Vitamin D - the Sunshine Vitamin
- Parent Category: Life and Style
- Category: Food & Drink
- Hits: 382
Tips about Vitamin D otherwise referred to as sunshine vitamin.
This is a fat-soluble vitamin which is sometimes
referred to as Cholecalciferol or sunshine vitamin which is helpful to the body through the action of sunlight on the skin or through the diet for example butter, egg yolks and cod liver oil.
Vitamin D is important to the body as it helps in the absorption and use of Calcium and Phosphorous thus maintaining strong teeth and bones.
Through ultraviolet rays from the sun on the skin, the rays are able to activate some form of cholesterol on the skin thus converting it into vitamin D. The amount of vitamin D that is made from these rays depends on the time of the year because some seasons do not have sunlight at all or sunlight moments are very minimal. Other factors that determine the amount of Vitamin D one can make through exposure to the sun include; latitude and longitude where one lives and the skin color (non-white skin require more exposure to the sun to make enough vitamin D as compared to white skins which require less time of exposure) .
Therefore ninety percent of vitamin D that finds use in human beings is produced naturally through exposure to the sun. This is limited to the exposure of the skin to specific rays called ultraviolet B leading to formation of a previtamin called vitamin D 3. The vitamin is also referred to as a prohormone because it does not contain any hormonal activity in itself but once in the body, it is converted into a hormone. The ability of the skin to convert this previtamin into an active hormone decreases with age, therefore the older one gets, the less ability he/she has in the conversion of the previtamin into an active hormone in the body. But it should be noted carefully that overexposure to the sun is associated with some risks thus time of exposure should be controlled.
