Mushroom Is A Natural Source Of Vitamin D

Vitamin D is in category of fat-soluble vitamin therefore human body can store extra amounts of vitamin D.

It is necessary to get enough vitamin D from the diet because it helps human bodies absorb and use calcium and phosphorous to build strong bones and teeth. In this case, vitamin D can help protect older adults against osteoporosis and reducing the risk of falls in the elderly.

Vitamin D is important to the body in many other ways as well. Vitamin D is responsible for brain development. Muscles need it to move, for example, nerves need it to carry messages between the brain and every body part, and the immune system needs vitamin D to fight off invading bacteria and viruses.

Many other studies suggest that vitamin D may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and infectious disease e.g. respiratory tract infection.

The two main dietary category of vitamin D are D2, found in fungi and yeast, and D3, found in animals; lesser amounts of vitamin D3 and D4 are also found in fungi.

Certain foods in the Western diet are a good source of vitamin D, with the best example of naturally occurring dietary source being oily fish. Even though, vegetable foods generally contain low vitamin D, mushrooms provide some vitamin D.

Mushrooms are a natural source of vitamin D2 with lesser amounts of vitamins D3 and D4. The vitamin D2 content of mushrooms can be increased dramatically by exposed to a source of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, such as sunlight or a UV lamp, whereby ergocalciferol is formed from ergosterol.

Worldwide mushroom consumption has improved markedly in the past four decades, and mushrooms have the potential to be the only non-animal, unfortified food source of vitamin D that can deliver a substantial quantity of vitamin D2 in a single serve.
Mushroom Is A Natural Source Of Vitamin D

Vitamin D2 and D3: cholecalciferol and ergocalciferol

There are ten compounds of vitamin D, called vitamin D1 through vitamin D10. The most important of these compounds are D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol).

Ergocalciferol is found exclusively on plant foods. It is formed from plant sterol ergosterol by the action of UV light.

Cholecalciferol is found in animal foods such as eggs and fish oils, most is synthesized in the skin. Cholecalciferol is formed directly from the steroid known as 7-dehydrocholesterol by the action of sunlight, or other source of ultraviolet light.

Cholecalciferol and ergocalciferol in the diet are absorbed and carried to the liver in chylomicrons.

Cholecalciferol and ergocalciferol circulated for only 1 or 2 days. This quick turnover is due to rapid hepatic conversion and uptake by fat and muscle cells.

In the liver, cholecalciferol and ergocalciferol are converted in to calcidiol and then sent to the kidneys. Calcidiol is the main circulating form of the vitamin.

The kidneys perform the final step – the formation of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 which is also called calcitriol.

1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 is the active form of vitamin D, and the body derives about 90 percent of its 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 from the cholecalciferol synthesized in the skin.
Vitamin D2 and D3: cholecalciferol and ergocalciferol

Vitamin D3 and D2

Vitamin D is required for calcium and phosphorus absorption, normal mineralization of bone, and mobilization of calcium from bone.

Vitamin D is a fat soluble with two chemicals forms, vitamin D2 and vitamin D3. In nature only a few food contain vitamin D, such as fatty fish, liver and egg yolks.

Vitamin D is a generic term of all steroids including vitamin D3 and vitamin D2. Vitamin D3, also known as cholecalciferol, and D2, known as ergocalciferol. The former, produced in the skin on exposure to UVB radiation (290 to 320 nm) through transformation of the precursor, 7 dehydrocholestrol. It is said to be more bioactive. It derived from the precursor 7-dehydrocholestrol.

Vitamin D2 or ergocalciferol is derived from plants and only enters the body via the diet, from consumption of foods such as oily fish, egg yolk and liver.

Vitamin D is absorbed from the diet in the intestinal tract in association with liquids and the presence of the bile slats. Once in the liver, one metabolite 25 hydroxy-vitamin D3 is formed, which is a about four times as active as vitamin D.

Vitamin D deficiency is characterized by inadequate mineralization of the bone. In children, vitamin D deficiency results in rickets, which is deformation of the skeleton including abnormal softness of the skull, enlargement of epiphyses of the long bones and costochondral junction that causes bow legs and knock knees. In adults it manifests as osteomalacia.

Vitamin D (D3 and D2) in physiologic replacement and pharmacologic doses has been used to correct vitamin D depletion in the elderly and to prevent vitamin D deficiency at all ages.

Vitamin D3 and D2