Experts say that in general, the amount of vitamin D you get from food and sun exposure is enough to maintain adequate levels. However, when this doesn’t happen (and only in these cases), supplementation is recommended.
Recent studies have shown that supplements are useless for those who already consume enough of the vitamin. Experts worry that supplement enthusiasts will overuse them, believing that more is better, or that some people who are nutrient deficient will avoid them altogether.
Taking vitamins “is like most other things,” says Roger Bouillon, an endocrinologist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. “You need the perfect amount: ‘not too little, not too much.’” However, it remains difficult to determine who needs vitamin D supplements, what the ideal dose is, and what their specific health benefits are, the researcher explains. El Pais.
The main benefits of vitamin D were discovered at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. Because many people lived in dark cities and worked indoors, many of them, especially children, developed rickets, a disease in which bones become soft, weak, and often deformed.
At the same time, scientists have found that sunlight cures and prevents the disease by triggering a reaction that produces vitamin D. The vitamin is converted to its active form in the kidneys and then transported to the intestines, where it stimulates cells to transport calcium, a key component of bone, into the bloodstream, explained Sylvia Christakos, a biochemist at Rutgers Medical School in New Jersey, US.
It is estimated that around 20% of the UK population suffers from severe vitamin deficiency due to the Scandinavian and Nordic climate and lack of fortified foods. The United States, where many dairy products and some juices and breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamin D, is somewhere in the middle (around 6% of the population suffers from severe deficiency).
Ignoring geographic and therefore climatic factors, the populations most prone to deficiency are infants who do not receive fortified formula, older adults (whose skin is less efficient at producing vitamin D), and pregnant women. People with darker skin should also try to get extra vitamin D, as the melanin pigmentation in the skin blocks ultraviolet light, making it difficult to obtain the vitamin through sun exposure.
Author: morning Post
Source: CM Jornal
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