I follow a ton of medical* journals and health and fitness-related blogs, and one topic doing the* rounds lately that I have already promised to discuss in a previous* article is vitamin D. And thus, without further ado.
Let me first state what vitamin D is not; a single compound. It is* actually a group of several compounds. Due to medical breakthroughs* occurring at various rates, vitamin D was grouped with the other* vitamins as a single entity until new research shed light on other* entities within the group and their roles in biochemistry. With new* research coming out, people finally appear to be referring to the* specific subtypes in articles and journals, much like they are specific* with which B-vitamin they are referring to when discussing them. And the* type of vitamin D people seem to be most interested in lately is* vitamin D3, hereby known throughout this article as the incredibly* complex ‘D3’.
Believe it or not, but D3 is actually a hormone precursor, or* ‘prohormone’. It is synthesized in the skin when ultraviolet light from* the sun reacts with a type of cholesterol in the skin. D3 is then passed* to the liver where it is converted to calcidiol, and this is in turn* passed to the kidney to become calcitriol, the active form in the body.* The more astute of you will have realized the importance of the sun for* this to occur, and will be pondering the impact of the darker winter* months that so many of us have to live through. It’s true that the* average Joe notes a decline in vitamin D over winter. Some sharp* thinkers may be thinking that a few blasts in the tanning salon should* make up for it, but I am afraid that may not be the case. The type of UV* light required for the conversion to D3 in the skin is UVB while* tanning beds typically emit 95% UVA and only 5% UVB. We can get some* through food sources, but the foods that actually contain vitamin D such* as oily fish, meat and eggs are not exactly exploding at the seams with* the stuff, so supplementation may be a good idea. But why, I hear you* cry.
Vitamin D is associated with a magnitude of benefits including fat* loss, insulin sensitivity, improved blood pressure, stronger immune* response and a decrease in heart disease. These should be enough to* warrant ensuring you have sufficient intake, but the effect I am most* interested in for this article is the potential impact vitamin D levels* can have on testosterone. This stems from recent research coming out of* Austria looking at any correlation between levels of vitamin D and* androgens in order to assess any seasonal variation between the two.* What they found was that men with sufficient vitamin D were found to* have the highest testosterone and lowest sex hormone-binding globulin* (SHBG). SHBG is a protein that renders androgens inactive when bound.* The researchers also found that levels peaked in August, during the* height of the summer for the Northern hemisphere. So if you live in the* north and experience months of low sunlight, taking some D3 may be a* good idea, even if just for the winter. There are even some parties who* claim that D3 has alleviated their seasonal-affecting disorder (S.A.D.* or “winter blues” as it is colloquially known) but medical research is* somewhat conflicting.
So fundamentally, I support the use of D3 supplementation to ensure* adequate amounts to ensure there is no decline in testosterone during* sunless-months. But some of the news articles and blogs I read stemming* from this research lead to the conclusion that sunlight can boost* testosterone, leading to an increase in libido. This is a somewhat* narrow-minded conclusion as there are so many more players in the* “libidostat”, a word I just made up. However there is definitely* something from sunshine that raises libido. And I’m not just talking* about men either – women tend to become more forward and wear more* revealing clothes in the summer and it’s not just because it is warmer.* This is also connected to D3, because the skin pigment Melanin is a* filter that controls how much UVB gets through the skin to affect D3* synthesis. Sunlight appears to have a positive effect on melanin by* stimulating its release from melanocytes which increases sexual arousal,* and also strangely effects appetite. Some pharmaceutical companies have* taken advantage of this which you may have heard of under the name* “Melanotan”. While Melanotan is used for increasing a person’s tan, it* was born from research looking into a solution for erectile dysfunction* under the brand name Bremelanotide (which never made it to market due to* health concerns).
That’s all for now, but I promise to revisit this topic again in the* future with more specific detail into some of the benefits of D3.
Thank you for the information - you get a insufficient amount of Vitamin D from the sun anyhow, so you must provide that gap. What would the best petitide be to fit that criteria?
Now that is an awesome title for a thread! Vitamins, amino acids and son on are something vital to us, so when we can understand how to make those work in our behalf our life quality can increase a lot.
I have heard this about Vitamin D. It is good for a lot of aspects of our lives. I think when you are deficient in any vitamin, it might relate to being a D deficiency also. I think D is said to be one of the most important vitamins in the body and to receive.
Well, this one is a very good read. This is helpful because my father-in-law is overweight, diabetic and has chronic high blood pressure. The libido thing might be a problem, though. My father-in-law is already old... like REALLY old. Hahaha! But seriously, thank you for posting this. I appreciate it a lot, man.
With the description you make it's just natural that your father in law has low libido. He has a bad health condition, so he needs to improve that before peptides can effectively help him.
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Vitamins, amino acids and son on are something vital to us, so when we can understand how to make those work in our behalf our life quality can increase a lot.
