• Vitamin D is needed to add calcium and other minerals to bone.


• Vitamin D helps the body absorb other necessary minerals by increasing their absorption from the digestive tract.


• This vitamin is necessary in normal growth and development of children, for nerve system function, muscle tone, and normal calcification of bones and teeth.


• For adults, vitamin D helps maintain normal balances of calcium and phosphorus in the blood stream, important for proper function of bone, muscles, and nerves.


• Vitamin D is used in the formation of hormones by the thyroid gland.




Best Vitamin D Sources



• Vitamin D in fact comes from two good sources - one source is the foods we eat, the other source is our own body. We humans can manufacture Vitamin D.


• Some foods high in vitamin D are very common. Vitamin D food sources include eggs, as well as dairy products such as fortified milk, fortified margarine, etc, fortified orange juice, liver and fish.


• Vitamin D manufactured in our own body is accomplished by changing natural good cholesterol normally present in our bodies into vitamin D. All that is required is to expose small areas of our skin to sunlight, in order for the skin to absorb ultraviolet rays from the sunshine.


• Once manufactured, vitamin D is safely stored in our bodies for months and used when needed.


• As little as 10 minutes a day of sunlight exposure on our arms and face is enough to provide our daily requirements.


• Most of us make about 20,000 units of vitamin D after about 20 minutes of summer sun. This is about 100 times more vitamin D than the government says you need every day.


• Summertime exposures of longer duration and more exposed skin surface helps us build a storehouse of vitamin D that can help us get through the winter months.




Symptoms of Vitamin D Deficiency



• Vitamin D deficiency symptoms are essentially the same as the symptoms of calcium deficiency. Vitamin D factors working with calcium, phosphorus, vitamin C, and other factors help our bones to deposit minerals (to 'calcify') as they should.


• The long bones with the greatest weight-bearing load demands - the legs - can become weak enough to bend under the stresses of normal body weight. This process is called rickets in children, and osteomalacia in adults.


• Deformities from deficiency of vitamin D in fact can cause pain related to the soft-bone deformities of weight-bearing bones of the limbs, spine, thorax and pelvis.


• Vitamin D deficiency can damage the nerve and muscular systems, causing muscle spasms, due to the interconnected working relationships of vitamin D and calcium.


• Because we require sunlight on our skin to synthesize or manufacture Vitamin D, a lack of sunlight exposure combined with a poor diet can lead to a deficiency of vitamin D.


• In addition, certain drugs such as laxatives or lipid lowering drugs may also cause a deficiency in vitamin D, and if taking these drugs, it may be advisable to use a vitamin D dietary supplement.


• Once foods were fortified with vitamin D, deficiencies low enough to cause rickets essentially were taken care of. Many health care professionals came to believe that rickets and osteomalacia resulting from vitamin D deficiency had been resolved.


• The 'Standard American Diet' is so low in most essential nutrients - including low levels of vitamin D - that most people hover just above the level where these diseases no longer are demonstrated, and far below what could be considered as really good health.


• More and more doctors today now argue that, in fact,
  vitamin d deficiency remains common in children and adults at a 'sub-clinical' level.




Symptoms of Vitamin D Toxicity



• Excess vitamin D can cause higher-than-normal concentrations of calcium in the blood. Symptoms of vitamin D toxicity may include loss of appetite, headache, weakness, fatigue, excessive thirst, irritability and apathy.




Vitamin D Side Effects



• Side effects of vitamin D are rare, because it is difficult to overdose on vitamin D. Our bodies, using sunlight as the normal, natural process to manufacture vitamin D, can produce a vast amount of vitamin D and will not cause an overdose of vitamin D.


• Excess vitamin D dietary supplementation can be used to overdose vitamin D, but the quantities required are very high - at least one report indicates amounts over 40,000 IU/day is required to overdose.


• However, other reports show that rickets, the vitamin D deficiency, can be treated with one dose of 600,000 IU in one day. No one is really sure what amount is needed to overdose vitamin D.

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