Vitamin D

Vitamin D has some important roles inside related to our general health. Lack of vitamin D causes deficiency of bodily functions and deformities. Some research even state that insufficient amount of vitamin D may lead to depression, high blood pressure, diabetes, and asthma. Inside the body, general functions of vitamin include:

• Supporting bones health and growth.
• Keeping lungs healthy and managing proper airways.
• Improving muscle health and functions.
• Fighting infection.
• Protecting against cancers.

To fulfil our vitamin D requirement, considerable amount of daily exposure to sunshine is needed. This beneficial substance can also be drawn from our daily diet.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is another substance needed by the body to do its proper work. Our body synthesize its own cholesterol in the liver, although various kinds of food sources are also loaded with cholesterol. Despite our body requirement of cholesterol, it is not advisable to have a high level of cholesterol in our body, since it is related to the risk of suffering from heart problems and cardiovascular diseases. To prevent these diseases, it is important to keep your cholesterol level in balance; pay attention to the level of LDL—the bad cholesterol, HDL—the good cholesterol, and triglycerides in your bloodstream.

Relationship between vitamin D and cholesterol

There is a quite significant relationship between vitamin D and cholesterol inside the body. Both of them are required by the body to perform all of its proper functions. To put the relationship simple, there will be no vitamin D without any cholesterol in your body. However, the requirement of vitamin D inside the body does not necessarily put us into a requirement of high cholesterol level.

Our body produces cholesterol in the liver and also gets it from the food sources we consume. One of the major functions of cholesterol in our body is its role in synthesis of vitamin D. it means, the absence of cholesterol contributes to the absence of vitamin D, which is essential for our growth. The biggest and most affordable source of vitamin D is sunlight. Upon exposure to sunlight, therefore, the body is able to synthesize its own vitamin D with the help of body cholesterol.

Since cholesterol and vitamin D work hand-in-hand in the production, there is also a connection in dietary sources between vitamin D and cholesterol. This means food sources containing or which are loaded with high cholesterol are high in vitamin D simultaneously. This is one of the reasons why we should pay attention to our cholesterol level before taking in some foods rich in vitamin D. Cod liver oil and eggs are good sources of vitamin D, but those are also a couple of foods which have been researched to contain high level of cholesterol respectively.

Although cholesterol is required for vitamin D synthesis, it does not mean that keeping your cholesterol level high is a good thing. Instead, multiple research have been conducted on the topic, and all concluded that high cholesterol level will significantly increase your risk of having heart problems and cardiovascular diseases. Keeping your cholesterol level under control, on the other hand, will keep your healthy.

Another correlation between the two nutrients lays in the fact found in some latest research that people with higher levels of vitamin D tend to have lower cholesterol level than people with lower cholesterol level. This is possible when the people spend a lot of time being exposure to sunlight while doing physical activities. Sufficient sunlight exposure facilitates sufficient vitamin D synthesis, while the physical activities itself has been an effective methods of eliminating excessed cholesterol in the body. Therefore, this healthy correlation is explainable, why it is not necessary to raise your cholesterol level to get a higher level of vitamin D. However, some people may not be able to consume high-cholesterol diets which contribute to cholesterol intake for vitamin D synthesis. Thus, taking vitamin D supplements might be a choice to consider. Be sure to know what kind of vitamin D is in the supplement before taking it, since vitamin D3 is what is needed for the body, instead of the D2, which may result in toxicity inside the system.