"seems to directly resemble" is NOT the same as a direct equivalent, or exact replicate.
Hence a problem with your theory.
"but can't involve microbes"
I was talking about the natural process of natural synthesis "in" the "skin".
You are misconstruing and confusing/convoluting my words, thus basing a false premise on a false basis.
Which makes for an illogical argument.
Have you studied the arts of rhetoric, dialect, debate, and such?
Because you are violating several basic tenets of logical debate.
"this hardly matters since the molecule is the same as that produced in the factory."
Yet another fallacy, and short sighted view/approach.
As I already mentioned, though a particular compound may technically be replicated, that does NOT mean they are the same thing.
One problem lies in the very nature of refinement.
In the process of refinement, other compounds are removed.
Compounds that may be (and often are) as important.
The natural processes that create vitamins in Nature do not create only vitamins. Other compounds are also produced. Other interactions are also involved.
Consider this:
Fritz Haber was a German Jewish Chemist whom is recognized as the creator of the Haber Process (later Haber-Bosch process) of Nitrogen synthesis.
Fritz Haber received a Nobel Prize for the creation of that process, but warned in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech against reliance on that process, stating that:
"It may be that this solution is not the final one. Nitrogen bacteria teach us that Nature, with her sophisticated forms of the chemistry of living matter, still understands and utilizes methods which we do not as yet know how to imitate."
Whereas Nitrogen has been recognized a highly-beneficial and necessary for plant growth, mere reliance on that Nitrogen alone itself is short-sighted (even the term "Nitrogen" is a highly-reductionist narrative, as there are several forms of Nitrogen, some being far more useful to plants than others, others being far for useful for microbes than others, and so forth).
The natural biological process (and resultant numerous interactions) underlying that natural production of Nitrogen are as important in the natural & healthy growth & development of plants.
The very presence of microbes, and their numerous, various and complex interactions and processes similarly play important roles in holistic plant growth & healthy development as does the compound Nitrogen itself present.
By substituting these complex and holistic processes of natural production of Nitrogen, with just Nitrogen itself, one undercuts the various other roles & functions of microbes, as they naturally produce that Nitrogen (i.e. - by simply adding Nitrogen to soils & plants, you are omitting the various steps, like the decomposition of organic matter by microbes, that 1. Feed those microbes, keeping them active & healthy; 2. Produce other compounds; 3. Produce more bioactive and diverse biota; and many other factors).
A key take away being that shortcuts to complex natural processes, can and often do, create more damage & problems than those shortcuts attempt to remedy.
Merely augmenting "vitamins" with synthetic "supplements" undercuts the numerous complex processes that create those "vitamins" in the first place.
Thus likely interfering with the development of a more solid & sound foundation of a healthy microbiome, and related.
And though correlation does not necessarily mean causation, the increasing uses of synthetic fertilizers on foods & crops has been met with decreasing levels of various natural nutrients in those foods & crops (again, as simply adding synthesized & refined "fertilizers" to soils does not provide the diverse dietary needs nor natural healthy development of microbes and the surrounding biota of those soils, which then work to create more natural nutrients in those foods).
Thereby requiring even more human dietary "supplements" to replace those inadequate levels of natural nutrients in those foods.
Leading to a VICIOUS CIRCLE of non sustainability.
The relationship being that if you're simply relying on synthetic (even natural) supplements to satisfy your "vitamin" requirements, you're likely ignoring better dietary & other habits that are necessary for better & more natural biological processes that create those "vitamins", creating more natural health.
And in case you still can't understand the relevance herein, one last attempt:
Whereas "vitamins" may play an important role in natural health, those natural biological processes that naturally produce those "vitamins" may be as, if not more important, than the vitamins themselves.
Consider the vital role of "probiotics", which are important in supporting the microbes that form a very bases of all life.
The concept behind "probiotics" is providing those food stuffs and other vital constituents that lead to healthier, more abundant, and naturally created microbes that are necessary for healthier natural biological functions.
If you simply add microbes to an environment, but fail to account for and provide for their biological needs, they won't survive (for long).
"Probiotics" help account for, and provide for their needs.
If humans simply take more & more vitamins, disregarding the numerous other constituents and processes that naturally produce those vitamins, true health cannot be achieved.
So, rather than simply relying more more "supplements", the best approach is to reevaluate and reinstate those complex natural processes that result in more natural production of those "supplements".
Beyond this last-ditch attempt, I can't help if you still can't understand this concept.
Also, I seek to present more in-depth knowledge and comprehensive data to allow people to engage in more deliberative and thoughtful cognitive processes.
I'm not so insecure that I feel the need to beat /force my ideas onto others.
True progress, innovation, discover, knowledge, etc are often the result of collaborative processes.
"Science", "medicine" and such are like Philosophy (or should be, at least).
True Philosophy relies on never knowing for certain, and knowing one doesn't know for certain.
Always seeking knowledge, relying on evidence, but knowing that one is never certain about what they think they may know, thus continuing to seek knowledge.
And realizing what they may believe today may in fact be proven completely wrong in the future.
I seek to encourage people to seek out more independence.
I was Stock Broker for a long time, and I know that there are massive power & profit motives behind systems of growing dependence.
Reliance on lab-created (aka synthetic) "vitamins" is one of those dependencies.
But hey if you don't want to consider any of this, that is certainly your prerogative.
Ignorance IS bliss.
If you truly think you have all the answers, that is your problem.
If you want to continue buying supplements from those whom seek those power 7 profit motives from selling those, rather than engaging in the holistic practices that naturally produce those vitamins that those supplements are supposed to replicate, that is your business.
Beyond that, I'm done here.
I can only suggest you consider more, and seek to argue less.
Consideration is a basic tenet of truly advancing one's level of continuance of true knowledge.
Hippocrates, often known as the "Father of modern medicine", reportedly wrote:
"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
Most all natural vitamins, natural antibiotics, and other highly-beneficial compounds known to humans are created by the interactions of microbes (bacteria, fungi, etc.) as they work with enzymes, secondary metabolites, and other compounds.
No doubt vitamins, like Vitamin D, are necessary for truly natural & effective human health.
But, most all commercially-available vitamins today are synthesized, not natural. They are largely products of the mining, oil refining, and lab-created chemical processes.
The power of money and massive marketing.
Synthetic Vitamin D is NOT equivalent to natural Vitamin D.
Ditto for vitamins A, B's, C, E, and so on.
But all these synthetic "equivalents" are being touted as good & effective as their natural counterparts (for profit, of course), by those companies with the billions to invest in massive PR campaigns.
In fact, many, of not most, commercially-available synthetic "vitamins" are created from industrial wastes.
Thymol is a phytochemical (plant-derived compound) that is recognized for being as effective at killing over 99.9 percent of germs (bacteria, viruses, etc.) as is the synthetic active ingredients in the disinfectant in Lysol.
Thymol is often found naturally in herbs like Thyme, Basil, Oregano, and others.
Thymol is a natural monoterpenoid phenol derivative, a type of polyphenol, many of which are considered secondary metabolites, as they play vital roles in metabolic processes of/by microbes, as those microbes interact with enzymes and other compounds, as they decompose organic matter.
Natural vitamins are created in this same way (though much highly-narrative reports & articles state that the "skin" makes Vitamin D from the sun's rays, truth is that the massive colonies of microbes that live in the "skin" are responsible for that synthesis of Vitamin D from the sun's rays. Those microbial cells often out-populate "human" cells by a 10:1 ratio or higher, thus most of our bodies are composed of "foreign", highly-beneficial cells. Hence a reason why the contemporary "war on microbes" is heavily-misguided, and completely disastrous).
Natural antibiotics are created this same way (as "good" microbes seek to destroy "bad" microbes via natural antibiotic "chemical warfare" - a statement that by itself is highly-narrative, but provided here merely for sake of brevity).
But Thymol is only one of thousands of polyphenols & phytochemicals.
Which work to create effective natural health.
Along with natural vitamins.
Herbs & spices are way more useful than merely for flavoring.
The highly-beneficial compounds they contain provide for natural health, including immunity.
The highly-beneficial compounds they contain provide natural support for the beneficial microbes that serve as a basis for all life, and natural health.
The modern human diet has largely become complete garbage.
With more over-processed, synthetic, and highly-refined ingredients replacing more natural, healthy & beneficial ingredients.
Just as soft drinks devolved from more beneficial root, herb & tonic medicines (i.e. "bitters", aka polyphenols) of the past, into synthetic, sugary, non-nutritive, even unhealthy & hazardous junk foods, so too is much modern food being turned into garbage.
More naturally nutritious compounds have been removed from more foods.
Leading to the need for more synthetic vitamins, antibiotics, etc., each of which are now causing their own problems.
A vicious circle of ill health.
The same largest Big Asset Management firms & Big Banks that own the largest "competing" corporations that are profiting from destroying our foods, and our health, are also profiting by selling us their synthetic "remedies" to that degrading health problem.
Completely negating & destroying that wise, age-old adage:
"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
THIS IS HOW THE CORPORATO-SOCIALIST NEO-FEUDAL SYSTEM IS CONSTRUCTED.
More humans are being relegated as mere serfs & peasant, existing most solely to work for, consume from, and continue to enrich the neo-feudal Lords, whom now control most everything.
Whilst this is an interesting article, more people should be taught to engage in more habits & actions & activities that spur more natural health.
Rather than encouraged to just buy more "supplements" from the neo-feudal Lords whom control & have bastardized those synthetic "supplements".
WHERE YOU HAVE SYSTEMS OF GROWING DEPENDENCE, YOU HAVE AN INCREASING ABSENCE OF INDEPENDENCE.
THERE ARE MASSIVE POWER & PROFIT MOTIVES BEHIND SYSTEMS OF GROWING DEPENDENCE.
PEOPLE WILL NEVER TAKE PERSONAL POWER BACK FROM THE NEO-FEUDAL LORDS AS LONG AS THEY CONTINUE TO WILLINGLY SURRENDER THAT PERSONAL POWER TO THOSE NEO-FEUDAL LORDS.
WE ARE LIVING IN THE DARK AGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY.
PEOPLE HAVE LARGELY FORGOTTEN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PAST, THE KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE & NATURAL SYSTEMS, THEY ARE NO LONGER ENLIGHTENED BY THE LIGHT OF NATURAL TRUTHS.
You have no idea what you are discussing: "synthetic Vitamin D is NOT equivalent to natural Vitamin D."
Vitamin D3 cholecalciferol is made from 7-dehydrocholesterol in our skin by the action of ~295nm UV-B light, which gives a particular carbon-carbon bond enough energy to break the bond and so the carbon ring which it is part of. Exactly the same process is used industrially, using 7-dehydrocholesterol derived from wool-fat. The resultant molecule is the same. See: https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/B978-0-12-381978-9.10006-X
Charles Darwin warned that "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
A statement that reflects a basis of the Dunning Kruger effect.
You seem to be missing the larger points:
What is "skin"?
Both the epidermis and dermis are composed highly of large quantities of microbial cells, and not solely "human" cells.
As such those microbial cells provide numerous natural biological functions.
Much "science" still does not, and can not recognize the numerous and massive complexities of the microbial world.
Please show me irrefutable, empirical evidence that cholecalciferol is made from 7-dehydrocholesterol solely by out "skin" cells, and not by the microbial cells that reside amongst those "skin" cells.
Conventional narrative holds that "skin" is responsible for that natural synthesis, but deeper understand of the biological processes reveals that more likely microbial interactions and processes are responsible for that synthesis.
And just because labs can replicate (synthesize) the actions of a natural process, does NOT mean they have perfectly duplicated that natural process.
Cholecalciferol, also known as vitamin D3 and colecalciferol, is a TYPE of vitamin D.
There are various TYPES of vitamin D.
The prohormone of the active form of vitamin D, calcitriol.
Calcitriol is the active form of vitamin D, normally made in the kidney (via complex interactions involving not just "human" cells but also microbial cells).
7-DHC can be produced by animals and plants via different pathways. It is also made by some algae, but the pathway is POORLY UNDERSTOOD (i.e. "science" doesn't understand it - so consider that fact).
Industrially, 7-DHC generally comes from lanolin, and is used to produce vitamin D3 by UV exposure.
Cholecalciferol is produced industrially by the ultraviolet irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol extracted from lanolin found in sheep's wool. Cholesterol is extracted from wool grease and wool wax alcohols obtained from the cleaning of wool after shearing. The cholesterol undergoes a four-step process to make 7-dehydrocholesterol, the same compound that is produced in the skin of animals. The 7-dehydrocholesterol is then irradiated with ultraviolet light. Some unwanted isomers are formed during irradiation: these are removed by various techniques, leaving a resin which melts at about room temperature and usually has a potency of 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 International Units per gram.
I honestly don't expect you to truly understand much of this, as you seemed wrapped in deep-rooted cognitive constraints, but consider the following as example:
Vanilla flavoring is often purified as mere synthetic vanillin, which is considered chemically-equivalent to the active compound of Vanilla flavor.
But natural vanilla extract is a mixture of several hundred different compounds in addition to natural vanillin.
Natural vanilla, which is comprised on those several hundred different compounds, has beneficial properties not exhibited solely by that synthetic nor even purified vanillin.
The point being, just because "science" thinks it can synthesize and purify something natural, doesn't mean it understands nor perfectly replicates that holistic natural process.
Yes, "science" thinks it can replicate Nature.
But the growing problem of antibiotic resistance is evidence that synthetic "science" is failing.
More contemporary Research on agents, such as the Murine Norovirus, demonstrates how little we still know about the actions of viruses, and their highly-complex interactions with various microbes, and antibiotics, and other compounds.
I work closely with microbes, on a daily basis.
And, like Darwin, have personally observed & witnessed how much of what is being taught is merely false and/or shortsighted "knowledge".
Just because "Experts" think they know, doesn't mean they truly know.
Again, a bases of that Dunning Kruger effect (ignorance is just as applicable to the "learned" as it is the "unlearned", as "education", "science" etc. are often rooted in mere superstition).
The 19th-20th century Educator, Philosopher and true Polymath Bertrand Russell wrote, as part of his Ten Commandments of Critical Thinking:
"Do not feel absolutely certain of anything."
Because, "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
And:
"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric."
Only those whom have been able to extricate themselves from mere perceptions of knowledge, and have dared to question conventional narratives, have led to innate truths.
I suggest you open your mind just a tad.
Don't be afraid to be more considerate of "divergent"/"eccentric" ideas.
True PROGRESS is often NOT made by sticking to stringent and/or static ideas/concepts/beliefs/etc.
The industrial production of vitamin D3 cholecalciferol seems to directly resemble the process in skin cells, but can't involve microbes, since it is done in a hydrocarbon solvent. Even if microbes were involved in the skin production of cholecalciferol, this hardly matters since the molecule is the same as that produced in the factory.
The overly-simplistic cursory answer is that "skin" makes Vitamin D".
A more complex analysis and understanding of the "skin" explains in more detail that Keratinocytes are the predominant cell type of epidermis and originate in the basal layer, produce keratin, and are responsible for the formation of the epidermal water barrier by making and secreting lipids. Keratinocytes also regulate calcium absorption by the activation of cholesterol precursors by UVB light to form vitamin D.
But an even more complex analysis and understanding of the "skin" explains that:
The top layer of the epidermis, the stratum corneum, is composed of terminally differentiated, enucleated keratinocytes, that are known as squames. Squames consist of keratin fibrils and crosslinked, cornified envelopes embedded in lipid bilayers, forming the ‘bricks and mortar’ of the epidermis. The skin is a continuously self-renewing organ, and squames are constantly shed from the skin surface as the final stage of terminal differentiation, having begun their migration from the basal layer ~4 weeks earlier.
Going even further:
The "skin" is composed of a complex microbiome.
The perception of the skin as an ecosystem — composed of living biological and physical components occupying diverse habitats — can advance our understanding of the delicate balance between host and microorganism. Disruptions in the balance on either side of the equation can result in skin disorders and/or infections, and/or malfunctions of roles of the "skin" (including over or under production of Vitamin D).
The "skin" is the human body’s largest organ, colonized by a diverse milieu of microorganisms, most of which are harmless or even beneficial to their host. Colonization is driven by the ecology of the skin surface, which is highly variable depending on topographical location, endogenous host factors and exogenous environmental factors. The cutaneous innate and adaptive immune responses can modulate the skin microbiota, but the microbiota also functions in educating the immune system. The development of molecular methods to identify microorganisms has led to an emerging view of the resident skin bacteria as highly diverse and variable. An enhanced understanding of the skin microbiome is necessary to gain insight into microbial involvement in human skin disorders (including production of Vitamin D) and to enable novel promicrobial and antimicrobial therapeutic approaches for their treatment.
One factor that determines good skin functioning, is a properly working skin microbiome. This complex set of microorganisms consists of bacteria, fungi, viruses, micro-eukaryotes (mites), archaea, and phages. Probst et al.
Each working at different layers, with different human cells.
So, saying the "skin" produces Vitamin D is merely trivial, shallow and cursory data.
It's demonstrates one's ignorance to the greater complexities, actions, interactions, and roles of microbes/microorganisms with the various layers and cell types of that "skin".
And this demonstrates why the world, as run by fallible humans, is in the sorry state it's in.
"Experts" whom think they know far more than they truly know.
Promulgating ignorance instead of true knowledge.
And this could help to explain why Johns Hopkins University in 2016 listed the U.S. medical industry as the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S., via preventable medical errors (aka medical malpractice).
Doctors/Physicians, and other medical staff are more well-trained than they are truly educated.
They're trained only to "know" certain bits of knowledge, not accumulate a more comprehensive understanding of the various systems involving human health.
They're taught primarily to perform systematic, routine tasks, often involving expensive machines, procedures,pharmaceuticals, etc., which lead to big bills.
They exist most solely to send profits upwards.
And get paid well for their complicity in that massively corrupted & failing, but extremely wealthy medical industry.
Whist health suffers.
We're living in an era of ultra-specialization, where more & more people, especially trained "Experts", can only perform very specific & limited tasks.
With fewer & fewer gaining more complex knowledge of the various factors and disciplines surrounding their specialties.
It highlights the meaning of the saying "Can't see the forest for the trees".
The medical industry is one of the few where you actually get paid far more for knowing far less.
Can you cite research involving unicellular or multicellular organisms affecting the production of vitamin D3 in the skin? "Skin" is good enough for most people - and the only way of getting enough D3 through the skin involves levels of UV-B radiation which damage DNA and so increase the risk of skin cancer.
"seems to directly resemble" is NOT the same as a direct equivalent, or exact replicate.
Hence a problem with your theory.
"but can't involve microbes"
I was talking about the natural process of natural synthesis "in" the "skin".
You are misconstruing and confusing/convoluting my words, thus basing a false premise on a false basis.
Which makes for an illogical argument.
Have you studied the arts of rhetoric, dialect, debate, and such?
Because you are violating several basic tenets of logical debate.
"this hardly matters since the molecule is the same as that produced in the factory."
Yet another fallacy, and short sighted view/approach.
As I already mentioned, though a particular compound may technically be replicated, that does NOT mean they are the same thing.
One problem lies in the very nature of refinement.
In the process of refinement, other compounds are removed.
Compounds that may be (and often are) as important.
The natural processes that create vitamins in Nature do not create only vitamins. Other compounds are also produced. Other interactions are also involved.
Consider this:
Fritz Haber was a German Jewish Chemist whom is recognized as the creator of the Haber Process (later Haber-Bosch process) of Nitrogen synthesis.
Fritz Haber received a Nobel Prize for the creation of that process, but warned in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech against reliance on that process, stating that:
"It may be that this solution is not the final one. Nitrogen bacteria teach us that Nature, with her sophisticated forms of the chemistry of living matter, still understands and utilizes methods which we do not as yet know how to imitate."
Whereas Nitrogen has been recognized a highly-beneficial and necessary for plant growth, mere reliance on that Nitrogen alone itself is short-sighted (even the term "Nitrogen" is a highly-reductionist narrative, as there are several forms of Nitrogen, some being far more useful to plants than others, others being far for useful for microbes than others, and so forth).
The natural biological process (and resultant numerous interactions) underlying that natural production of Nitrogen are as important in the natural & healthy growth & development of plants.
The very presence of microbes, and their numerous, various and complex interactions and processes similarly play important roles in holistic plant growth & healthy development as does the compound Nitrogen itself present.
By substituting these complex and holistic processes of natural production of Nitrogen, with just Nitrogen itself, one undercuts the various other roles & functions of microbes, as they naturally produce that Nitrogen (i.e. - by simply adding Nitrogen to soils & plants, you are omitting the various steps, like the decomposition of organic matter by microbes, that 1. Feed those microbes, keeping them active & healthy; 2. Produce other compounds; 3. Produce more bioactive and diverse biota; and many other factors).
A key take away being that shortcuts to complex natural processes, can and often do, create more damage & problems than those shortcuts attempt to remedy.
Merely augmenting "vitamins" with synthetic "supplements" undercuts the numerous complex processes that create those "vitamins" in the first place.
Thus likely interfering with the development of a more solid & sound foundation of a healthy microbiome, and related.
And though correlation does not necessarily mean causation, the increasing uses of synthetic fertilizers on foods & crops has been met with decreasing levels of various natural nutrients in those foods & crops (again, as simply adding synthesized & refined "fertilizers" to soils does not provide the diverse dietary needs nor natural healthy development of microbes and the surrounding biota of those soils, which then work to create more natural nutrients in those foods).
Thereby requiring even more human dietary "supplements" to replace those inadequate levels of natural nutrients in those foods.
Leading to a VICIOUS CIRCLE of non sustainability.
The relationship being that if you're simply relying on synthetic (even natural) supplements to satisfy your "vitamin" requirements, you're likely ignoring better dietary & other habits that are necessary for better & more natural biological processes that create those "vitamins", creating more natural health.
And in case you still can't understand the relevance herein, one last attempt:
Whereas "vitamins" may play an important role in natural health, those natural biological processes that naturally produce those "vitamins" may be as, if not more important, than the vitamins themselves.
Consider the vital role of "probiotics", which are important in supporting the microbes that form a very bases of all life.
The concept behind "probiotics" is providing those food stuffs and other vital constituents that lead to healthier, more abundant, and naturally created microbes that are necessary for healthier natural biological functions.
If you simply add microbes to an environment, but fail to account for and provide for their biological needs, they won't survive (for long).
"Probiotics" help account for, and provide for their needs.
If humans simply take more & more vitamins, disregarding the numerous other constituents and processes that naturally produce those vitamins, true health cannot be achieved.
So, rather than simply relying more more "supplements", the best approach is to reevaluate and reinstate those complex natural processes that result in more natural production of those "supplements".
Beyond this last-ditch attempt, I can't help if you still can't understand this concept.
Also, I seek to present more in-depth knowledge and comprehensive data to allow people to engage in more deliberative and thoughtful cognitive processes.
I'm not so insecure that I feel the need to beat /force my ideas onto others.
True progress, innovation, discover, knowledge, etc are often the result of collaborative processes.
"Science", "medicine" and such are like Philosophy (or should be, at least).
True Philosophy relies on never knowing for certain, and knowing one doesn't know for certain.
Always seeking knowledge, relying on evidence, but knowing that one is never certain about what they think they may know, thus continuing to seek knowledge.
And realizing what they may believe today may in fact be proven completely wrong in the future.
I seek to encourage people to seek out more independence.
I was Stock Broker for a long time, and I know that there are massive power & profit motives behind systems of growing dependence.
Reliance on lab-created (aka synthetic) "vitamins" is one of those dependencies.
But hey if you don't want to consider any of this, that is certainly your prerogative.
Ignorance IS bliss.
If you truly think you have all the answers, that is your problem.
If you want to continue buying supplements from those whom seek those power 7 profit motives from selling those, rather than engaging in the holistic practices that naturally produce those vitamins that those supplements are supposed to replicate, that is your business.
Beyond that, I'm done here.
I can only suggest you consider more, and seek to argue less.
Consideration is a basic tenet of truly advancing one's level of continuance of true knowledge.
Hippocrates, often known as the "Father of modern medicine", reportedly wrote:
"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
Most all natural vitamins, natural antibiotics, and other highly-beneficial compounds known to humans are created by the interactions of microbes (bacteria, fungi, etc.) as they work with enzymes, secondary metabolites, and other compounds.
No doubt vitamins, like Vitamin D, are necessary for truly natural & effective human health.
But, most all commercially-available vitamins today are synthesized, not natural. They are largely products of the mining, oil refining, and lab-created chemical processes.
The power of money and massive marketing.
Synthetic Vitamin D is NOT equivalent to natural Vitamin D.
Ditto for vitamins A, B's, C, E, and so on.
But all these synthetic "equivalents" are being touted as good & effective as their natural counterparts (for profit, of course), by those companies with the billions to invest in massive PR campaigns.
In fact, many, of not most, commercially-available synthetic "vitamins" are created from industrial wastes.
Thymol is a phytochemical (plant-derived compound) that is recognized for being as effective at killing over 99.9 percent of germs (bacteria, viruses, etc.) as is the synthetic active ingredients in the disinfectant in Lysol.
Thymol is often found naturally in herbs like Thyme, Basil, Oregano, and others.
Thymol is a natural monoterpenoid phenol derivative, a type of polyphenol, many of which are considered secondary metabolites, as they play vital roles in metabolic processes of/by microbes, as those microbes interact with enzymes and other compounds, as they decompose organic matter.
Natural vitamins are created in this same way (though much highly-narrative reports & articles state that the "skin" makes Vitamin D from the sun's rays, truth is that the massive colonies of microbes that live in the "skin" are responsible for that synthesis of Vitamin D from the sun's rays. Those microbial cells often out-populate "human" cells by a 10:1 ratio or higher, thus most of our bodies are composed of "foreign", highly-beneficial cells. Hence a reason why the contemporary "war on microbes" is heavily-misguided, and completely disastrous).
Natural antibiotics are created this same way (as "good" microbes seek to destroy "bad" microbes via natural antibiotic "chemical warfare" - a statement that by itself is highly-narrative, but provided here merely for sake of brevity).
But Thymol is only one of thousands of polyphenols & phytochemicals.
Which work to create effective natural health.
Along with natural vitamins.
Herbs & spices are way more useful than merely for flavoring.
The highly-beneficial compounds they contain provide for natural health, including immunity.
The highly-beneficial compounds they contain provide natural support for the beneficial microbes that serve as a basis for all life, and natural health.
The modern human diet has largely become complete garbage.
With more over-processed, synthetic, and highly-refined ingredients replacing more natural, healthy & beneficial ingredients.
Just as soft drinks devolved from more beneficial root, herb & tonic medicines (i.e. "bitters", aka polyphenols) of the past, into synthetic, sugary, non-nutritive, even unhealthy & hazardous junk foods, so too is much modern food being turned into garbage.
More naturally nutritious compounds have been removed from more foods.
Leading to the need for more synthetic vitamins, antibiotics, etc., each of which are now causing their own problems.
A vicious circle of ill health.
The same largest Big Asset Management firms & Big Banks that own the largest "competing" corporations that are profiting from destroying our foods, and our health, are also profiting by selling us their synthetic "remedies" to that degrading health problem.
Completely negating & destroying that wise, age-old adage:
"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
THIS IS HOW THE CORPORATO-SOCIALIST NEO-FEUDAL SYSTEM IS CONSTRUCTED.
More humans are being relegated as mere serfs & peasant, existing most solely to work for, consume from, and continue to enrich the neo-feudal Lords, whom now control most everything.
Whilst this is an interesting article, more people should be taught to engage in more habits & actions & activities that spur more natural health.
Rather than encouraged to just buy more "supplements" from the neo-feudal Lords whom control & have bastardized those synthetic "supplements".
WHERE YOU HAVE SYSTEMS OF GROWING DEPENDENCE, YOU HAVE AN INCREASING ABSENCE OF INDEPENDENCE.
THERE ARE MASSIVE POWER & PROFIT MOTIVES BEHIND SYSTEMS OF GROWING DEPENDENCE.
PEOPLE WILL NEVER TAKE PERSONAL POWER BACK FROM THE NEO-FEUDAL LORDS AS LONG AS THEY CONTINUE TO WILLINGLY SURRENDER THAT PERSONAL POWER TO THOSE NEO-FEUDAL LORDS.
WE ARE LIVING IN THE DARK AGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY.
PEOPLE HAVE LARGELY FORGOTTEN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PAST, THE KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE & NATURAL SYSTEMS, THEY ARE NO LONGER ENLIGHTENED BY THE LIGHT OF NATURAL TRUTHS.
Consider writing for nolanchart.com; you can turn these comments into an article.
You have no idea what you are discussing: "synthetic Vitamin D is NOT equivalent to natural Vitamin D."
Vitamin D3 cholecalciferol is made from 7-dehydrocholesterol in our skin by the action of ~295nm UV-B light, which gives a particular carbon-carbon bond enough energy to break the bond and so the carbon ring which it is part of. Exactly the same process is used industrially, using 7-dehydrocholesterol derived from wool-fat. The resultant molecule is the same. See: https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/B978-0-12-381978-9.10006-X
Charles Darwin warned that "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
A statement that reflects a basis of the Dunning Kruger effect.
You seem to be missing the larger points:
What is "skin"?
Both the epidermis and dermis are composed highly of large quantities of microbial cells, and not solely "human" cells.
As such those microbial cells provide numerous natural biological functions.
Much "science" still does not, and can not recognize the numerous and massive complexities of the microbial world.
Please show me irrefutable, empirical evidence that cholecalciferol is made from 7-dehydrocholesterol solely by out "skin" cells, and not by the microbial cells that reside amongst those "skin" cells.
Conventional narrative holds that "skin" is responsible for that natural synthesis, but deeper understand of the biological processes reveals that more likely microbial interactions and processes are responsible for that synthesis.
And just because labs can replicate (synthesize) the actions of a natural process, does NOT mean they have perfectly duplicated that natural process.
Cholecalciferol, also known as vitamin D3 and colecalciferol, is a TYPE of vitamin D.
There are various TYPES of vitamin D.
The prohormone of the active form of vitamin D, calcitriol.
Calcitriol is the active form of vitamin D, normally made in the kidney (via complex interactions involving not just "human" cells but also microbial cells).
7-DHC can be produced by animals and plants via different pathways. It is also made by some algae, but the pathway is POORLY UNDERSTOOD (i.e. "science" doesn't understand it - so consider that fact).
Industrially, 7-DHC generally comes from lanolin, and is used to produce vitamin D3 by UV exposure.
Cholecalciferol is produced industrially by the ultraviolet irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol extracted from lanolin found in sheep's wool. Cholesterol is extracted from wool grease and wool wax alcohols obtained from the cleaning of wool after shearing. The cholesterol undergoes a four-step process to make 7-dehydrocholesterol, the same compound that is produced in the skin of animals. The 7-dehydrocholesterol is then irradiated with ultraviolet light. Some unwanted isomers are formed during irradiation: these are removed by various techniques, leaving a resin which melts at about room temperature and usually has a potency of 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 International Units per gram.
I honestly don't expect you to truly understand much of this, as you seemed wrapped in deep-rooted cognitive constraints, but consider the following as example:
Vanilla flavoring is often purified as mere synthetic vanillin, which is considered chemically-equivalent to the active compound of Vanilla flavor.
But natural vanilla extract is a mixture of several hundred different compounds in addition to natural vanillin.
Natural vanilla, which is comprised on those several hundred different compounds, has beneficial properties not exhibited solely by that synthetic nor even purified vanillin.
The point being, just because "science" thinks it can synthesize and purify something natural, doesn't mean it understands nor perfectly replicates that holistic natural process.
Yes, "science" thinks it can replicate Nature.
But the growing problem of antibiotic resistance is evidence that synthetic "science" is failing.
More contemporary Research on agents, such as the Murine Norovirus, demonstrates how little we still know about the actions of viruses, and their highly-complex interactions with various microbes, and antibiotics, and other compounds.
I work closely with microbes, on a daily basis.
And, like Darwin, have personally observed & witnessed how much of what is being taught is merely false and/or shortsighted "knowledge".
Just because "Experts" think they know, doesn't mean they truly know.
Again, a bases of that Dunning Kruger effect (ignorance is just as applicable to the "learned" as it is the "unlearned", as "education", "science" etc. are often rooted in mere superstition).
The 19th-20th century Educator, Philosopher and true Polymath Bertrand Russell wrote, as part of his Ten Commandments of Critical Thinking:
"Do not feel absolutely certain of anything."
Because, "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
And:
"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric."
Only those whom have been able to extricate themselves from mere perceptions of knowledge, and have dared to question conventional narratives, have led to innate truths.
I suggest you open your mind just a tad.
Don't be afraid to be more considerate of "divergent"/"eccentric" ideas.
True PROGRESS is often NOT made by sticking to stringent and/or static ideas/concepts/beliefs/etc.
The industrial production of vitamin D3 cholecalciferol seems to directly resemble the process in skin cells, but can't involve microbes, since it is done in a hydrocarbon solvent. Even if microbes were involved in the skin production of cholecalciferol, this hardly matters since the molecule is the same as that produced in the factory.
The overly-simplistic cursory answer is that "skin" makes Vitamin D".
A more complex analysis and understanding of the "skin" explains in more detail that Keratinocytes are the predominant cell type of epidermis and originate in the basal layer, produce keratin, and are responsible for the formation of the epidermal water barrier by making and secreting lipids. Keratinocytes also regulate calcium absorption by the activation of cholesterol precursors by UVB light to form vitamin D.
But an even more complex analysis and understanding of the "skin" explains that:
The top layer of the epidermis, the stratum corneum, is composed of terminally differentiated, enucleated keratinocytes, that are known as squames. Squames consist of keratin fibrils and crosslinked, cornified envelopes embedded in lipid bilayers, forming the ‘bricks and mortar’ of the epidermis. The skin is a continuously self-renewing organ, and squames are constantly shed from the skin surface as the final stage of terminal differentiation, having begun their migration from the basal layer ~4 weeks earlier.
Going even further:
The "skin" is composed of a complex microbiome.
The perception of the skin as an ecosystem — composed of living biological and physical components occupying diverse habitats — can advance our understanding of the delicate balance between host and microorganism. Disruptions in the balance on either side of the equation can result in skin disorders and/or infections, and/or malfunctions of roles of the "skin" (including over or under production of Vitamin D).
The "skin" is the human body’s largest organ, colonized by a diverse milieu of microorganisms, most of which are harmless or even beneficial to their host. Colonization is driven by the ecology of the skin surface, which is highly variable depending on topographical location, endogenous host factors and exogenous environmental factors. The cutaneous innate and adaptive immune responses can modulate the skin microbiota, but the microbiota also functions in educating the immune system. The development of molecular methods to identify microorganisms has led to an emerging view of the resident skin bacteria as highly diverse and variable. An enhanced understanding of the skin microbiome is necessary to gain insight into microbial involvement in human skin disorders (including production of Vitamin D) and to enable novel promicrobial and antimicrobial therapeutic approaches for their treatment.
One factor that determines good skin functioning, is a properly working skin microbiome. This complex set of microorganisms consists of bacteria, fungi, viruses, micro-eukaryotes (mites), archaea, and phages. Probst et al.
Each working at different layers, with different human cells.
So, saying the "skin" produces Vitamin D is merely trivial, shallow and cursory data.
It's demonstrates one's ignorance to the greater complexities, actions, interactions, and roles of microbes/microorganisms with the various layers and cell types of that "skin".
And this demonstrates why the world, as run by fallible humans, is in the sorry state it's in.
"Experts" whom think they know far more than they truly know.
Promulgating ignorance instead of true knowledge.
And this could help to explain why Johns Hopkins University in 2016 listed the U.S. medical industry as the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S., via preventable medical errors (aka medical malpractice).
Doctors/Physicians, and other medical staff are more well-trained than they are truly educated.
They're trained only to "know" certain bits of knowledge, not accumulate a more comprehensive understanding of the various systems involving human health.
They're taught primarily to perform systematic, routine tasks, often involving expensive machines, procedures,pharmaceuticals, etc., which lead to big bills.
They exist most solely to send profits upwards.
And get paid well for their complicity in that massively corrupted & failing, but extremely wealthy medical industry.
Whist health suffers.
We're living in an era of ultra-specialization, where more & more people, especially trained "Experts", can only perform very specific & limited tasks.
With fewer & fewer gaining more complex knowledge of the various factors and disciplines surrounding their specialties.
It highlights the meaning of the saying "Can't see the forest for the trees".
The medical industry is one of the few where you actually get paid far more for knowing far less.
Can you cite research involving unicellular or multicellular organisms affecting the production of vitamin D3 in the skin? "Skin" is good enough for most people - and the only way of getting enough D3 through the skin involves levels of UV-B radiation which damage DNA and so increase the risk of skin cancer.