Are You Getting Enough Vitamin D?

     Vitamin is a complex substance needed by our body which has the function to help process body activity.
Without vitamins, humans, animals and other organism cannot do body activities normally. Lack of vitamin can make people get sick easily. One vitamin which is important to our body is vitamin D. Vitamin D is a kind of insoluble vitamin in water besides vitamin A, E and K. It is important for everybody to consume vitamin D proportionally and it is even very important especially for old people. With this vitamin our body is protected from virus, or bacteria. In fact, there are many kinds of food we consume everyday contain vitamin D such as cod fish oil, sardine, fishes, margarine, tofu, tempe, cheddar cheese, milk, egg and etc. Besides from the food, the majority of vitamin D needed by our body comes from the sun light in the morning. When people get older, the ability of their body to take benefit of sun light decreases. Although Indonesia lies in tropic area with abundant sun light for the whole year, Indonesian people have the risk to lacking of vitamin D, because many Indonesian usually do many activities indoor so it hampers the exposure of sunlight to their skin. There are many benefits of vitamin D that most people don’t know such as to reduce cancer, prevent osteoporosis and increase body immunity. 

     A research proves that vitamin D have the role to reduce the risk of cancer. Much research in California University, San Diego, USA shows that that vitamin D can reduce the risk of cancer if our body gets enough vitamin D and calcium. Vitamin D can reduce many kinds of cancer risks like colon cancer, breast cancer, lungs cancer, prostate cancer, etc. Not only Vitamin D has anti-inflammatory but it also possesses anti-proliferative properties, which can reduce cancer of multiple activities and can control the cell growth of cancer. As mentioned before, sun shine is once source of vitamin D which is cheap and easy. However, if we are exposed too much, we will get cancer. A news report in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition proves that consumption of 41000 IU dose of Vitamin D every day for 4 years can reduce cancer risk until 60 %. Nevertheless, many nutritionists suggest to consult medical experts before consuming vitamin D supplement. 

      Vitamin D also has extra ordinary benefits to prevent osteoporosis. There are many foods which contains vitamin D that can increase bone elasticity. Vitamin D is able to activate important protein in bones, so it can increase bone nutrition. High bone nutrition will prevent osteoporosis. Consuming Vitamin D at an early age is good because it can be stored in skeletons and can form mass of bone in the future that helps to prevent osteoporosis. However, for people who don't consume enough vitamin D during their childhood they will face the risks of getting osteoporosis. If there is not enough vitamin D in human body, the body cannot absorb calcium from food we consume, so that the body takes the calcium from bone. As a result, the bone will be brittle and we easily get osteoporosis. 

     Doctors have long known that vitamin D is an essential element for our health and has the power to increase body immunity that can reduce TBC. TBC is a disease that makes people very thin due to unusual cough which throws up blood and phlegm. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is very dangerous for our health. However, WHO ( World Health Organization) say that not all of people who suffer from TBC infection can get sick. If they have good body immunity, the bacteria of TBC will be inactive. For many people who have inactive TBC (latent tuberculosis), WHO suggests to consume vitamin D with proportional dose. Before doctors found the medicine for TBC, they used to apply vitamin D to treat many diseases such as TBC. Vitamin D is able to increase body immunity until 70 %. Dr. Adrian R Marineau from Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry did a research about this case. He used 192 healthy people who were then split into two groups. He gave 2,5 ml supplement of Vitamin D to the first group and gave placebo to the second group, whom he asked to consume it. After six weeks he analyzed the reactions and the difference between the two groups. Finally, he concluded that the first group who received the supplement of vitamin D has good body immunity than the second group who received placebo. Those who received Vitamin D can reduce Mycobacterium tuberculosis in six weeks. 

      In summary, the role of vitamin D is very crucial for the continuity of human life, especially to protect our body from many viruses, bacteria and many kind of disease. Unhealthy life pattern influences the content of Vitamin D in our body, if the body lacks of vitamin D, it will make body get sick easily and pursue tooth and bone development. On the contrary, if the body has excess of Vitamin D, people can get diarrhea, and can get many other negative effects. You don't want it to happen to you, right ? So, you must consume food which contains Vitamin D proportionally and regularly. Proportional consumption of Vitamin D is 200 IU for children and for people under 50 years old; 400 IU of Vitamin D is for people between 51 — 70 years old while 600 IU of Vitamin D is for people above 71 years old.

By Lutfan Hadhi Prambodo