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Vitamin D

Posted by Blog Thursday, March 3, 2011

 Sunshine Vitamin

The main function of Vitamin D is regulating calcium and phosphorus to make bones strong. Vitamin D is an unusual vitamin. Vitamin D is necessary in the diet  only for people who get too little sun to make their own vitamin D. For the billions of people who do get enough sun, it is not a vitamin because it is not needed in the diet. Vitamin D is also very hard to find in a natural diet as it occurs in only a few foods. Vitamin D is a fat- soluble vitamin. Vitamin D is also unusual because its most active form is one of the most powerful hormones in the human body.

Vitamin D was first named in 1922 by researchers who learned of a fatsoluble substance that played an important role in bone growth. Researchers went on to learn that ultraviolet light could activate vitamin D. By 1925 it was suspected that a cholesterol derivative in skin was activated by sunlight. In 1931 vitamin D2 was synthesized, and the structure of vitamin D was established by 1936.


Forms of Vitamin D
Vitamin D is found in four forms.Cholecalciferol is made by skin when the skin is exposed to direct sunlight containing the B form of ultraviolet radiation (UVB).Cholecalciferol is also called Vitamin D3. It is the form used in many supplements and is sometimes used in food fortification.


Forms of Vitamin D


Vitamin D3, cholecalciferol, is made in the skin or taken as a supplement.

Calcidiol is the storage and circulating form of vitamin D.

Calcitriol is the active form of vitamin D.

Vitamin D2, ergocalciferol, is made by irradiating fungi.


Calcidiol is made from cholecalciferol in the liver. Calcidiol is the form of vitamin D that is stored in the liver. It is a precursor to the hormone calcitriol. Blood tests for calcidiol can determine if there is enough vitamin D present or if there is a deficiency. The chemical name for calcidiol is 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Calcitriol is made from calcidiol, primarily in the kidneys. It is the most potent steroid hormone derived from cholecalciferol.

Calcitriol is the active form of vitamin D. It regulates calcium and possesses anti-cancer properties. The chemicalname for calcitriol is 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. Ergocalciferol, vitamin D2, is made by irradiating ergosterol with ultraviolet light. Ergosterol is derived from the ergot fungus. It is a manmade product and not  in the human body unless it is taken as supplements or in fortified foods.Milk is often fortified with ergocalciferol in the amount of 100 IU per cup. Ergocalciferol has the same biological activity as cholecalciferol and can also be converted to calcidiol and calcitriol.

More about D- Vitamin:

Vitamin D

Sunlight and Vitamin D

Activation of Vitamin D

Calcitriol Regulates Genes That Make Proteins

How Vitamin D Controls Calcium

Deficiency of Vitamin D

Sources of Vitamin D



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