Judy Simon<\/a>, a registered clinical dietitian at UW Medicine.<\/p>\nWhen our skin absorbs UV rays, it makes vitamin D, and this version of vitamin D made from sunshine is exceptional.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It lowers blood pressure and can reduce rates of cardiovascular disease,” Simon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That reaction comes from sunlight triggering the release of nitric oxide in our skin, according to Simon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But as the days grow darker sooner during these fall and winter months, many turn to vitamin D supplements to boost levels.<\/p>\n
But are they as effective as catching some rays?<\/p>\n
Simon said supplements are effective and adds, it might depend on the type of supplement you take.<\/p>\n
“First of all, it’s best that it’s in an oil form rather than a gummy or maybe a solid in oil form is best. Eating it with a meal, even your largest meal, and having some fat at the meal has shown to have the most impact on raising your vitamin D level,” Simon said.<\/p>\n
By oil form, Simon said the kind in soft gel capsules.<\/p>\n
As for what vitamin D does for people exactly, it’s basically — everything.<\/p>\n
“Every cell in our body has vitamin D receptors, and we need vitamin D to optimize our metabolism for bone building, for metabolic health,” Simon said.<\/p>\n
Historically, people supplemented vitamin D from food sources like cod liver oil or fish stock.<\/p>\n
It’s naturally found in salmon, with smaller amounts in egg yolk, fortified dairy and even mushrooms when exposed to UV light.<\/p>\n
But Simon said it’s challenging to get enough from diet alone and symptoms of deficiency may not be apparent at all.<\/p>\n
She says a good first step to figure this out is talking with your primary care doctor.<\/p>\n
“Many people won’t know they’re deficient unless they get that baseline,” Simon said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doctors say the ideal form of vitamin D comes from the skin when it absorbs sunlight. A dietitian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[102,6636,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-266544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-nutrition","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}