Have you been getting more vitamin D lately? Vitamin D plays a number of important roles in the body. It is vital for a healthy immune response, strong bones and teeth, cardiovascular well-being and mood support—just to name a few.*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

However, for the D in your body to work as it should, it requires a mineral partner—magnesium.

Researchers at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville discovered the link between vitamin D and magnesium after giving either a placebo or the real mineral to 250 people participating in a cancer prevention trial.

Nearly 80% of all adults in the US don’t get enough magnesium, which is responsible for more than 300 biochemical reactions. “Magnesium deficiency shuts down the vitamin D synthesis and metabolism pathway,” said lead author Qi Dai, MD, PhD.

What Dai’s team found is that magnesium optimizes vitamin D status by increasing it in people who are D-deficient and lowering it in people with high levels of the sunshine vitamin.

“Vitamin D insufficiency is something that has been recognized as a potential health problem on a fairly large scale in the US,” said study coauthor Martha Shrubsole, PhD.

Results were reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.