Maintaining healthy bones isn’t just about avoiding sidewalk falls and rogue karate kicks. It’s about strengthening the substances and processes that make up your skeletal structure. Resistance training is important. So is diet. One of the key components: Vitamin D, which is necessary for building and maintaining healthy bones and also regulates many other cellular functions. In fact, Vitamin D is one of the most influential vitamins in your body, as it has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective properties that impact immune health, muscle function and brain cell activity.
Vitamin D isn’t naturally found in many foods, but you can get it from fortified foods and fatty fish such as salmon and sardines. That’s why food usually isn’t sufficient to maintain D levels. Vitamin D is made when direct sunlight converts a chemical in your skin to an active form of the vitamin (calciferol). Sunscreen that protects against skin cancer can decrease vitamin D production. Bottom line: Vitamin D is essential for bone health, overall health, and longevity.
Key Takeaways From the Research Data:
- It’s a versatile vitamin.Vitamin D3 functions as a prohormone, signaling changes to cells through interactions with receptors on cell surfaces. Most of the human body’s cells (including cardiovascular, lung, bone, intestine, kidney, and parathyroid) have vitamin D receptors, reflecting the importance of the hormone to systemic health. High Vitamin D is necessary for calcium absorption, the health of bones and cells as well as metabolic and immune system functions.
- Sunlight is key.
- Many of us lack sufficient amounts of Vitamin D.Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency is widespread. Conservative estimates – US population that is either deficient or insufficient at about 35%. Many researchers make high estimates of deficiency – over 90% in darker skinned individuals and over 65% of light skinned individuals.
- More D means more life.Higher vitamin D levels, especially to50 ng/dLare associated with reduced all-cause mortality rates.