Channel: Natural Ways

Category: Howto & Style

Tags: nutritionbones painvitamin dvitamin d3mood offcalciferoljoint painsunshine benefitssunshine vitamin

Description: With the possible exception of C, there’s perhaps no vitamin more frequently discussed than the sunshine one — aka vitamin-D. It’s no wonder: Vitamin-D is a workhorse nutrient. According to the National Institutes of Health , among its functions are strengthening bones, absorbing calcium, and bolstering-immunity. There’s an expectation that vitamin-D is a miracle drug, and that if we all just take mega-doses of it, it will solve all problems. Watch on to explore the facts, and some common myths, about vitamin-D. Myth: The More Vitamin D You Get, the Better Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, and so it goes with vitamin-D. “While it is rare to get too much vitamin-D, it’s not that it can’t happen, and this situation — a vitamin-D toxicity — has serious health-consequences. The most common way this happens is by taking too high a dosage of vitamin-D supplements. Vitamin-D increases calcium absorption, and therefore toxicity is marked by a buildup of calcium in the body. When choosing a supplement, check the IU on the bottle. Ideally, consult your doctor for a blood-test to identify whether you need a supplement in the first place. Fact: Getting Out in the Sun Helps Your Body Produce Vitamin-D It’s called the “sunshine vitamin” for a reason. When the sun’s ultraviolet B light hits you, it turns a chemical in your skin into vitamin-D3, according to Harvard Health Publishing. Vitamin-D3 is transferred from your liver to your kidneys, where it becomes an active form of vitamin-D that’s usable in your body. Most people get some of their vitamin-D through sun exposure, according to the NIH, but factors like the season, time of day, cloud cover, skin pigment, and sunscreen affect how much vitamin-D a person can synthesize via the sun. For example, the NIH notes that people with darker skin aren’t able to produce as much vitamin-D through sunlight. Myth: It’s Easy to Get Enough Vitamin D Through Food Alone. Getting your vitamin-D fix solely through food isn’t impossible, but it can be tricky because few foods contain ample D. Excellent food sources of vitamin-D include fish, such as 3 ounces of salmon, or ½ cup of white mushrooms exposed to UV light, according to the NIH. But among the most common vitamin-D foods eaten in the United States are eggs, cheddar cheese, fortified foods such as milk and cereal, and portobello-mushrooms. These foods cover only a fraction of the daily value for vitamin-D. Fact: Having Low Vitamin D Is Linked to a Bad Mood If you’re feeling low, you may want to get your vitamin-D levels checked. According to a study using rat brain cells published in July 2018 in Genes and Nutrition, vitamin-D seems to play a role in the production of serotonin. Serotonin is a hormone that helps regulate mood and sleep per Stanford University. There are correlations between low vitamin-D levels and mood disorders. What’s more, a study published in September 2017 in the Journal of Diabetes Research found that a vitamin-D supplement improved the mood of women with type-2 diabetes.