Ever wondered what makes vitamin D so extraordinary? In this episode of the Inflammation Nation podcast, discover the truth behind the so-called "Miracle Molecule" as we reveal why vitamin D is not just a vitamin but also a hormone. Join Dr. Steve Noseworthy as he breaks down the fundamental differences between vitamins and hormones, and explains how vitamin D fits into both categories. Learn how this unique molecule is synthesized in your body, acting on cells throughout to influence gene expression and immune response, much like steroid hormones.
Dive into the science behind vitamin D's role in preventing chronic diseases and promoting overall health. Discover why regulatory T cells and glutathione are crucial for a robust immune system, and get the lowdown on why vitamin D3 supplements are the most effective for maintaining optimal levels. We wrap up with an introduction to the principles of functional medicine, emphasizing the importance of professional healthcare advice while promoting natural health and wellness. Tune in for an enlightening discussion that bridges cutting-edge science with practical health insights!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey everyone, welcome to the Inflammation Nation
podcast.
I'm your host, Dr SteveNoseberg.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
One of the greatest obstacles to crafting health and
wellness is identifying andcontrolling inflammation.
It's at the core of all complexand chronic diseases and it's
the driving mechanism thatunderlies the most common
symptoms that people like youstruggle to overcome.
Join us as we explore cuttingedge science and research to
give you the information andtools you need to create the
(00:28):
quality of life you want anddeserve.
And now here is the host ofInflammation Nation, dr Stephen
Noseworthy.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Hey, welcome back everybody.
This is a Miracle Moleculeseries, and today we're going to
be talking about vitamin D.
We're going to put this intotwo different parts.
Just like everything else,there's a lot to share and a lot
to talk about.
So this third, this is ourthird miracle molecule, vitamin
D.
And let's start off by taking alook at what almost everyone
(01:02):
who talks about vitamin D startswith, and that is the question
or the statement that vitamin Dis really a hormone and it's not
a vitamin.
So let's look at that and let'ssee if that's true.
And let's start by asking thequestion what is a vitamin?
The term vitamin was coined backin the early 1900s by an
(01:22):
American I want to say Hungarian, I might be off on that but a
biochemist named Kazmir Funk,and the word vitamin is a
compound word that is derivedfrom the Latin word vita, or
precursor prefix vita, whichmeans life, and the word amine,
which refers to protein-basedcompounds, because initially,
(01:47):
funk and other researchersthought that vitamins contained
amino acids, and that's wherethe word vitamin comes from.
So it's basically amino acidsor life-promoting proteins,
something like that.
From a technical standpoint,vitamins are small organic
molecules that contain carbon,and that's what organic means
(02:09):
it's something that containscarbon and that's in contrast to
something like a mineral, forexample, or a metal, which are
inorganic things that don'tcontain carbon.
So that's kind of startingpoint number one, like organic
molecule containing carbon.
We also know, and this is partof the definition, that vitamins
are required for metabolichealth.
Vitamins act, as in many cases,as precursors for different
(02:35):
enzymes that are used in thebiochemical reactions that allow
our cells and our systems tofunction.
So a vitamin contains carbon,it's an organic molecule, it's
required for metabolic healthand on top of that a deficiency
of a vitamin typically leads toa disease state.
Now, vitamin deficienciesrarely cause death, but quite
(02:58):
often do lead to disease states.
So deficiencies equal disease.
And in general vitamins areeither not made by the body at
all, which is kind of rare forhumans, or they're made in
quantities that are too low forus to have optimal metabolism
and therefore we must get mostvitamins from the diet or
(03:20):
perhaps from supplementation.
For example, humans cannot makeany vitamin C, so all the
vitamin C we have in our bodyhas to come from our diet.
But we make most other vitaminsin very small quantities, but
since the ones that we can makeourselves are usually only made
in very small quantities.
We generally get most of ourvitamins from our diet.
(03:41):
So that's the generaldefinition of a vitamin.
So does vitamin D qualify asbeing a vitamin under that
criteria?
And the answer is yes, maybewith one exception.
We know that vitamin D is acarbon-based molecule.
Vitamin D is required formetabolic health, and when
there's a vitamin D deficiencyit does promote disease.
(04:03):
But the one way that vitamin Ddeviates from the standard
definition of being a vitamin isthat most of the vitamin D that
we have in our body is actuallymade in the body.
It's not derived from our dietlike most other vitamins.
All right, so that's thevitamin question.
What about hormones?
What is a hormone?
I've talked about hormones manytimes in the podcast, but
(04:26):
hormones are generallyconsidered to be signaling
molecules that are made in onepart of the body, usually by
some kind of a gland orglandular tissue.
But being made in one part ofthe body can circulate to and
have effects far distant fromthe site of production.
And normally, if I use the wordhormone, if you hear that word
(04:49):
hormone, you tend to think ofthings like estrogen,
progesterone, testosterone, likethe reproductive hormones, or
maybe you think about cortisolor growth hormone or thyroid,
and we can roughly divide thesehormones into protein-based
hormones, things like insulinand thyroid, or into
steroid-based hormones likecortisol and your reproductive
(05:10):
hormones.
But if you remember, when wetalked about nitric oxide as our
first miracle molecule, I saidthat nitric oxide was a gas that
also had hormonalcharacteristics.
Nitric oxide can be made, forexample, in a blood vessel
somewhere in the body, but itcan travel to the brain and
(05:31):
exert action on the brain farfrom wherever it was made inside
the body.
And so, in that sense, nitricoxide as a gas is also a hormone
.
And so you can see terms likevitamin versus hormones
sometimes blur the distinctions,blur when certain molecules or
compounds actually fit differentaspects of these different
(05:53):
definitions.
And so, while vitamin D is notmade in bulk by a gland, like
other hormones are, it cantravel from where it's made to
have effects on every singlecell of the body.
Furthermore, like thesteroid-based reproductive
hormones, like testosterone,progesterone, estrogen, vitamin
(06:14):
D is made from the very samebase molecule of cholesterol,
and in both of these senses,vitamin D is indeed a hormone.
So what's the answer, what's theconclusion?
Is vitamin D a vitamin or is ita hormone?
The answer is yes, it's bothright.
Like many compounds in thehuman body, vitamin D serves
(06:35):
many roles and qualifies to becalled different things, either
based on its function, or maybeon its structure, or maybe on
its origin.
Based on its function, or maybeon its structure, or maybe on
its origin.
So it's both a vitamin and it'sa hormone.
The next question to kind oftalk about and this is actually
a very deep part of theconversation which I'm going to
(06:59):
try to simplify and cone down tojust a couple of things, but
you know, most basic and I'msorry.
The question is what doesvitamin D do?
I would say that the most basicdescription of vitamin D will
say something about how vitaminD helps to absorb calcium and it
promotes bone health, which itcertainly does.
But vitamin D does much morethan this, and vitamin D's
(07:21):
function is determined by thepresence of vitamin D receptors,
vitamin D receptors.
So, in a hormone-like fashion,vitamin D binds to a vitamin D
receptor and then that receptordoes something very specific
wherever that vitamin D receptoris located.
Now, these vitamin D receptorsare scattered throughout the
entire body, pretty much in allcells and all systems, but they
(07:45):
might be found in higherconcentrations in some places
rather than others, which is whyvitamin D can have more
influence on one system comparedto another.
It's because of the relativepopulation of vitamin D
receptors in one place comparedto somewhere else.
I want to read you a quote fromthe International Journal of
(08:07):
Molecular Science.
It's short, but it's to thepoint.
The authors in this study saidthat the vitamin D receptor is a
member of the steroid hormonereceptors that induces a cascade
of cell signaling to maintainhealthy calcium levels that
serves to regulate severalbiological functions.
(08:27):
Now let me pause here in thislittle excerpt.
Number one when we think aboutcalcium, we usually think about
bone, but calcium is in and ofitself, a signaling molecule.
Calcium is used in a diverseset of chemical reactions,
including the reactions thatunderlie, for example, cell
communication, particularlywithin the nervous system.
(08:50):
So calcium is not just abouthow hard and dense your bones
are.
Calcium is a critical elementof how the neurons in your brain
, as an example, send signalsfrom one place to another.
All right, let me get back tothe quote.
They say currently there is aneed to increase the vitamin D
status in individuals worldwide,as it has been shown to improve
(09:11):
number one musculoskeletalhealth and to reduce the risk of
chronic illness, including somecancers, autoimmune and
infectious diseases, type 2diabetes, neurocognitive
disorders and even generalmortality.
It's a pretty robust list,right?
It's a ton of stuff that we canlay at the feet of vitamin D,
(09:34):
but I will share with you thatof all these different things
that vitamin D does, one of thereasons why vitamin D serves so
many roles and is so critical tohealth and wellness is not just
because these vitamin Dreceptors are found pretty much
everywhere, but, more more tothe point, where the precise
location of the receptors arefound, and that is inside the
(09:58):
nucleus, or the nuclei of yourcells, associated with your DNA.
Now, we've heard about thisbefore, right, one of the one of
the roles of vitamin D is toget inside your cells, bind to
something called a retinoid Xreceptor.
We're not going to talk aboutthat, but vitamin D binds to
this retinoid X receptor and itforms a complex, and these two
(10:21):
things complex together bind toyour DNA to drive gene
expression.
And since vitamin D, again, isassociated with so many
different functions, it wouldtake way too long to cover them
all.
I just want to focus on a fewthat are super important for you
to know about, and these topicsare kind of relevant to things
(10:42):
that everybody's talking abouton podcasts or YouTube videos or
social media and so on.
So the first concept that we'vealready kind of briefly touched
on is calcium absorption bonehealth that usually sits at the
top of the list.
We're going to go beyond that,and one of the more important
functions of vitamin D is as aregulator of immune responses,
(11:07):
and I've explained in otherepisodes that there's a certain
class of immune cells calledTreg cells or regulatory T cells
, and that these cells act asconductors of your immune system
, and these Treg cells basicallyturn different sections of the
immune system off or on tocoordinate a competent and
effective immune response.
(11:27):
And when we lose either thenumber or the function of our
Treg cells, we lose control ofour immunology, we can't fight
off infections, we can't controlinflammation, we can't
stabilize autoimmunities, and soin that sense, knowing that
vitamin D interacts with theseregulatory T cells, it shares a
(11:49):
role with glutathione.
We've talked about this before.
It turns out that Treg cellsare more effective when you have
adequate amounts of bothglutathione and vitamin D in
your system.
Right, treg cells are loadedwith receptors for both
glutathione and vitamin D, and Ifeel pretty confident in saying
that, in general, if someonehas good levels of glutathione
(12:10):
and vitamin D, they I feelpretty confident in saying that,
in general, if someone has goodlevels of glutathione and
vitamin D, they're much lesslikely to suffer from various
states of immune compromise,whether that is simple
infections all the way up to say, poorly controlled autoimmune
reactivity for example withHashimoto's or any other type of
autoimmunity example withHashimoto's or any other type of
(12:31):
autoimmunity.
Now, there's a bunch more, butsome of the more important roles
of vitamin D lie in helping tocontrol cell growth and
differentiation, to help promoteprogrammed cell death, and
which helps us to clean up ourcellular environment essentially
getting rid of defective,diseased and dying cells.
And I think if those thingsalone don't classify vitamin D
(12:53):
as being a miracle molecule,honestly I don't know what else
would.
So let's move from that generalunderstanding to ask the simple
question like what is vitamin D?
Now?
Remember, we're going to becovering this in two parts.
What is vitamin D Now?
Remember, we're going to becovering this in two parts.
So, what is vitamin D?
Well, we use the term vitamin Dto refer to a class or family
(13:16):
of related compounds.
The family name for vitamin Dis calciferol.
But underneath that umbrella wemainly have two other
subcomponents.
One is called ergo-calciferol,the other one is called
cholecalciferol, but you mightknow them as vitamins D2 and
vitamin D3, respectively, andit's the cholecalciferol that is
(13:40):
the vitamin D.
Now, most of the vitamin Dversion I'm sorry, most of the
D2 version of vitamin D is madesynthetically, but it does occur
in nature and it can be foundin plant-based foods, mostly in
the fungi and the algaeclassifications.
If you consume blue algae aspart of your supplement regimen,
(14:07):
for example, you're going toget some vitamin D2.
So it's not all synthetic.
But when it's not synthetic,it's plant-based.
And even though the D2 versionof vitamin D goes through the
very same chemical conversionthat the D3 version goes through
, d2 itself is biologicallyinactive and it's not nearly as
bioavailable as vitamin D3.
(14:27):
And so my first piece of adviceto you is that if you're taking
vitamin D as a supplement, makesure it's not the synthetic D2
or the plant-based D2 version,because of the lack of
bioavailability and the need forextra steps of conversion into
some kind of an active form.
So that's the vitamin D2.
(14:49):
Vitamin D3 now in its base form,is also biologically inactive
and in that sense, d3, vitaminD3, or cholecalciferol is a
hormone precursor and as ahormone precursor that has to be
converted from its inactiveform to an active form.
(15:10):
And in that sense it's verysimilar to something like your
T4 hormones, which is inactivebut can be converted into T3,
the active form, to have animpact on your cells.
But with D3, vitamin D3 is muchmore bioavailable and more
metabolically active.
(15:30):
Even though it's still inactiveand has to be converted.
It's closer to the conversionproduct.
So D3 is more bioavailable andeasier to convert into an active
form than the D2 version.
So, again, if you're takingvitamin D as a supplement, make
sure, if you're taking one, thatit's the D3 version, that one
that's called cholecalciferol.
(15:51):
Now, if you look at the bulk ofresearch that we have on vitamin
D, it's done using the vitaminD3 version.
But we have to be a little bitmore specific than that, because
we can break vitamin D3 downinto two of its metabolites.
Now vitamin D2 goes throughthis same conversion, but we're
confining our conversation tovitamin D3 because that's the
(16:13):
one where most of the researchis and that's the one you really
want to be taking.
My point is that it's themetabolites of vitamin D3 that
we're really interested in, andthese metabolites are called
25-hydroxyvitamin D and125-dihydroxyvitamin D.
(16:36):
I know it sounds reallycomplicated and sciencey, but
I'll probably just refer tothese as 25-hydroxy and 125 or
125-dihydroxy, just so that youcan try to keep these straight.
So let's talk about thedifferences between the
25-hydroxy vitamin D, or25-hydroxy vitamin D3, and the
(16:58):
125-dihydroxy vitamin D3, andhow your body makes both of
these from sunlight.
First, what's the differencebetween these two metabolites?
Well, the 25-hydroxy is thefirst conversion product of
vitamin D biosynthesis, and it'sa pro-hormone, again with
(17:24):
little to no biological activity, and it has to be converted to
the other form, the 125-hormone,again with little to no
biological activity, and it hasto be converted to the other
form, the 125-dihydroxy version,to have some kind of a
metabolic effect.
So the 125 version is theactive metabolite of vitamin D
that actually binds to thesevitamin D receptors that are
scattered throughout all of yourcells.
(17:45):
Now, on a side note, researchin the early 2000s said that
there were no vitamin Dreceptors detectable in
different places like the liver,the brain and the skeletal
muscle, but more recent researchconfirms that, yes, they do
indeed have vitamin D receptors.
(18:06):
The liver has vitamin Dreceptors, so does the brain, so
do your muscles, and what thisbasically means is that we have
updated technology that hasallowed us to see and understand
what we couldn't see orunderstand, say, 20 years ago.
But while all cells havevitamin D receptors, they are
(18:27):
found.
These vitamin D receptors arefound in highest concentration
in intestinal enterocytes.
So these are the cells thatline the lining of your gut
where, if that breaks down, wecall that leaky gut.
So vitamin D receptors arefound in the highest
concentration in the lining ofthe gut tissue, in the cells of
the pancreas that make insulinand also in the tubular
(18:51):
structure of your kidneys, wherewe control things like
electrolyte balance and toxinexcretion.
And they're also found in theseparticular cells in the bone
called osteoblasts, which arecells that actually take up
calcium and make bone and makeit denser and make it stronger.
(19:11):
So I'm watching my time here.
I think what I'll do is I'llcall this episode a wrap just
for the moment, and I know itkind of feels like we just kind
of got started, but there's alot more and I don't want to put
out a 45 minute episode.
So just hang tight.
That's your brief overview.
When we come back we're goingto cover in part two.
(19:33):
We're going to cover how wemake vitamin D.
We're going to talk about whichform we should measure if we're
doing lab tests, what level isoptimal and if you have a
vitamin D deficiency orinsufficiency, how do you get
your levels back up.
Again, we're going to cover allof that and more.
Coming up on the InflammationNation podcast.
This podcast is for generalinformational and educational
(19:58):
purposes only and does notconstitute the practice of
medicine in any form or capacity.
No doctor-patient relationshipis formed.
The use of the information inthis podcast or any materials
associated with or linked to thepodcast is at the listener's
own risk.
The content of this podcast isnot intended to be a substitute
(20:20):
for professional andpersonalized medical advice,
diagnosis or treatment, andlisteners should not disregard
or delay obtaining propermedical advice when a health
condition exists and warrantsthat.
And finally, functionalmedicine is not intended or
designed to treat disease, butrather is a natural approach to
support restoring health andwellness.
(20:42):
The use of diet and lifestylemodifications and nutritional
supplementation is supportivefor adjunctive care.
Hey everyone, welcome to the Inflammation Nation
podcast.
I'm your host, Dr SteveNoseberg.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
One of the greatest obstacles to crafting health and
wellness is identifying andcontrolling inflammation.
It's at the core of all complexand chronic diseases and it's
the driving mechanism thatunderlies the most common
symptoms that people like youstruggle to overcome.
Join us as we explore cuttingedge science and research to
give you the information andtools you need to create the
(00:28):
quality of life you want anddeserve.
And now here is the host ofInflammation Nation, dr Stephen
Noseworthy.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Hey, welcome back everybody.
This is a Miracle Moleculeseries, and today we're going to
be talking about vitamin D.
We're going to put this intotwo different parts.
Just like everything else,there's a lot to share and a lot
to talk about.
So this third, this is ourthird miracle molecule, vitamin
D.
And let's start off by taking alook at what almost everyone
(01:02):
who talks about vitamin D startswith, and that is the question
or the statement that vitamin Dis really a hormone and it's not
a vitamin.
So let's look at that and let'ssee if that's true.
And let's start by asking thequestion what is a vitamin?
The term vitamin was coined backin the early 1900s by an
(01:22):
American I want to say Hungarian, I might be off on that but a
biochemist named Kazmir Funk,and the word vitamin is a
compound word that is derivedfrom the Latin word vita, or
precursor prefix vita, whichmeans life, and the word amine,
which refers to protein-basedcompounds, because initially,
(01:47):
funk and other researchersthought that vitamins contained
amino acids, and that's wherethe word vitamin comes from.
So it's basically amino acidsor life-promoting proteins,
something like that.
From a technical standpoint,vitamins are small organic
molecules that contain carbon,and that's what organic means
(02:09):
it's something that containscarbon and that's in contrast to
something like a mineral, forexample, or a metal, which are
inorganic things that don'tcontain carbon.
So that's kind of startingpoint number one, like organic
molecule containing carbon.
We also know, and this is partof the definition, that vitamins
are required for metabolichealth.
Vitamins act, as in many cases,as precursors for different
(02:35):
enzymes that are used in thebiochemical reactions that allow
our cells and our systems tofunction.
So a vitamin contains carbon,it's an organic molecule, it's
required for metabolic healthand on top of that a deficiency
of a vitamin typically leads toa disease state.
Now, vitamin deficienciesrarely cause death, but quite
(02:58):
often do lead to disease states.
So deficiencies equal disease.
And in general vitamins areeither not made by the body at
all, which is kind of rare forhumans, or they're made in
quantities that are too low forus to have optimal metabolism
and therefore we must get mostvitamins from the diet or
(03:20):
perhaps from supplementation.
For example, humans cannot makeany vitamin C, so all the
vitamin C we have in our bodyhas to come from our diet.
But we make most other vitaminsin very small quantities, but
since the ones that we can makeourselves are usually only made
in very small quantities.
We generally get most of ourvitamins from our diet.
(03:41):
So that's the generaldefinition of a vitamin.
So does vitamin D qualify asbeing a vitamin under that
criteria?
And the answer is yes, maybewith one exception.
We know that vitamin D is acarbon-based molecule.
Vitamin D is required formetabolic health, and when
there's a vitamin D deficiencyit does promote disease.
(04:03):
But the one way that vitamin Ddeviates from the standard
definition of being a vitamin isthat most of the vitamin D that
we have in our body is actuallymade in the body.
It's not derived from our dietlike most other vitamins.
All right, so that's thevitamin question.
What about hormones?
What is a hormone?
I've talked about hormones manytimes in the podcast, but
(04:26):
hormones are generallyconsidered to be signaling
molecules that are made in onepart of the body, usually by
some kind of a gland orglandular tissue.
But being made in one part ofthe body can circulate to and
have effects far distant fromthe site of production.
And normally, if I use the wordhormone, if you hear that word
(04:49):
hormone, you tend to think ofthings like estrogen,
progesterone, testosterone, likethe reproductive hormones, or
maybe you think about cortisolor growth hormone or thyroid,
and we can roughly divide thesehormones into protein-based
hormones, things like insulinand thyroid, or into
steroid-based hormones likecortisol and your reproductive
(05:10):
hormones.
But if you remember, when wetalked about nitric oxide as our
first miracle molecule, I saidthat nitric oxide was a gas that
also had hormonalcharacteristics.
Nitric oxide can be made, forexample, in a blood vessel
somewhere in the body, but itcan travel to the brain and
(05:31):
exert action on the brain farfrom wherever it was made inside
the body.
And so, in that sense, nitricoxide as a gas is also a hormone
.
And so you can see terms likevitamin versus hormones
sometimes blur the distinctions,blur when certain molecules or
compounds actually fit differentaspects of these different
(05:53):
definitions.
And so, while vitamin D is notmade in bulk by a gland, like
other hormones are, it cantravel from where it's made to
have effects on every singlecell of the body.
Furthermore, like thesteroid-based reproductive
hormones, like testosterone,progesterone, estrogen, vitamin
(06:14):
D is made from the very samebase molecule of cholesterol,
and in both of these senses,vitamin D is indeed a hormone.
So what's the answer, what's theconclusion?
Is vitamin D a vitamin or is ita hormone?
The answer is yes, it's bothright.
Like many compounds in thehuman body, vitamin D serves
(06:35):
many roles and qualifies to becalled different things, either
based on its function, or maybeon its structure, or maybe on
its origin.
Based on its function, or maybeon its structure, or maybe on
its origin.
So it's both a vitamin and it'sa hormone.
The next question to kind oftalk about and this is actually
a very deep part of theconversation which I'm going to
(06:59):
try to simplify and cone down tojust a couple of things, but
you know, most basic and I'msorry.
The question is what doesvitamin D do?
I would say that the most basicdescription of vitamin D will
say something about how vitaminD helps to absorb calcium and it
promotes bone health, which itcertainly does.
But vitamin D does much morethan this, and vitamin D's
(07:21):
function is determined by thepresence of vitamin D receptors,
vitamin D receptors.
So, in a hormone-like fashion,vitamin D binds to a vitamin D
receptor and then that receptordoes something very specific
wherever that vitamin D receptoris located.
Now, these vitamin D receptorsare scattered throughout the
entire body, pretty much in allcells and all systems, but they
(07:45):
might be found in higherconcentrations in some places
rather than others, which is whyvitamin D can have more
influence on one system comparedto another.
It's because of the relativepopulation of vitamin D
receptors in one place comparedto somewhere else.
I want to read you a quote fromthe International Journal of
(08:07):
Molecular Science.
It's short, but it's to thepoint.
The authors in this study saidthat the vitamin D receptor is a
member of the steroid hormonereceptors that induces a cascade
of cell signaling to maintainhealthy calcium levels that
serves to regulate severalbiological functions.
(08:27):
Now let me pause here in thislittle excerpt.
Number one when we think aboutcalcium, we usually think about
bone, but calcium is in and ofitself, a signaling molecule.
Calcium is used in a diverseset of chemical reactions,
including the reactions thatunderlie, for example, cell
communication, particularlywithin the nervous system.
(08:50):
So calcium is not just abouthow hard and dense your bones
are.
Calcium is a critical elementof how the neurons in your brain
, as an example, send signalsfrom one place to another.
All right, let me get back tothe quote.
They say currently there is aneed to increase the vitamin D
status in individuals worldwide,as it has been shown to improve
(09:11):
number one musculoskeletalhealth and to reduce the risk of
chronic illness, including somecancers, autoimmune and
infectious diseases, type 2diabetes, neurocognitive
disorders and even generalmortality.
It's a pretty robust list,right?
It's a ton of stuff that we canlay at the feet of vitamin D,
(09:34):
but I will share with you thatof all these different things
that vitamin D does, one of thereasons why vitamin D serves so
many roles and is so critical tohealth and wellness is not just
because these vitamin Dreceptors are found pretty much
everywhere, but, more more tothe point, where the precise
location of the receptors arefound, and that is inside the
(09:58):
nucleus, or the nuclei of yourcells, associated with your DNA.
Now, we've heard about thisbefore, right, one of the one of
the roles of vitamin D is toget inside your cells, bind to
something called a retinoid Xreceptor.
We're not going to talk aboutthat, but vitamin D binds to
this retinoid X receptor and itforms a complex, and these two
(10:21):
things complex together bind toyour DNA to drive gene
expression.
And since vitamin D, again, isassociated with so many
different functions, it wouldtake way too long to cover them
all.
I just want to focus on a fewthat are super important for you
to know about, and these topicsare kind of relevant to things
(10:42):
that everybody's talking abouton podcasts or YouTube videos or
social media and so on.
So the first concept that we'vealready kind of briefly touched
on is calcium absorption bonehealth that usually sits at the
top of the list.
We're going to go beyond that,and one of the more important
functions of vitamin D is as aregulator of immune responses,
(11:07):
and I've explained in otherepisodes that there's a certain
class of immune cells calledTreg cells or regulatory T cells
, and that these cells act asconductors of your immune system
, and these Treg cells basicallyturn different sections of the
immune system off or on tocoordinate a competent and
effective immune response.
(11:27):
And when we lose either thenumber or the function of our
Treg cells, we lose control ofour immunology, we can't fight
off infections, we can't controlinflammation, we can't
stabilize autoimmunities, and soin that sense, knowing that
vitamin D interacts with theseregulatory T cells, it shares a
(11:49):
role with glutathione.
We've talked about this before.
It turns out that Treg cellsare more effective when you have
adequate amounts of bothglutathione and vitamin D in
your system.
Right, treg cells are loadedwith receptors for both
glutathione and vitamin D, and Ifeel pretty confident in saying
that, in general, if someonehas good levels of glutathione
(12:10):
and vitamin D, they I feelpretty confident in saying that,
in general, if someone has goodlevels of glutathione and
vitamin D, they're much lesslikely to suffer from various
states of immune compromise,whether that is simple
infections all the way up to say, poorly controlled autoimmune
reactivity for example withHashimoto's or any other type of
autoimmunity example withHashimoto's or any other type of
(12:31):
autoimmunity.
Now, there's a bunch more, butsome of the more important roles
of vitamin D lie in helping tocontrol cell growth and
differentiation, to help promoteprogrammed cell death, and
which helps us to clean up ourcellular environment essentially
getting rid of defective,diseased and dying cells.
And I think if those thingsalone don't classify vitamin D
(12:53):
as being a miracle molecule,honestly I don't know what else
would.
So let's move from that generalunderstanding to ask the simple
question like what is vitamin D?
Now?
Remember, we're going to becovering this in two parts.
What is vitamin D Now?
Remember, we're going to becovering this in two parts.
So, what is vitamin D?
Well, we use the term vitamin Dto refer to a class or family
(13:16):
of related compounds.
The family name for vitamin Dis calciferol.
But underneath that umbrella wemainly have two other
subcomponents.
One is called ergo-calciferol,the other one is called
cholecalciferol, but you mightknow them as vitamins D2 and
vitamin D3, respectively, andit's the cholecalciferol that is
(13:40):
the vitamin D.
Now, most of the vitamin Dversion I'm sorry, most of the
D2 version of vitamin D is madesynthetically, but it does occur
in nature and it can be foundin plant-based foods, mostly in
the fungi and the algaeclassifications.
If you consume blue algae aspart of your supplement regimen,
(14:07):
for example, you're going toget some vitamin D2.
So it's not all synthetic.
But when it's not synthetic,it's plant-based.
And even though the D2 versionof vitamin D goes through the
very same chemical conversionthat the D3 version goes through
, d2 itself is biologicallyinactive and it's not nearly as
bioavailable as vitamin D3.
(14:27):
And so my first piece of adviceto you is that if you're taking
vitamin D as a supplement, makesure it's not the synthetic D2
or the plant-based D2 version,because of the lack of
bioavailability and the need forextra steps of conversion into
some kind of an active form.
So that's the vitamin D2.
(14:49):
Vitamin D3 now in its base form,is also biologically inactive
and in that sense, d3, vitaminD3, or cholecalciferol is a
hormone precursor and as ahormone precursor that has to be
converted from its inactiveform to an active form.
(15:10):
And in that sense it's verysimilar to something like your
T4 hormones, which is inactivebut can be converted into T3,
the active form, to have animpact on your cells.
But with D3, vitamin D3 is muchmore bioavailable and more
metabolically active.
(15:30):
Even though it's still inactiveand has to be converted.
It's closer to the conversionproduct.
So D3 is more bioavailable andeasier to convert into an active
form than the D2 version.
So, again, if you're takingvitamin D as a supplement, make
sure, if you're taking one, thatit's the D3 version, that one
that's called cholecalciferol.
(15:51):
Now, if you look at the bulk ofresearch that we have on vitamin
D, it's done using the vitaminD3 version.
But we have to be a little bitmore specific than that, because
we can break vitamin D3 downinto two of its metabolites.
Now vitamin D2 goes throughthis same conversion, but we're
confining our conversation tovitamin D3 because that's the
(16:13):
one where most of the researchis and that's the one you really
want to be taking.
My point is that it's themetabolites of vitamin D3 that
we're really interested in, andthese metabolites are called
25-hydroxyvitamin D and125-dihydroxyvitamin D.
(16:36):
I know it sounds reallycomplicated and sciencey, but
I'll probably just refer tothese as 25-hydroxy and 125 or
125-dihydroxy, just so that youcan try to keep these straight.
So let's talk about thedifferences between the
25-hydroxy vitamin D, or25-hydroxy vitamin D3, and the
(16:58):
125-dihydroxy vitamin D3, andhow your body makes both of
these from sunlight.
First, what's the differencebetween these two metabolites?
Well, the 25-hydroxy is thefirst conversion product of
vitamin D biosynthesis, and it'sa pro-hormone, again with
(17:24):
little to no biological activity, and it has to be converted to
the other form, the 125-hormone,again with little to no
biological activity, and it hasto be converted to the other
form, the 125-dihydroxy version,to have some kind of a
metabolic effect.
So the 125 version is theactive metabolite of vitamin D
that actually binds to thesevitamin D receptors that are
scattered throughout all of yourcells.
(17:45):
Now, on a side note, researchin the early 2000s said that
there were no vitamin Dreceptors detectable in
different places like the liver,the brain and the skeletal
muscle, but more recent researchconfirms that, yes, they do
indeed have vitamin D receptors.
(18:06):
The liver has vitamin Dreceptors, so does the brain, so
do your muscles, and what thisbasically means is that we have
updated technology that hasallowed us to see and understand
what we couldn't see orunderstand, say, 20 years ago.
But while all cells havevitamin D receptors, they are
(18:27):
found.
These vitamin D receptors arefound in highest concentration
in intestinal enterocytes.
So these are the cells thatline the lining of your gut
where, if that breaks down, wecall that leaky gut.
So vitamin D receptors arefound in the highest
concentration in the lining ofthe gut tissue, in the cells of
the pancreas that make insulinand also in the tubular
(18:51):
structure of your kidneys, wherewe control things like
electrolyte balance and toxinexcretion.
And they're also found in theseparticular cells in the bone
called osteoblasts, which arecells that actually take up
calcium and make bone and makeit denser and make it stronger.
(19:11):
So I'm watching my time here.
I think what I'll do is I'llcall this episode a wrap just
for the moment, and I know itkind of feels like we just kind
of got started, but there's alot more and I don't want to put
out a 45 minute episode.
So just hang tight.
That's your brief overview.
When we come back we're goingto cover in part two.
(19:33):
We're going to cover how wemake vitamin D.
We're going to talk about whichform we should measure if we're
doing lab tests, what level isoptimal and if you have a
vitamin D deficiency orinsufficiency, how do you get
your levels back up.
Again, we're going to cover allof that and more.
Coming up on the InflammationNation podcast.
This podcast is for generalinformational and educational
(19:58):
purposes only and does notconstitute the practice of
medicine in any form or capacity.
No doctor-patient relationshipis formed.
The use of the information inthis podcast or any materials
associated with or linked to thepodcast is at the listener's
own risk.
The content of this podcast isnot intended to be a substitute
(20:20):
for professional andpersonalized medical advice,
diagnosis or treatment, andlisteners should not disregard
or delay obtaining propermedical advice when a health
condition exists and warrantsthat.
And finally, functionalmedicine is not intended or
designed to treat disease, butrather is a natural approach to
support restoring health andwellness.
(20:42):
The use of diet and lifestylemodifications and nutritional
supplementation is supportivefor adjunctive care.
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