If you live in an area with abundant sunshine, you can probably get all the vitamin D you need by sunbathing a few times per week. The most well-known symptom of vitamin D deficiency is rickets, a bone disease common in children in developing countries. This makes sense, given our body naturally produces vitamin D from sun exposure — a luxury we only experience during the day. June Magnesium — another important mineral often lacking in the modern diet — may also be important for vitamin D function 46,
Vitamin D is having its day in the sun. In recent years, research has associated low blood levels of the vitamin with higher risks of everything from heart disease, diabetes, and cancer to mood disorders and dementia. The findings have not gone unnoticed. Vitamin D supplements and screening tests have surged in popularity. JoAnn E. Unfortunately, this vitamin D trend isn’t all blue skies. Some people are overdoing it with supplements. Researchers looking at national survey data gathered between and found a 2.
Vitamin D is necessary for building and maintaining healthy bones. That’s because calcium, the primary component of bone, can only be absorbed by your body when vitamin D is present. Your body makes vitamin D when direct sunlight converts a chemical in your skin into an active form of the vitamin calciferol. Vitamin D isn’t found in many foods, but you can get it from fortified milk, fortified cereal, and fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines. The amount of vitamin D your skin makes depends on many factors, including the time of day, season, latitude and your skin pigmentation. Depending on where you live and your lifestyle, vitamin D production might decrease or be completely absent during the winter months. Sunscreen, while important, also can decrease vitamin D production.
However, sun exposure rarely provides adequate vitamin D, making it necessary to obtain it from supplements or your diet. Yet, only a handful of foods contain significant amounts of this crucial vitamin, and deficiency is very common 1, 2, 3. In fact, around Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, meaning that it dissolves in fats and oils and can be stored in your body for a long time.