Vitamin D (calciferol or activated ergosterol) is fat soluble and requires dietary fat that absorbs the vitamin from food sources or supplements in the digestive tract.
Vitamin D is neither a vitamin nor a nutrient because exposure to sunlight can provide the body's requirement for vitamin D. Vitamin D is produced within the skin that is exposed to sunshine when the ultraviolet (UV) index is at least 3.
Calciferol
(vitamin D2)
|
25-Hydroxyvitamin D is the major circulating form of the vitamin that is measured to determine the vitamin D status of patients. This vitamin is necessary for normal tooth and bone formation.
There have been data from biochemical and molecular genetic studies that point to vitamin D having a much wider role than just maintenance of calcium and phosphate metabolism. Vitamin D and its synthetic analogues have been shown to have anticancer properties as well as to modulate the immune system.
Vitamin D properties