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Vitamin D is commonly discussed together with calcium as a nutrient that can help your bones and teeth stay strong and for older people or those with osteoporosis, less likely to fracture. A recent study even shows that vitamin D may be helpful in preventing breast cancer, though research in this area is new and not widely proven yet.
Particularly as people live longer and are more likely to experience weakened bones and the problems they can cause, it is important to make sure that you get enough vitamin D. However, you do need to be careful with vitamin D supplements and look at how much you are getting in your diet as well. Vitamin D is fat soluble and as such, is stored in the body. That means if you get too much, it can be toxic. Toxic levels of vitamin D can cause vomiting, constipation, and weakness and over time can have more serious health effects on the heart and kidneys.
Vitamin D is also unique in that our skin makes a form of it, vitamin D3, when exposed to the ultraviolet B (UVB) in sunlight. Excessive sun exposure is not necessary for this to take place, but people who are rarely exposed to unobstructed sunlight need to make sure that get more vitamin D in their diets. Aside from fish, there are not very many food sources that are naturally high in vitamin D. However, vitamin D is added to most milk available commercially, and box cereals are often fortified with it as well. The addition of vitamin D to the commercial milk supply has been credited with the near elimination of rickets, a vitamin D deficiency in children, though rickets is becoming a problem again in some parts of the US.
Vitamin D by itself does not strengthen bone. Once you take in a vitamin D supplement, consume it in food, or your skin makes it, your liver and kidneys change it into a hormone that helps your body absorb more calcium, and it is the calcium that helps your bones. Vitamin D can only help your body use calcium if you are putting calcium in it, so you need to make sure you are getting enough calcium as well. Many supplements will contain both, and foods that are fortified with vitamin D usually have calcium in them also. Some studies show that vitamin D also is good for your immune system.
Linda Polansky writes about Vitamin D,Best health vitamins |
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