Americans at a higher risk for vitamin
D insufficiency and the health hazards that come along with it.
African Americans, however, are not the only at-risk group.
People in northern climates are at a greater risk too, simply because
the amount of sunlight they receive annually is limited.
For these people, the best source of vitamin D is from food.
Natural sources of vitamin D are fish liver oils (e.g. cod liver oil),
fatty fish (herring, mackerel, catfish, salmon, sardines, eel, and tuna),
whole eggs, beef liver and UV-irradiated mushrooms.
Those at Risk for Vitamin D
Insufficiency
Some of the common risk factors for vitamin D
insufficiency have already
been touched on—dark skin, poor nutrition,
living in regions of low sunlight at various times of the year
can all have a negative impact on vitamin D levels.
Some other risk factors include:
- Using too much sunscreen—you might be thinking,
- “No such thing as too much sunscreen.” But since sun exposure is
- necessary for self production of vitamin D, then it should be
- understandable that waiting 15 minutes or so before applying the
- sunscreen while outdoors is a good practice. Further, women who
- cover themselves due to religious reasons have been shown to be
- at greater risk for osteomalacia.
- Excessively breast fed infants—babies fed breast milk only
- will need supplementation with vitamin D as breast milk only
- contains 25 IU per liter. 400 IU supplementation will be necessary here.
- Elderly—as we age we have a reduced capacity to synthesize vitamin
- D in the skin. The elderly will also be more likely to use sunscreen
- iberally or simply stay indoors, so they must supplement with vitamin D.
- Inflammatory bowel disease—people with inflammatory
- bowel disease or Crohn’s disease are at an increased risk of vitamin D
- deficiency due to poor absorption especially if their small intestine
- is affected.
- Obesity—vitamin D being a fat soluble vitamin actually stores
- itself in the adipose tissue. People with large stores of fat have a
- harder time utilizing the vitamin D produced in the skin by the
- sun reaction as it settles and stores in the fat tissue. Obese people
- are therefore at a greater risk of vitamin D insufficiency and
- frank deficiency.
Toxicity
There is one more piece of information that everyone needs to know.
Because vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin, there is a risk for toxicity,
also known as hypervitaminosis D. Too much vitamin D is not a good
thing—it can cause high blood pressure, digestive problems (anorexia,
nausea, and vomiting), polyuria (excessive production of urine), polydipsia
(increased thirst), weakness, nervousness, pruritus (itch), and eventually
renal failure. It can also cause heart disease.
Toxicity is hard to develop. At one time, the upper limit to daily vitamin
D levels was set at 2,000 IU, but it is now known that that limit is far too
restricting and baseless. It is now believed that people can take up to
10,000 IU without toxicity.
1,000-5,000 IU per day is plenty (depends–best practice is to
get your levels checked and consult with a professional). However, let it
be known that toxicity and overdose is usually the result of manufacturing
and industrial accidents and not from supplementing. Furthermore,
extended sun exposure is very unlikely to cause symptoms of toxicity.
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