Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble vitamin that is found in a few food including eggs, fish, and liver and added to others such as vitamin D fortified milk. It is also produced by your body when sunlight strikes your skin. Vitamin D serves an important function in maintaining healthy organs and bones. Vitamin D has also been shown to prevent or treat cancer and cardiovascular disease as well as potentially having beneficial effects for individuals suffering from Alzheimers.
Recent research has suggested vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in at least seventeen varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, autoimmune diseases, periodontal disease, and more.
Vitamin D undergoes two hydroxylations in your body for activation. The first is in the liver where vitamin D is converted to vitamin D 25-hydroxy. The second occurs in the kidney and creates vitamin D, 1, 25-hydroxy.
Concentration of vitamin D 25-hydroxy is the best indicator of your vitamin D status. It reflects vitamin D produced and obtained by your body and has a half-life of 15 days. However, vitamin D 25-hydroxy levels do not indicate the amount of vitamin D stored in your bodys tissues. Vitamin D, 1, 25-hydroxy is a better indicator of stored vitamin D but because it has a short half-life of 15 hours levels in the blood do not typically decrease until an individual’s vitamin D deficiency is severe.