Introduction
Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that plays a key role in maintaining your overall health and wellbeing. It helps your body absorb calcium, which is important for strong bones and teeth, and it also helps regulate your immune system. According to experts at Eat This Not That, vitamin D is important for a variety of other reasons, including reducing inflammation, improving mood, and even helping to prevent certain types of cancer. In this article, we’ll explore the many benefits of vitamin D and how you can make sure you’re getting enough of it in your diet.
What Vitamin D Does For Your Body, Say Experts — Eat This Not That
Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that plays a key role in many bodily functions. It helps your body absorb calcium, which is important for strong bones and teeth, and it helps regulate your immune system. Vitamin D also helps regulate your mood and energy levels, and it may even help protect against certain diseases.
Experts agree that getting enough vitamin D is important for overall health. The best way to get vitamin D is through exposure to sunlight, but you can also get it from certain foods and supplements. Here’s what experts say about the benefits of vitamin D and how to make sure you’re getting enough.
Benefits of Vitamin D
Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, which is important for strong bones and teeth. It also helps regulate your immune system, which helps your body fight off infections and diseases. Vitamin D also helps regulate your mood and energy levels, and it may even help protect against certain diseases, such as cancer and heart disease.
Vitamin D is also important for pregnant women. It helps the baby’s bones and teeth develop properly, and it may even help reduce the risk of preterm birth. Vitamin D is also important for people with certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, as it helps regulate blood sugar levels.
How to Get Enough Vitamin D
The best way to get vitamin D is through exposure to sunlight. However, if you don’t get enough sun, you can also get vitamin D from certain foods, such as fatty fish, egg yolks, and fortified milk and orange juice. You can also take a vitamin D supplement.
It’s important to talk to your doctor before taking any supplements, as too much vitamin D can be harmful. Your doctor can help you determine the right amount of vitamin D for your individual needs.
Bottom Line
Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that plays a key role in many bodily functions. It helps your body absorb calcium, which is important for strong bones and teeth, and it helps regulate your immune system. Vitamin D also helps regulate your mood and energy levels, and it may even help protect against certain diseases. The best way to get vitamin D is through exposure to sunlight, but you can also get it from certain foods and supplements. Talk to your doctor to determine the right amount of vitamin D for your individual needs.
Vitamin D has gotten a lot of attention in recent years. That’s because many of us don’t get enough of the “sunshine vitamin,” so named because our bodies produce it naturally in response to sunlight (which is why so many of us are deficient). Additionally, research has found that adequate vitamin D levels may have wide-ranging health benefits, from how well our body’s basic systems operate to how long we live. Here’s what vitamin D does for your body, according to the experts. Read on to find out more—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs COVID is Hurting You—Even After a Negative Test.
According to a study published in the Journal of Nutrition, vitamin D may lengthen your telomeres, the parts of cells that hold DNA information and serve as the biological markers of aging. (Telomeres shorten as we get older, and when they get too short, a cell dies.) Researchers found that middle-aged adults who had higher blood concentrations of vitamin D had longer telomeres. A 2021 review of studies reached the same conclusion, saying vitamin D supplementation may have “potentially beneficial effects … on aging and age-related diseases.”
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Some studies have found that vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increased risk of several types of cancer, including breast, colon, prostate, leukemia, lymphoma and melanoma. However, the data is mixed. One review of studies found out that higher vitamin D levels didn’t reduce the risk of stomach, prostate or esophageal cancer, but may reduce the risk of colon cancer, while a 2021 review of studies found “no statistically significant effective of vitamin D on breast cancer.”
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Early in the pandemic, eyebrows were raised when a Spanish study found 82% of hospitalized COVID patients were deficient in vitamin D, indicating that the vitamin may be protective against the coronavirus. Those findings have held up, and other studies have found vitamin D may even protect you against catching COVID: According to a December 2021 meta-analysis of 54 studies published in Frontiers in Public Health, vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency is associated with a higher risk of COVID infection, hospitalization, ICU admission and death.
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Little-known fact: Our bones are constantly breaking down and rebuilding themselves. That makes Vitamin D a vital nutrient. It helps the body absorb calcium, which is essential for bone formation. “Getting enough calcium and vitamin D in your diet can help maintain bone strength and lessen your risk of developing osteoporosis,” says the National Institutes of Health.
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Vitamin D supports the immune system by helping white blood cells function. It also helps to regulate the immune system’s response so it doesn’t become overactive. Vitamin D may also play a role in reducing the risk of autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis, type 2 diabetes and lupus.
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About 40% of Americans are deficient in Vitamin D. The Office of Dietary Supplements recommends adults consume 600 IU of vitamin D daily between food and supplements. (However, this recommendation is controversial, and many experts say that should be higher.)
Vitamin D is found in foods like salmon, egg yolks, mushrooms and fortified milk, juice and cereals. However, it can be difficult to difficult to get all the vitamin D you need from food, so supplementation may be necessary. A word of caution: Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, meaning excess amounts are stored in the body. Taking too much can be toxic (although that’s a rare occurrence). It’s a good idea to get your doctor’s advice before beginning any supplement. And to live your healthiest life, don’t miss this life-saving advice I’m a Doctor and Here’s the #1 Sign You Have Cancer.