The Aesthetics Advisor

Your body needs vitamins and certain nutrients to grow and develop normally. Vitamin D is one of them. Although not technically a vitamin — it's actually a fat-soluble hormone that transforms into vitamin D in your body — it's important to several different bodily processes. It's not commonly found in foods, but is added to some processed foods. It's also available in supplement form. 1 , 2 Optimally, your body will make vitamin D when your skin is exposed to sunlight; hence, it's also known as the sunshine vitamin. 3  As mentioned, it plays a number of roles in the body, including helping the gut absorb calcium necessary for strong bones, 4  modulating cell growth and optimizing your neuromuscular and immune functions. 5 To date, the best indicator of vitamin D status is your serum (blood) concentration of 25-hydroxy Vitamin D, also called 25-OH vitamin D. 6  Blood test results serve as a biomarker of your exposure to vitamin D. 7 Chronic deficiency results in bone

Vitamin D is more than just one vitamin. It’s a family of nutrients that shares similarities in chemical structure. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium and maintain strong bones throughout your entire life. Your body produces vitamin D when the sun’s UV rays contact your skin. Other good sources of the vitamin include fish, eggs, and fortified dairy products. It’s also available as a dietary supplement. In your diet, the most commonly found members are vitamin D2 and D3. While both types help you meet your vitamin D requirements, they differ in a few important ways. Research even suggests that vitamin D2 is less effective than vitamin D3 at raising blood levels of vitamin D. Dietary vitamin D comes in two main forms: Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) The two forms of vitamin D differ depending on their food sources. Vitamin D3 is only found in animal-sourced foods, whereas D2 mainly comes from plant sources and fortified foods. Your skin makes vitamin D3 whe

Your entire body takes direction from your hormones. Hormones are secreted by your endocrine system and are responsible for telling your organs what to do and when to do it. 1   They are essentially chemical messengers that travel throughout your bloodstream, working slowly over time to affect processes like growth and development, metabolism and reproduction. Sometimes, these chemical messengers may get out of balance, and this leads to chronic disorders such as Type 2 diabetes, weak bones and infertility. 2  Hormones may be secreted by your adrenal glands, endocrine-related organs, hypothalamus, sex glands and other organs. 3 Progesterone is important to fertility and supporting a pregnancy. It’s a steroid hormone secreted by the corpus luteum and then by the placenta if you become pregnant. 4  In some cases, when couples suffer from infertility, they choose in vitro fertilization (IVF). This is a complex series of procedures in which eggs are retrieved from the ovaries, fertilized b