Why can humans produce Vitamin B from sunlight but not from artificial light sources?
In: 0
We get vitamin B complex from food, except for vitamin B12 which can be made from our gut bacteria, but it’s not sufficient for all our needs. So, essentially, vitamin B comes from food
I assume you have mixed up vitamin B with vitamin D. Vitamin D, or sunshine vitamin, is the one that we get from the sun, but it’s a bit more complicated than that:
Your skin has a special type of cholesterol, called 7-dehydrocholesterol. The UV rays from the sun, hit your skin and change that cholesterol by breaking a bond in it. By doing that, you have made cholecalciferol in your skin, which is like an early version of vitamin D. That compound then goes to your liver and turns into calcidiol, which is almost like vitamin D. That compound then goes to your kidneys which make calcitriol which is the active form of vitamin D.
The first step, the one with the UV light is the answer to your question. Artificial light doesn’t produce UV light so it can’t change 7-dehydrocholesterol into cholecalciferol. Therefore, you can’t get active vitamin D from artificial light. Keep in mind, that tanning until you get a light tan fills your liver with vitamin D precursors that can last you for 3 months, so you don’t really need to tan until you get sunburned. Just go out every one in a while and you’ll be okay.
If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Latest Answers