Did you know that an estimated 1 billion people worldwide have low levels of Vitamin D in their blood?
And did you know that Vitamin D isn’t really a Vitamin at all?
It’s a prohormone—and prohormones are substances that your body will convert into a hormone. And because of that, unlike vitamins, every cell in your body has a receptor for it.
This also means that it must be broken down from the initial form into a form your body can use. Vitamin D is then circulated throughout the body and in turn, it serves many important functions.
This so-called “vitamin” is essential in many of your body’s functions, especially your skeletal system because it supports bone growth and promotes muscle health.
Why You Need Vitamin D
Vitamin D is essential for strong bones, especially as we grow older. It helps your body take calcium from the blood and use it to produce and repair bone and muscle tissue.
It also helps your body regulate calcium levels in the blood.
The most common type of Vitamin D deficiency, of course, is rickets. This is a childhood condition in which bone tissue never mineralizes properly, and the bones become soft and deformed.
However, modern research has been revealing many other health problems that proper Vitamin D levels can help protect against. We’ll talk about those later in this report.
Vitamin D also helps with the immune system. Immune cells have a receptor for Vitamin D and can synthesize the active Vitamin D metabolite or hormone, so there’s a definite connection between them.
A deficiency in Vitamin D is often associated with increased autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis. If you have enough Vitamin D in your blood, your immune system will work as designed to keep you from coming down with infections or autoimmune disorders.
Finally, Vitamin D helps the parathyroid gland, which is the one that regulates the amount of calcium in the blood.
Vitamin D helps communication between the intestines, kidneys, and skeleton so that your calcium levels are appropriate. If you have enough calcium in your blood, Vitamin D will help your body use that to form and strengthen your bones.
However, if you don’t have enough calcium, or if the Vitamin D levels are low, the parathyroid gland “borrows” it from the skeleton, weakening your bones.
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