Vitamin D is an essential vitamin and plays an important role in our overall health. Here’s what it is and does.

Vitamin D is what’s known as a steroid vitamin. It encourages and stimulates the absorption and metabolism of calcium and phosphorous in our bodies. People who are exposed to adequate amounts of natural sunlight do not need any more vitamin D in their bodies.

This is because the sunlight causes our skin to synthesize adequate amounts of vitamin D for our daily requirements. However if you do not get enough exposure to sunlight, then vitamin D supplements are advisable.

The most common way to get vitamin D is in milk. Vitamin D has been added to milk for years so many of us don’t even have think about it. However since many people either can’t or don’t want to drink much milk, manufacturers have begun adding it to a wide variety of other foods including cereals, bread, pastries, pasta, and butter/margarine spreads.

Since vitamin D helps to enable our bodies to absorb and metabolize calcium and phosphorous, it plays a major role in building strong bones and teeth. It is probably just as important as calcium in the development and health of our bones and teeth and should therefore not be neglected.

Simply taking good amounts of calcium is not enough by itself. You have to make certain that adequate levels of Vitamin D are also available to help the body to process and absorb the calcium into the bones and teeth.

Vitamin D has also been shown to help regulate the immune system. Studies have shown that it can reduce the likelihood of developing colds.

And vitamin D may reduce the risk of developing multiple sclerosis. This is not definitive but it appears that the incidence of this disease is much lower in tropical climates where people are typically exposed to the sun much more frequently.

This nutrient also improves brain functioning in later years and may therefore reduce the incidence or onset of Alzheimer's disease. It can also reduce the symptoms and severity of asthma symptoms.

There is even evidence that people who take adequate levels of Vitamin D have a lower incidence of developing cancer compared to people with lower amounts. If nothing else, this should be a large motivating factor to making sure you have enough of this vitamin in your body to build good health and avoid problems with diseases down the road.