 Vitamin D: a Vitamin or a Hormone?
 I am guessing that you have heard some talk of Vitamin D over the past few months. It has become quite a hot health topic. Vitamin D deficiency is an epidemic in the United States. There is no drug to cure it so you are not likely to hear much about it from the medical community. We are, however, hearing a lot about bone loss and cancer (especially breast and colon), two diseases that can be caused in part by lack of vitamin D. Vitamin D stimulates the absorption of calcium. Because it can be produced in our bodies by the action of sunlight on 7-dehydrocholesterol (a compound the body can manufacture from cholesterol) in the skin, many experts consider it more of a hormone than a vitamin. When vitamin D changes the 7-dehydrocholesterol into vitamin D3 in the skin it is then transported to the liver and converted by an enzyme into 25-hydroxycholecalciferol. So, disorders of the liver or kidneys results in impaired conversion. It is also thought that lower levels of certain minerals such as magnesium and boron will impair conversion. Ideally, the best place to get Vitamin D is from your skin being exposed to the UV-B that is in normal sunlight. So it is important to get regular sun exposure. A tan is actually desirable for optimal health but Don’t Ever Get Sun Burned. If you avoid getting sunburned and actually have regular sun exposure you will have a decreased risk of the dangerous skin cancer, melanoma. At our office in Palo Alto we regularly test for Vitamin D deficiency as we see many women with thinning bones. There are few labs that check Vitamin D levels or know how to do it properly. Most people in the US need to supplement with Vitamin D as that is the only practical option for most of us. Higher levels are usually needed to start to build back up to normal levels and then you may be able to maintain with a high quality cod liver oil. You will want to take one teaspoon for every 50 pounds of body weight. Cod liver oil also has high levels of vitamin A, EPA and DHA so is an amazing food. Email: info@juvenescence.net for the rest of the article.
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