The Synergy Between Vitamin D and Zinc - Why You Need Both
One of the main things that vitamin D does is help us to absorb calcium. This is how it provides us with a lot of its benefits. For example, calcium is important for the immune system’s response to infections (1) and affects wound healing (2).
One’s vitamin D blood level doesn’t directly translate into calcium absorption, which explains why some studies on vitamin D supplementation haven’t shown any benefits. What matters is how much of this vitamin D is being converted to the active version of vitamin D in the kidneys. This is what directly causes calcium absorption in the gut. From looking at studies in rats, it seems zinc is important for the conversion of vitamin D to its active version (3) (4).
This explains why some research has concluded that the main problems of zinc deficiency happen because of a lack of calcium (5) (3).
Apart from helping to convert vitamin D to the active form, zinc has even been shown to improve the effectiveness of this active form of vitamin D within bone cells (6). This means we need adequate levels of zinc for the benefits of vitamin D. The vitamin D isn’t going to give us the same benefits if we’re not absorbing the calcium because we’re low on zinc.
So zinc helps vitamin D carry out its job. This is further supported by a study that found supplementing zinc was able to reverse age related bone loss in humans (7).
It seems the synergy between vitamin D and zinc works the other way round too, such that vitamin D also helps zinc absorption.
In zinc deficient rats, the zinc content of blood, bone, kidney, liver and pancreas all increased when vitamin D was supplemented (8). Vitamin D also increased the amount of zinc that made it into the bones of chicks (9).
Studies in a test tube with human intestinal cells have shown that the active vitamin D form stimulates the uptake of zinc (10).
Sure, animal and test tube studies don’t always translate perfectly into human results but it does show if we want good zinc levels, we might need to think about getting some vitamin D too.
Want to know why vegetarian vitamin D may be better for you than vegan vitamin D? Read "Why the ThinkPharm Formula isn't vegan".
Want to know how to dose your vitamin D perfectly? Read "How to get the right vitamin D levels (Vitamin D Part 2)".
Want to know how copper could help you burn more fat? Watch our youtube video here.
To read more about the benefits of zinc and vitamin D for the immune system, click here (Zinc, Vitamin D).
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