Articles — vitamin D

The answer is maybe! Vitamin D deficiency is a common problem in the United States and the world. New evidence is emerging that avoiding vitamin D deficiency may contribute to a reduction of obesity as well. People with excess body fat are at an increased risk of many health issues including heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Serum vitamin D as well as calcium intake are inversely related to obesity, leading to the assumption that there is a link between the two. The two main reasons for this link are: 1) Obesity can lower vitamin D levels 2) Low vitamin...

Vitamin D was thought, years ago, to be important just for the health and metabolism of bones. In recent years, it has been established that vitamin D has numerous functions in the human body and is viewed by many even has a hormone. One of the most important functions of vitamin D is a regulatory function on the immune system. In essence, vitamin D has the ability to modify and regulate several immune functions. For instance, it has been shown to protect our normal, healthy organs from immune system attacks, meaning, that it is crucial for the immune system to...

Normally, when a person is diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency, it is thought that their skin is not adequately producing enough vitamin D resulting from the effects of the sun’s rays. New evidence is suggesting that much of the vitamin D that our body uses does not come from the skin alone, but actually diet and other sources as well. A lot of people believe that the amount of vitamin D ingested through any consumed food is quite minimal, while the majority of vitamin D is obtained by the skin in the summer months while being out in the sun,...

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is an autoimmune thyroid disease characterized by the continuous attack upon cells of the body’s own thyroid gland. Although the cause of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is not entirely clear, it is generally understood to result from a combination of genetic and environmental influences. According to research, Vitamin D deficiency may play a role as one of the environmental factors that contributes to the occurrence of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Vitamin D, increasingly viewed as a hormone, is involved in many processes in the human body, including so-called “immunomodulatory” functions. Vitamin D increases the body’s ability to regulate immune activities. There is a...