Vitamin D is essential for our optimal health. Besides bone health, insufficient consumption of Vitamin D can increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer & low immunity. Almost 40% of the population suffers from Vitamin D deficiency & they are not even aware of it. Genomics has an important bearing on Vitamin D consumption.
Let us discuss in detail how genes impact our Vitamin D status.
We obtain vitamin D both from foods we consume & exposure to sunlight. It is important to note that we abstain from eating a lot of vitamin D rich foods such as liver, butter & eggs ( coming from free-range animals). Therefore, the food we consume do not guarantee sufficient intake of Vitamin D. Getting sufficient Vitamin D either from food or sun is just the start. More important is how to activate the Vitamin D you get, so that it can do its job & prevent deficiency symptoms. This is because Vitamin D which we get from food or sun hardly gets activated & does not have much positive impact. It is Cholecalciferol, Vitamin D precursor which must be activated by converting into calcitriol. This involves a lot of steps using multiple enzymes in our liver & kidneys.
Let us consider a situation if one of such enzymes is not activated right. This usually happens when any of the genes encoding these enzymes have some variations. Such genetic variations can impact the amount of Vitamin D an individual body can utilize (Remember, such variations would be different for every individual given everyone has unique genes/DNA). This can happen even if you are getting enough Vitamin D (Precursor-Cholecalciferol) from food & sun. So even if you & your spouse are consuming similar Vitamin D sources in similar quantities, one may end up with Vitamin D deficiency due the activation level of Vitamin D’s precursor & absorption of Vitamin D.
So how does nutrigenomics come into picture?
Remember, we discussed nutrigenomics is the branch of science that tells us which nutrients & food will influence our genes to attain optimal health What Vitamin D does – it acts as a dock to receptor- Vitamin D receptor. For docking to take place, active form of Vitamin D is required. The act of docking activates a switch which directly impacts activity of a lot of genes in our body which has an impact on our immunity since a lot of those genes are found in our immune system. This explains Vitamin D- immunity connection. It is important to note that Vitamin D receptors are found in various parts of our body. The activated vitamin D-Calcitriol binds with Vitamin D receptor & activates genes to make proteins which enables absorption of calcium from foods & beverages. This is why Vitamin D’s nutrigenomics is so important since it determines the sufficient amount of Vitamin D ( from food or supplements) to enable this vitamin to carry out its role in various bodily processes.
This is why we are using genomics to evaluate the nutrition fads & understand the unique gene blueprint to determine the right quantum of various food items your body requires for proper functions of the body. We have explained the importance of genomics in determining the status of Vitamin-D & why the amount of food rich in Vitamin D sufficient for one person may not be enough for someone else.
