Vitamin D is a vitamin by itself, and it is readily found foods such as fatty fish, naming a few mackerel, herring, tuna and sardines. Vitamin D is added to the juices, dairy products and cereals and listed as fortified with Vitamin D. the human body gets an estimated eighty to ninety percent of the vitamin D from the sunlight.
Vitamin D is essential in preventing rickets, osteoporosis (weak bones), osteomalacia (bone pain), hyperparathyroidism (bone loss) and osteogenesis imperfecta (inherited disease where bones are brittle and break with ease). Vitamin D is also essential in managing renal osteodystrophy, a condition linked to the kidney failure.
Vitamin D is also used in establishing a stable blood vessels and heart condition, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Vitamin D is also essential in managing muscle weakness, diabetes, obesity, rheumatoid, multiple sclerosis, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), asthma, PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome, bronchitis and gum and tooth disease.
Vitamin D is also useful in regenerating the immune system and in preventing cancer. It also regulates the minerals in the body such as calcium and phosphorous.
The recommended amount (RDA) of Vitamin D for children of up to 12 months is 400 mg in a day, for people aged year one to seventy years is 600 mg and for the aged 70+ years 800 mg.
Vitamin D is administered through the mouth or given as a shot into the muscles. The side effects are limited and most people do not show any side effects. Special precautions are given to pregnant and breastfeeding women, people with kidney diseases, people with hardened arteries, sarcoidosis, histoplasmosis, hyperparathyroidism, lymphoma and tuberculosis.