We’re finally getting some long awaited sun on this campus! This made me think about how vitamin D was discussed by the Lipid group on Wednesday (which by the way was a great presentation)! Again, this goes along with a major theme of the class that biochemistry is everywhere! Just a recap, vitamin D is produced by the body in response to sunlight and it also occurs naturally in a few foods, like fish and egg yolk, etc.
An interesting article that was published recently found that patients with lower vitamins D reported the highest pain level. This participants in this study were those who were in chronic pain and they noted their pain levels on a scale of 1-10 when a clamp was placed on a patients’ nail bed of the middle fingers. More studies still need to be conducted, but what could this possibly hint at for the future? Too much sunlight could potentially lead to more pain in a future accident? What would you do: to get vitamin D or not to?
Article for your reference: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/6743/20140509/vitamin-d-research-reveals-levels-may-impact-body-pain-threshold-study.htm
I too was certainly enjoying all the Vitamin D synthesis yesterday! I’m quite glad it was explained to me exactly what it means when we get Vitamin D from the Sun… as a kid, I have imagined Vitamin D floating through waves of sunlight into our skin, and now I know that’s not the case at all! Haha, my childhood is slightly ruined because of this, but I suppose it’s better to be biochemically sound 🙂
Oh no, I hate to nit-pick, but as a member of the lipid group, I have to clarify:
Vitamin D does not occur naturally in fish (i.e., it is not native to the fish), but fish have lots of it from eating tons and tons of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton (you may recall from my pretty picture in the presentation) synthesize the stuff from UV light hitting molecule ergosterol, a vitamin D2 precursor, found in the little microorganisms. Eggs also receive their vitamin D2 from mother hens that have consumed the dietary supplement. In the U.S. and Canada, milk, cheese, and yogurt is also fortified by vitamin D2. But all this vitamin D2 really just comes from those busy microorganisms in the sea. In humans, we synthesize vitamin D3 from a cholesterol precursor, 7-dehydrocholesterol. In the body, vitamin D2 and D3 are processed the same way to wind up with 3 hydroxy groups for VDR binding and activation!
See here for more information: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/DRI/DRI_Calcium/250-287.pdf
Search “eggs” for the most relevant paragraph.
Also, in response to the article, it sounds like LOW levels of vitamin D increase pain sensitivity — that is to say, yes you want to get more vitamin D to experience less pain! It’s too little sunlight leads to more pain, not the other way around. Here’s a quote from the article to this end: “low vitamin D levels [e.g., too little sunlight] may increase a person’s pain sensitivity [ouch!].” Hope this clarifies!
However, that’s not to say there aren’t some real concerns about too much sunlight. Skin cancer is a significant killer in the U.S., and vitamin D levels saturate after under 30 minutes in the sun. Moral of the story? Go outside for 30 minutes maximum (adjust for skin tone), and then cover yourself in sunblock to block the harmful UV rays! Your skin will thank you.