Calcium and vitamin D

Most of that calcium will build strong bones and teeth. You also need calcium to send messages along the nerves and help your muscles contract (like when your heart is beating). Vitamin D regulates the amount of calcium in the blood and ensures that you always have enough. We are starting to realize that vitamin D also plays a role in many other bodily functions. Your immune system needs vitamin D and can help prevent cancer, especially colon cancer

Calcium’s mechanisms of action are multiple and complicated. It is mainly important to know that calcium has to be present in the correct amount for the nerves and muscles to talk to each other and work as they should. This includes everything from thinking to moving

How Vitamin D Controls Calcium?

It's calcium in milk that helps strengthen bones, right? Right, but without the vitamin D added also to the milk, the calcium won't work. The most important role of vitamin D is to regulate the amount of calcium it absorbs from food

Calcium balance is regulated by the interaction of three hormones, vitamin D, parathyroid hormone (PTH) and calcitonin. PTH is secreted by the parathyroid gland and calcitonin, which antagonizes or blocks the effects of PTH, by special cells in the thyroid gland

Calcium levels in the blood must be kept within a narrow range for normal functioning of the nervous system and maintenance of bone density. Blood calcium levels are especially vital in childhood during bone growth. Vitamin D as calcitriol is an essential part of regulating the levels of calcium and phosphorus in the blood. The absorption of vitamin D improves with calcium, choline, fats, phosphorus and vitamins A and C

Calcium levels are detected by the parathyroid glands. If the blood calcium levels drop too low, the parathyroid glands secrete the parathyroid hormone. Parathyroid hormone stimulates the production of an enzyme in the kidneys. This enzyme increases the transformation from calcidiol to calcitriol. Calcitriol is a potent hormone that increases calcium levels in the blood

The increase in blood levels of calcitriol causes an increase in the absorption of calcium from food in the intestine. The kidneys also reduce the loss of calcium in the urine in response to the increase in calcitriol levels. In addition, calcium can be mobilized from the bones if dietary calcium levels are insufficient. Increasing the release of calcium from the bones requires parathyroid hormone in addition to calcitriol

When calcium in the diet is low, vitamin D activates osteoclasts so that calcium comes out of the bone to maintain blood levels of calcium. If vitamin D is also low, as calcium levels lower, parathyroid hormone (PTH) is stimulated, which causes a number of processes to try and elevate calcium levels, including activating more osteoclasts to get calcium out of bone