Vitamin D is an important and unique vitamin required to maintain healthy bones. The reason this vitamin is so unique is because your body can actually produce vitamin D. In fact, individuals can get the required amount of vitamin D just from exposure to the sun alone. You see, to make vitamin D your body requires exposure to UV, or Ultra Violet rays. Actually, 10 to 15 minutes at least twice a week of exposure to the sun should provide an adequate amount of vitamin D. However, this can be affected by winter months with cloud cover, or smog interfering with the amount of UV rays available to synthesis vitamin D.
Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin. This means that it is stored in the fat cells and does not need to be replenished every day like water soluble vitamins. Vitamin D must be converted into its active form where it than acts like a hormone. Vitamin D is important to the development of healthy bones because its job is to regulate the amount of calcium and phosphorous absorbed by the blood.
Vitamin D can also be found in foods. Without Vitamin D children can develop rickets and adults can develop osteomalacia. Both ailments result in thin brittle bones. In fact, in the 1930’s rickets became such a problem as a result of insufficient vitamin D that the United States decided to fortify milk with vitamin D.
Vitamin D supplementation may be need if an individual does not eat a healthy diet, exposure to sunlight is limited, the kidney cannot convert vitamin D to its active form, or when your digestive tract has trouble absorbing vitamin D. In addition, prolonged exclusive breastfeeding can lead to a deficiency of vitamin D. Therefore exclusively breastfeeding infants should have vitamin D supplements.
Sun screen above 8SPF can also prevent vitamin D synthesis. Still, after the first 10 to 15 minutes of sun exposure, sun screen of 15SPF should be worn to protect the skin from sun damage. The first 10 to 15 minutes will allow adequate time to synthesize enough vitamin D.
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