The Ultimate Guide: Vitamin D  

Dr. Morgan Crowley, BS, DC, BCAO is one of three hundred people in the world trained in the atlas orthogonal upper cervical technique.  She also spends a great deal of time researching other areas of health and fitness.  Her bachelor’s degree from the University of Buffalo is in Exercise Science which was the result of a passion for all things fitness. related. Dr. Morgan shared the following article with Healthy Lombard.

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a steroid hormone that comes from cholesterol.  Since I was a young child I have heard that you must go outside to get your daily dose of vitamin D.  So does it come from the sun or does it come from cholesterol?

The answer is both-

Vitamin D is not naturally occurring in many foods, so our bodies came up with an ingenious plan to harness the sun for our own benefit.

Once our skin is exposed to ultraviolet B light we begin to synthesize the vitamin D that we can use.  If you are a sun worshipper and feel recharged by the sun, this may be why.

Key point- the biologically inactive version that starts the process only has a half-life of 12-16 hours.  That means that our liver must make great use of what we provide before it’s gone.  

So as you guessed, the next step in the pathway is the liver where it is converted to 25-hydroxy vitamin D, 25(OH)D.  This is the form that’s most often measured in blood work.  This form of vitamin D can survive much longer and has a half-life of three weeks.

The next stop is the kidney where it is converted into its biologically active form of 1,25 dihydroxy vitamin D also known as calcitriol.

Calcitriol is the form of vitamin D that can enter target cells and bind to vitamin D receptors.

Main Function of Vitamin D

The main function of vitamin D is to maintain the balance between calcium and phosphate levels in the blood.  These levels are responsible for bone health and connected to over 900 genes involved in many processes throughout the body.

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Main photo from Unsplash