Vitamin D
From your brain to your heart, your bones to your immune system, vitamin D affects nearly every cell in your body and is critical for optimal health.
That’s why some consider the “sunshine vitamin” to be the most important vitamin in the body.
What is Vitamin D?
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble prohormone that affects the expressions of more than 200 genes in your body. It's produced from sun exposure and consumed in food or through direct oral intake.
Moreover, the vitamin D nutrient is also considered a hormone. This is because vitamin D3 can be synthesized naturally in our bodies in response to sunlight and act as a signaling molecule, and nearly every cell in our body has receptors for it.
Vitamin D Benefits
- Vitamin D is one of the most important nutrients for optimal health
- This vitamin is especially known for immune and bone health support
- Enzymes that activate vitamin D require the mineral magnesium to work properly
- Vitamin D helps maintain youthful, healthy cognitive function
- The vitamin helps maintain blood pressure already within the normal range
- It also supports a healthy inflammatory response
Most notably, vitamin D enhances crucial calcium delivery by increasing the absorption of calcium through the intestinal walls. In fact, in the absence of vitamin D3, we only absorb 10-15% of calcium from the food we eat, but when vitamin D3 is present, the calcium absorption is increased to 30-40%.
And by working in partnership, magnesium and vitamin D support musculoskeletal and heart health and promote proper metabolic function.
Vitamin D Deficiency
Vitamin D and magnesium are both vital for overall health. Taking one without the other fails to take advantage of their full benefits.
Vitamin D deficiency is known to be associated with a higher risk of death. In a large observational study, low magnesium levels made that risk even greater.
Furthermore, studies have linked low vitamin D status with an increased incidence of allergic diseases, and supplemental vitamin D can help improve atopic dermatitis symptoms.