Uncovering Facts About Vitamin-D Nutrient or Hormone?

Vitamins are nutrients that we must get from outside the body, usually in our diet, because they cannot be made within the body, and are necessary for normal bodily functions and overall health. For this reason, vitamins are called essential nutrients.

Both vitamin D from diet and vitamin D made by skin are inactive until they go through two chemical transformations, first in the liver and then in the kidney.

Vitamin D: As a Hormone

A hormone is a substance produced in one part of the body and released into the blood stream to carry out its regulatory functions on another part of the body and is itself under regulatory control. "Vitamin D" in its role in maintaining normal calcium levels acts as a hormone and levels of 1, 25(OH) 2D are regulated by parathyroid hormone which respond to calcium levels.

As shared by Kiran Campbell, a registered dietitian, entrepreneur, soon-to-be authors of her first e-cookbook, Minimal Effort Meals "The Endocrine Society calls vitamin D a "prohormone" or substance that the body converts to a hormone." According to them "The skin, liver and kidneys work together to synthesize 1,25-diydroxy vitamin D (calcitriol), the active form of vitamin D, which helps maintain normal levels of calcium and phosphorus in the blood. In the skin, a molecule made from cholesterol is converted to vitamin D by exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun. Vitamin D undergoes further chemical changes, first in the liver and then in the kidneys, to become calcitriol. Calcitriol acts on the intestine, kidneys, and bones to maintain normal levels of blood calcium and phosphorus."

It is also known as calcitriol, ergocalciferol, calcidiol and cholecalciferol.

Vitamin D: Role as a Vitamin

A vitamin is an organic molecule, or group of similar molecules, that works as an essential nutrient in the body.

Nicknamed the "sunshine vitamin" Vitamin D in the form of calcidiol is what makes up MOST of the Vitamin D in the body. If one is unable get enough vitamin D from the sun (the resource allowing our bodies to make it), we must get it from our diet.