18/05/2024
Studies have long linked Vitamin D deficiencies to poor mental health and mood. Here's the physiology behind a timeless tip!
Vitamin D is a steroid hormone, which along with parathyroid hormone, helps increase calcium levels. Vitamin D3 (also called cholecalciferol) can either come from animal products in our diet, but can also be made in skin cells that are exposed to sunlight.
Keratinocytes in the two deep layers of the epidermis – the stratum basale and stratum spinosum – produce 7-dehydrocholesterol, a precursor molecule for cholecalciferol.
When the skin is exposed to sunlight, 7-dehydrocholesterol absorbs ultraviolet B radiation and is converted to previtamin D3 via photolysis. Then heat generated by cellular metabolic activities causes the previtamin D3 molecule to isomerize or change its shape to form vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol.
The vitamin D3 molecules then enter the blood, and follow the same path as dietary cholecalciferol to the liver, and then to the kidneys.
To find out how Vitamin D interacts with calcium to aid all sorts of cellular processes like neuronal action potentials that can improve mental health and mood, head over to Osmosis from Elsevier: https://osms.it/mental-health-vitamin-d-fb
