Did you know that vitamin D helps maintain strong bones? This is important, as bones form our skeleton and provide strength and protection for our organs. In this article, you can read about the role vitamin D plays in your bones, as well as how to ensure you get enough of this vitamin!
In this article, you will learn
- How vitamin D works with calcium
- Why vitamin D is important for bone growth
- The importance of vitamin D as you get older
- How to get enough vitamin D
The interaction between vitamin D and calcium
You can read about the benefits of vitamin D here. Together with calcium, it has several functions:
- Calcium absorption: vitamin D is essential for the absorption of calcium in your intestines. Without sufficient vitamin D, your intestines cannot effectively absorb calcium, regardless of how much calcium you consume!
- Bone mineralisation: vitamin D contributes to the process of bone mineralisation, which makes bones strong and resilient.
The importance of vitamin D for bone health
Vitamin D is not only an ally of calcium; it also has direct benefits for bone health:
- Bone growth: vitamin D is crucial for children and young adults, as it helps to form a strong bone structure!
- Ageing: as we get older, vitamin D helps maintain bone mass and prevents bone loss. This helps prevent osteoporosis, a condition in which the amount of calcium in the bones decreases and the bones break more easily.
How can you get enough vitamin D?
Now that we know vitamin D is essential, it's good to know how to get enough of it:
- Sunlight: the natural way to obtain vitamin D is through exposure to sunlight. Sunlight stimulates the production of vitamin D in your skin.
- Food: you can find small amounts of vitamin D in foods such as oily fish, eggs and fortified dairy products.
- Supplements: in many cases – especially in countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and parts of France, where we generally have little exposure to the sun – vitamin D supplements are necessary. In short, almost everyone needs extra vitamin D.
