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Welcome to this website!
You'll find everything you want to know about vitamin D right here.
Vitamin D can
- Improve your health,
- Increase your quality-of-life
- Increase your life-expectancy.
Best way to get it? Sunlight! Nature's own prescription.
Next best way? Supplement vitamin D3.
It's better than Health Insurance and costs less than $2 per month!
Alex St Clair
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This page contains...
What is vitamin D?
Three forms of vitamin D.
What causes Low Vitamin D?
Why vitamin D can transform your health.
Vitamin D3 Capsules (5000 IU)
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- Members Price on all supplements
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Vitamin D - Power Nutrient Promotes Good Health
What is vitamin D?
Vitamin D is the name given to a vitally important group of micro-nutrients which includes vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol).
When activated in the body, vitamin D3 becomes a potent steroid hormone, switching genes on or off, and instructing our cells what work to do.
Vitamin D's effects are varied and profound. If we are deficient in vitamin D (as most of us are), all systems in our body operate sub-optimally.
More than 50 serious diseases including cancer, heart-disease and diabetes have been linked with low vitamin D blood levels.
In-House Vitamin D Production
In our bodies, we find three main forms of Vitamin D. To create them requires a three-step production process.
1. Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol)
Theres a cholesterol-like compound, made in our liver and stored in our skin, just waiting for sunlight to shine on it.
When sunlight (UV-B) shines on our skin, this compound changes into vitamin D3.
Once it's all been converted to vitamin D3, the process stops - even if you stay in the sun.
Vitamin D3 doesn't hang around in the body for long. It gets converted by enzymes in our liver to
2. Calcidiol - the storage form of vitamin D
Calcidiol is also known as 25-hydroxy-vitamin-D, or sometimes just 25(OH)D. Scientists love their fancy names!
Calcidiol is stored in fat, muscle, blood, and in the liver itself. Together they make up our vitamin D store.
But this is not the active form of vitamin D. When needed for active duty, calcidiol is converted by enzymes in our kidneys (and other body tissues) to
3. Calcitriol - the active form of vitamin D
Calcitriol is a potent steroid hormone, responsible for all the powerful health benefits of vitamin D.
It's production in the body is carefully regulated by enzymes and counter-enzymes, and controlled by the parathyroid gland in the neck.
But calcitriol production depends primarily on the level of calcidiol stored in our body tissues. If we haven't stored enough calcidiol, we can't make enough calcitriol.
What Causes Low Vitamin D?
Basically, we just don't get enough sunlight on our skin, so we can't make enough vitamin D3.
Why don't we get enough sunlight?
- Many of us live far from the tropics, so strong sunlight is not available to us for much of the year
- We work indoors and clothe our bodies
- In cities, high-rise buildings create perpetual shade (no UV-B)
- City haze absorbs most of the UV-B in the sunlight. Without UV-B we can't make vitamin D.
- When we travel to work or relax at home, we often stay behind glass, which UV-B cannot penetrate.
- Finally when we venture outdoors, we cover up with sunscreen to protect our skin from sun-damage, aging and cancer.
Is it any wonder that we are vitamin D deficient?
It's true we can obtain a little vitamin D from food, but not nearly enough to prevent deficiency. (See Vitamin D Sources for details.)
Fortunately, we can boost our vitamin D3 by taking it as a supplement.
Why Vitamin D Can Transform Your Health
The activated form of vitamin D is a powerful hormone.
Optimum quantities of vitamin D improve the condition and function of all body systems, including our
- immune system
- brain and nerves
- bones and joints
- muscles.
In addition, vitamin D
- improves mood
- reduces pain and inflammation
- helps control blood sugar levels
- reduces blood pressure.
That's just a short list. There's much more. Take a look at Vitamin D Benefits.
Even more of these benefits are being discovered by researchers, every year.
Vitamin D Deficiency
Unfortunately, many of us are deficient in vitamin D.
Chronic vitamin D deficiency is linked to greatly increased risks for
- heart disease
- cancer
- arthritis
- immune disorders
- Over 50 other diseases.
But here is some good news:
If you are young, the damage to your health may be easily (and cheaply) avoided.
Even if you are older, you are still able to reverse the damage caused by vitamin D deficiency.
You just need to know how to safely raise your vitamin D level.
