✨Vitamin D✨

🌞Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin.
🌞Food sources include oily fish, mushrooms and fortified products, but our body can also make it!!
🌞A precursor (made from cholesterol) is converted to vitamin D in our skin by UVB rays.
🌞This means that deficiency can be common in people that live 40 degrees north or south of the equator (this includes the UK).
🌞People with dark skin, and people that wear clothes that cover the majority of their body, are particularly vulnerable to deficiency as melanin absorbs UVB rays and clothing blocks UVB rays completely.

🦴Vitamin D aids the absorption of calcium and phosphorous, so is important in bone growth and maintenance. Deficiency can cause rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.
🧠Vitamin D has also been shown to help prevent cognitive decline and can help to prevent the onset of Parkinson Disease.
🦠Vitamin D contributes to the normal function of the immune system and has been suggested to protect against metabolic syndrome and some cancers.
💊The NHS recommends that 10 micrograms per day should be sufficient for most adults.
🤍Too much vitamin D can cause hypercalcaemia (a build up of calcium in the body). This can weaken bones and damage organs.
🤓I recommend checking https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/ for more information on supplementation.

References:
Nair R, Maseeh A. Vitamin D: The "sunshine" vitamin. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 2012;3(2):118‐126. doi:10.4103/0976-500X.95506

Whitney and Rolfes. Understanding Nutrition, 14th Ed.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d