The Essential Role of Vitamin D in Health Maintenance

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Recommended: Vitamin D functions as a hormone to help maintain bone integrity

Vitamin D is one of the essential nutrients that we need in our bodies and what makes us healthy. Vitamin D's functions in the body by digesting calcium, which both calcium and vitamin D can keep bones and strong and healthy, and constrain the release of parathyroid hormone. This hormone consumes bone tissue, which provides the bones thin and fragile. Also, vitamin D can enact as a role in muscle formation and the immune system, which the immune system can prevent illnesses and fight off infections. Therefore, adding vitamin D to a diet can reduce the risk of falling in among the elderly. There are three sources where you can acquire vitamin D: sun exposure, diet, and supplements. Skin exposure to ultraviolet (UV) sunlight is one of the common sources that you can obtain vitamin D, but it varies in different factors of the season including less sunshine in winter months, the time of the day, the amount of cloud cover and air pollution, and where you live. There are a variety of foods that also contain …show more content…

Generally, vitamin D deficiency means that you're not getting a sufficient amount of vitamin D to stay healthy. As mentioned, the amount of vitamin D you need varies from person to person since some need more than others. This includes in the following age groups: birth to 12 months (400 UI), children in ages 1 to 13 (600 UI), teens in ages 14 to 18 (600 UI), adults in ages 19 to 70 (600 UI) and in ages 71 or older (800 UI), and pregnant and breastfeeding women (600 UI). Vitamin D deficiency is often influenced by an inadequate dietary intake, lack of ingestion from foods, the limited exposure amount of sunlight, the liver and kidney is unable to convert vitamin D to its functional form inside the body, and medicines that disrupt with the body's ability to reconstruct or absorb vitamin

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