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A podcast that helps you understand the fascinating chemistry hidden in your everyday life.
Have you ever wondered why onions make you cry? Or how soap gets your hands clean? What really is margarine, or why do trees change colors in the fall? Melissa is a chemist, and to answer these questions she started a podcast, called Chemistry for your life!
In each episode Melissa explains the chemistry behind one of life’s mysteries to Jam, who is definitely not a chemist, but she explains it in a way that is easy to understand, and totally fascinating.
If you’re someone who loves learning new things, or who wonders about the way the world works, then give us a listen.
181 Vitamin D
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Melissa: [00:00:00] Okay jam. Are you ready to learn about what vitamin d is?
Jam: Ah, vitamin D, sure. I'm ready.
Melissa: swilled it and said the word vitamin before we started recording. But what is vitamin D and how do we get it from the sun? Is that even real? Do we really even get it from the sun? You've heard that,
Jam: Oh yeah, I've heard that for sure.
Melissa: So that's what we're going to talk about today.
Melissa: We're going to talk about also some really fun, cool facts about vitamin D just beyond the sun stuff. So, I'm excited.
Jam: it, but I could have picked any vitamin in my head, you know? So I didn't know it was going to be vitamin D. Could have been
Melissa: Whatever.
Jam: whatever the other ones are, I feel like they picked random letters on some of those
Melissa: They did. Yeah. Yeah. I did read a little bit about it and how vitamins came to be. And it was sort of like, they didn't know enough to be able to isolate the compounds and like give them a name. So they just put them into category, like these are vital. And so they like made them. [00:01:00] And then I think also a lot of them had a mean functional group.
Melissa: So once they. I don't know. I've heard a few different things. None of that is none of that's the episode. None of that's researched. That's just things I heard, but interest anyway. Yeah. So they just did kind of assign random letters and I'm going to talk about what the actual in detail stuff about vitamin D is today.
Jam: cool, I'm very into this,
Melissa: Let's do it. Hey, I'm Melissa
Jam: I'm Jim
Melissa: and I'm a chemist and welcome to chemistry for your life.
Jam: podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life. Vitamin Agent.
Melissa: Okay, so before we do get started, I want to shout out our brand new Patreon subscriber, newest member of our community. That is Radioactive Dreams, which is a very cool name.
Jam: Very cool name. We kept like, we forgot it after when we were trying to look it up and make sure we shouted you out. And we were [00:02:00] like, was it Robot Dreams or Radioactive something? And it was just, yeah, it was too cool. We couldn't remember it. So Radioactive Dreams. Thanks for joining our chemunity.
Jam: I think you're having a really cool name.
Melissa: Very cool name. It'll be fun to read every week. Sort of like Shadow. It's also fun to read
Jam: That's true. Yeah. Yeah. We've gotten kind of used to that, but I forgot about how cool it is. Now we've got some. And I'm going to be talking about some interesting characters in the name list at the end of each episode. But thanks for joining Radioactive Dreams. We're glad to have your support. Thanking you for just helping chemistry be accessible to even more people.
Jam: We're excited to get to know you.
Melissa: Yeah, and it is really fun whenever we hear from people in our Patreon and in the chats and stuff. So, um, feel free to reach out and let us know about what you're up to. Because I love, I love hearing from our patrons. Making, it feels like we just have a bunch of friends, you
Jam: Yes, 100%.
Melissa: So I really like that.
Melissa: Okay, so now let's talk about vitamin D. Do you know what vitamin D is supposed to do?[00:03:00]
Jam: You know, I don't know. Mm hmm. It's a general like immune system stuff that it's supposed to help with. Like that's the general sort of public opinion or
Melissa: Although there's, I don't think that there's a ton of research on that. I should do an episode on that and find out what, what actually research there is about that. But I also don't a hundred percent know why vitamin C prevents curvy. So that's something interesting to look into. But vitamin D is all about, um, calcium, but actually it ends up being about more than just calcium.
Jam: Oh,
Melissa: And you may have heard of vitamin D, vitamin D three, vitamin D two.
Jam: yes, I have. I I took so this is like one thing where I can't really remember all the details. My dad years ago is having health stuff. That and his doctor had told him like you really be need to be taking vitamin D I think it was vitamin D3 because of XYZ Camera what I'm not gonna even if I did [00:04:00] remember I'm not gonna go to detail cuz I might be might come across like Medical advice and I don't I don't know that is so all I know is I was like When I was like, hey boys texted me and my brothers was like you guys need to be taking this too I'm having some stuff because I probably should have just done taking my doctor's advice a long time ago So I just bought some and started taking it
Melissa: Do you know if it's D2 or D3?
Jam: I think it's D3.
Melissa: I think that's the one that is better for you to take actually. D, um, I did have a similar thing
Jam: taking it. So good.
Melissa: I had a similar thing where I have an allergy to dust mites. I'm actually kind of allergic to everything
Jam: Same.
Melissa: And, um, we, I moved into an old house with a bunch of girls, and so I wasn't able to like, change my sheets as often before.
Melissa: I was changing it every week, but I was on a bunk bed, and so that was hard. And then it was an old house with old carpet.
Jam: were you, were you allergic to some of the girls?
Melissa: Yeah, I'm probably allergic to some of the girls. So my allergies were going crazy, so I had to go get all this blood work done. I was getting hives all the time. It was, it was a wild time
Jam: [00:05:00] Golly dang.
Melissa: And, um, they did blood work and found that I had a vitamin D deficiency and I totally forgot about that. And then I went back to this out just recently to try to like, maybe consider getting shots, allergy shots, you know, to like build up an immunity and they're like, and you did have this vitamin D three deficient or this vitamin D deficiency.
Melissa: Did you ever get that? Did you start taking those pills? And I was like, uh, yeah,
Jam: Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa: take a multivitamin. Does that have D3 in it? I have no idea.
Jam: That's so funny. Yeah. I, I did allergies as a kid and I think they really did help most of my Allergies are to plants, um, and a lot of which are, are, I'm allergic to plants that we have in abundance here where we live and where I grew up, but they, they really helped I think.
Jam: I mean, I took them for a few years as a kid, as a kid, and I still get allergies pretty bad during certain seasons, but it has helped my just overall, like every other day of the year kind of thing. But, um, yeah, that's interesting. Anyway, back to the D3 thing. I have been, I have been taking it, so [00:06:00] I'm glad to hear that it's probably the better one.
Jam: And at some point I'll maybe be able to go do my homework and figure out why I'm supposed to and what the deal with my dad was,
Melissa: Or maybe I can tell you.
Jam: or maybe you can tell me.
Melissa: Okay. So, vitamin D3, er, vitamin D is all about, um, calcium, and, so, the, I'm gonna actually start, instead of starting with the D3, I'm gonna start in our intestines, not on our skin, but in our intestines, there's calcium, and some calcium is naturally absorbed into our intestines pretty easily, but, The majority of calcium uptake is, um, I'm gonna just make an analogy of like, imagine there's passageways that go from our gut into our cells and calcium could be transported through those, but it really is most efficient if calcium is transported through those, it needs like a key to get into the secret passageways.
Melissa: So if it has a key to get into the secret passageway, Um, you know, the, the absorbance of D3, of calcium can increase by like 30 to 40, up [00:07:00] to 30 to 40 percent instead of just like 10 to 20 percent.
Jam: Got it.
Melissa: Okay, and the thing that is the key into the secret passageway for calcium to get through is vitamin D.
Jam: Okay. So it's really just a way to help calcium get there. It's not like the vitamin D itself is the thing we. Love we love it because we need the calcium.
Melissa: right now. But there's other things about vitamin D that we're learning also. So for right now, we'll just talk about the calcium.
Jam: okay
Melissa: So, and I'll start kind of backwards. So the vitamin D that lets the, that's the key for the passageway to get your calcium absorbed in your gut is call it active vitamin D.
Melissa: Okay. And active vitamin D is starts from all the way back in the skin, but it, before it gets to the gut, it goes, it comes from the kidney and before it gets the kidney, it comes from the liver and for the liver, it comes from the skin. [00:08:00] So there's a whole process to get it there. So, when it's up on our skin, it's what we'd call like a pre vitamin D3. And pre vitamin D3 is really when they talk about D3 in general, it's just like a class, vitamin D is a class of different molecules that end up doing similar things sort of. It's like a group of molecules, but pre vitamin D3 will absorb energy from the sun. And what happens when we put energy into bonds?
Jam: energy into bonds. They can be changed
Melissa: changed. How do they get changed?
Jam: Mmm.
Melissa: Remember we talked about when we're talking about how things fade in the sunlight.
Jam: Yes. Yes
Melissa: What do you remember what happened when things would fade?
Jam: I know this damage like [00:09:00] UV damage. So was it just breaking bonds?
Melissa: breaking bonds. Yes. So, um, we've talked about UV light a lot before, so feel free to go back and listen to those episodes like why things fade in the sun, what is sunscreen good for, but UV light basically is energy. It's a type of energy, and when that energy goes into this pre vitamin 3, it breaks a bond.
Jam: Okay.
Melissa: And when that bond breaks, then it's a pretty unstable form, like a, um, bond breaks, you have a new molecule, this new molecule's kind of unstable, but it is a form of D3 that we would call an isomer. So it has all the same elements, just maybe they're arranged in a different order. And so then it spontaneously reorganizes itself to be much more stable.
Jam: Okay.
Melissa: And that is vitamin D3.
Jam: Okay.
Melissa: so we have this like, this molecule, I could give you the names but I just don't know how useful it [00:10:00] is. But there's a molecule and the molecule gets exposed to UV light and a bond breaks and it makes an isomer of vitamin D3. And then this isomer rearranges, so that just means, you know, a different form of the same atoms.
Melissa: And the isomer rearranges. And so now it's in the most stable form, and it's our vitamin D3.
Jam: Okay. Got it.
Melissa: so that vitamin D3 goes from the skin then to our liver. And in the liver, a chemical reaction happens, and a functional group is added onto the vitamin D3.
Jam: Okay.
Melissa: So the functional group is an alcohol group. It's oxygen and hydrogen.
Melissa: We've talked about functional groups a lot before. Do you want to say what they are?
Jam: They are like a sort of pattern of, of Atoms that are together in a similar form, um, in shape that have also similar functions or [00:11:00] characteristics to them, like an alcohol group, um, that's going to have, these things are going to always be present, but it may be part of a larger molecule and have other things as part of it, but a certain part of it is recognizable, may perform and affect things in a similar way as it does in other places.
Melissa: Perfect. Yeah. So it's like a group of atoms that's arranged in a certain way that you can expect how they're going to act consistently. So that gets added on in the liver. Okay. So it has one alcohol group. So you've got your D3 that's now been modified. So it started out just pre D3, it bond broke, it spontaneously rearranged, it got our D3, and now our D3 has been modified by adding a functional group in the liver.
Melissa: Then it goes to the kidney.
Jam: did you say which kind of functional group it doesn't not matter
Melissa: alcohol functional group, but it doesn't super matter. Uh, then it goes to the kidney and gets another functional group added onto it in the kidney. Same functional group, another alcohol, but in a different place. [00:12:00] Okay? And now we have what we have now, these two alcohols added onto vitamin D3 is what we would call active vitamin D. So that's kind of the target molecule that's going to be able to go into your gut and be the key that unlocks the passageway to get Your calcium from your gut absorbed into your cells. Okay. Do you want to try to say that back to me?
Jam: Yes, so And you started with sunlight, right? Okay. So with this one, obviously we can get it artificially to or whatever but but we're in the Sun and We oh wait, so the energy from the Sun You How did you say that part? Did we even get it in the first place?
Melissa: It touches. It's on our skin. There's
Jam: already there.
Melissa: vitamin D, which that's a good question. I didn't think how did that get there? [00:13:00] I probably should
Jam: Well, I was thinking like, did you say that? Because I was like, trying to, yeah, you know, like,
Melissa: Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Yes, I should have looked that up. There's pre vitamin D3 on our skin. It's the thing that's like ready to break down into vitamin D3, basically.
Jam: Okay, got it. So that's already on our skin. The UV, uh, the energy from the sun breaks the bonds of that pre
Melissa: Mm
Jam: vitamin D and then it arranges itself Instead into the D3, which is already much more stable. And that's, we've kind of seen that in other places where like sometimes. Things just want to be in a stable form, like, like when we've seen like a crystalline structure and things like that, where it's like, if things go that way, it sort of nature wants that as well.
Jam: Um, so that happens, that gets, that can go into our bodies, and then it first goes to our liver,
Melissa: hmm.
Jam: [00:14:00] and there it is given one functional group and an alcohol group is added onto it. And then once it gets to our kidneys, another is added on and from there it goes to our gut and in our gut it is able to Act as a sort of key and access code or whatever that allows our cells to absorb more calcium or the calcium to just get where it needs to go or wants to go more easily and allows more of that to be taken advantage of instead of just like the 10 percent you said earlier or whatever.
Jam: Okay, but it's going to happen anyway. But this helps increase that by a lot.
Melissa: Right. So without really having enough vitamin D, then you have a calcium deficiency. And if you don't have enough calcium available in your body, what will happen is your bones actually release calcium. [00:15:00] And that's bad because the calcium in your bones makes them strong. And so if you don't have enough calcium, your bones are giving up calcium.
Melissa: To strike a equilibrium balance and then your bones start to stop soften, which is bad
Jam: Right.
Melissa: So you need enough d3 so that you can all earn enough D Sorry, you need enough vitamin D so that you could also have enough calcium in your
Jam: Got it. Got it.
Melissa: So that's the important role that vitamin D has played that we've known of for a while
Jam: Okay.
Melissa: Okay,
Jam: Also, interesting. Like, I think if you just asked me, I would have thought that, I mean, it wouldn't have occurred to me that, Really, all it does is help us take advantage of something else that we might be eating plenty of or drinking plenty of.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jam: We just aren't able to harness it quite as well as we'd like.
Jam: We can only grab onto so much and the rest passes through. I wouldn't have thought like, no, no, vitamin D on its own isn't just like awesome. It's not like [00:16:00] it's Or, I mean, you might be about to say something like that, but the fact that it lets us hang on to more calcium is really cool. And I just not, would not have guessed that.
Jam: But then like you have, you know, whole milk has vitamin D added in, right? And it's like, that makes total sense why they would have done that. In this case, it's like, Hey, well, there's calcium in here. Why don't we give you some vitamin D to take advantage of it and stuff like that. But I just never would have thought intuitively that those went together.
Melissa: Yeah. I also am not sure why I was like, why, why does it need to be regulated by the uptake of this? But I didn't, I didn't really find a good satisfying answer, but I did also think it reminds me of, so I've been growing plants on my patio and tomatoes often we'll get something called in blossom rot or blossom end rot.
Melissa: And it's because they don't have. enough calcium, but then when you look into it, it's like, well, there's probably enough calcium in the soil, but you're not giving them enough water to be able to get the [00:17:00] calcium into the plant. So it's like a water issue, but a water issue that results in not having enough calcium.
Jam: Yeah.
Melissa: And I was like, that's kind of what vitamin D does for us, too.
Jam: Yeah, and it's like, it's weird because there's so many things like that we just don't really think about, but, like, I've, um, of course, I just immediately thought of coffee and coffee roasting. The, the biggest problem in coffee roasting isn't just having a lot of green coffee beans. Being able to actually roast them.
Jam: So, you know, you could have a massive amount of beans and a very tiny roaster You'll never be able to roast as much you just can't quite do it You know, so it's like in so many situations or ingredients for baking or whatever It's like you can have a lot of the stuff But it doesn't just mean that you're just gonna immediately be able to make more of the thing or use it.
Jam: Yeah, it's like it's gonna take some effort or you need other ingredients to come on with it or whatever. So it's like calcium is an ingredient that we, if we want to get more of it and [00:18:00] more out of it and actually be able to use it, we have to have more stuff where our body is just only gonna take so much.
Jam: That's crazy.
Melissa: Yeah, that's a really great point. It's like, I could have all the eggs or all the chocolate chips or whatever in the world, but I need, you know, to have all the ingredients I need, mix them together, and put them in the oven for them to be useful as cookies to me, you know? Yeah, that's really, that is a good, that's a good thought.
Melissa: Okay, so, That's kind of the basics that we know of about vitamin D3, vitamin D. I keep saying D3. I don't know why vitamin D right now So I'll tell you the difference between vitamin 3 and vitamin vitamin D3 and vitamin D2. They're very similar And the, but the main difference is vitamin D3 is more bioactive than vitamin D2, which basically means it can interact with the things it needs to interact with.
Melissa: It can bind with, I think, the proteins in your blood, uh, in the plasma of your blood more effectively so that it's more likely to be [00:19:00] modified into the active vitamin D and used. Whereas vitamin D2 might be, it might not go where it needs to go and it might just be metabolized and excreted. So you might be like.
Melissa: Basically spending money on making your urine more expensive.
Jam: Right,
Melissa: Which, I have heard that complaint about vitamins a lot before. So, I think vitamin D3 is the better one to use. And you can get vitamin D2 and D3 from plants. Because animals make their own, so you can get some from animals and plants. Like mushrooms was one that they talked about has some vitamin D as
Jam: hmm Mm
Melissa: of course, Vitamin D fortified food. So there's like options of ingesting it, but you can also make it through the skin Which actually some people say that that makes them question if vitamin D Technically should count as a vitamin because it's not a micronutrient that you need to ingest It's a micronutrient that technically we [00:20:00] create.
Jam: right
Melissa: Isn't that weird?
Jam: that's weird But I wonder if you'd I mean you'd have to balance like the fact that I mean So when you apply sunscreen, wouldn't that also diminish vitamin D production?
Melissa: There's questions about
Jam: Come like you want to do that like you can't the solution isn't just like get out of the sun It's like what well actually when you go out in the sun though, make sure you're wearing sunscreen But actually well if you were really doing a good job applying sunscreen like we all should be then How much are you gonna produce?
Melissa: Yeah. So that I'll go ahead and jump into that. That is a hard thing is that that vitamin D is important. But if you're using sunscreen, what do you do? And one Baylor medical art Baylor medicine article I read. said that sunscreen and protective clothing will prevent sunlight absorption, but it is unlikely that it will impact vitamin D production.
Melissa: So that makes me think that, you know, it can't 100 percent block the sun from you, and so the UV rays that are still coming through are able [00:21:00] to still put enough energy in to break those bonds. And I don't think you need a ton of sunlight, but I remember My doctor said this whenever I got my vitamin D deficiency diagnosis and I read about this is in the part of the world that we're in the further you are from the equator the more likely that it is that everyone actually has a vitamin D deficiency that it's very difficult to get all the vitamin D that you need to get the Sun because we're further away from the Sun And that people closer to the equator actually are more likely to be getting all the vitamin D that they need. Which leads me to a very interesting fact, and that is that there were lower instances of certain types of cancer in people that were closer to the equator.
Jam: okay
Melissa: And so people were starting to look into this and one of the, this is a quote from an article, one of the most intriguing, important, and unappreciated biological functions of vitamin [00:22:00] D in both normal cells and cancer cells is that vitamin, uh, those that have vitamin D receptors often respond to vitamin D by decreasing the growth of the cell.
Melissa: So, That means that it's kind of confusing because they're like, Oh, the presence of vitamin D will decrease the growth of cells, which is good cells need to be regulated. And that's kind of like a big thing with cancer cells is they're just like reproducing rapidly,
Jam: right.
Melissa: but we don't make more vitamin D than we need to transport calcium.
Jam: Okay.
Melissa: that didn't really make sense. It was like, why does getting more exposure to the sun, what's happening here. And they realized more recently that there are vitamin D receptors in all kinds of cells, all over our body, not just in our gut.
Jam: Mm.
Melissa: And it seems that some cells, like some cancer cells, are able to take the [00:23:00] Once modified version, the one functional group added the like modified D3 and convert it into the active D3, the twice modified version, the active vitamin D.
Melissa: And then if they're able to do that, if they have enough sun that makes that precursor that they can break down into or react chemically to make active vitamin D, then it will be present in those cells and regulate them.
Jam: Mm.
Melissa: Meaning that if you're getting more exposure to the sun and you're getting more of the vitamin D precursor, even if you have enough vitamin D that you need in your gut to take in your calcium, the cells themselves can take the precursor and modify it into the active vitamin D and then that active vitamin D will regulate Inhibit and stop some of the growth of cancer
Jam: Wow, that's crazy.
Melissa: I know!
Jam: Huh? [00:24:00] Yeah.
Melissa: getting enough sun exposure and wearing sunscreen all the time? It's like, it feels sort of like, you're darned if you do, darned if you don't. You know?
Jam: Yeah, 100%. It's so, so interesting.
Melissa: I
Jam: like. And it also makes you think, oh, is that like, you know, obviously we don't know for sure. I mean, somebody has probably studied this, but as a person who has not, like, do we really know for sure if cancer just didn't really happen as much back then versus that we couldn't figure it out?
Jam: But like,
Melissa: No, they definitely have associations.
Jam: I'm like, but people would have achieved by trade, you know, been in the sun a lot more, um, in general. And it does feel like there's more cancer, you know what I mean, but is it, you know, it's like, is it just because, you know, I'm an adult now and I hear about it more, or I was never alive in a different time period?
Jam: Did they always know why people died back then? I don't, you
Melissa: wondered about that like how long has cancer [00:25:00] existed. Yeah, but yeah, so there are low vitamin D has been associated with higher instances of cardiovascular disease diabetes infections and Multiple sclerosis. So isn't that amazing? And cancer.
Jam: Wow. That's crazy.
Melissa: So it, it is, you can't say correlation, causation the same, right?
Melissa: So there's correlations, there's associations. It seems like there are identified pathways that are a good argument for how vitamin D can regulate some cancer cell. But You don't want to take too much vitamin D because too much vitamin D could lead to having too much calcium, which can cause its own problems.
Melissa: It can line your, um, arteries. It can cause heart problems. So it's kind of like you have to find a way. to balance getting [00:26:00] sun exposure, wearing sunscreen, getting enough vitamin D, not getting too much vitamin D. You know, it feels a little complicated. So, um, this is not us advising you to take vitamin D.
Melissa: It's us advising you to talk to your doctor and potentially, especially during the winter months, potentially consider supplementing vitamin D, but don't overdo it. This is not medical advice. We're not a doctor, but that was my takeaway.
Jam: It's like, it's worth asking the question of the person who you consult these things with if you haven't thought of it. That's crazy. It's interesting that, like, I remember learning in a, um, what's it called, nutrition science class long ago, just about the different vitamins and which ones have toxicity levels that our bodies don't know what to do with if we had to eat, eat or drink or whatever, too much of it.
Jam: Some, our bodies just dump the excess and it's fine or whatever. That's so interesting. It's like, Yeah. Yeah, [00:27:00] you could have too much calcium or whatever your bones could become too strong. You might become too powerful
Melissa: I think it actually causes like crystals to form, like calcium crystals to form. Um, yeah. So having too much calcium also is not good.
Jam: Yeah, but plus like we don't want anyone to be too powerful, you know, no one should be too strong. Okay Let's just all I thought I should be like the amount of strong we need to be. Okay Yeah
Melissa: find where they talked about having too much. Oh yes. Can result in dangerously high calcium levels leading to kidney damage.
Melissa: I was, that was part of, and I think kidney damage that when I thought, said crystals, I was thinking, um, kidney stones are like crystalline, often made out of calcium, excess calcium and are very painful.
Jam: one of those. Have you?
Melissa: I have had one of
Jam: Yeah, no bueno.
Melissa: awful.
Jam: did we both have ours in high school?
Melissa: No, mine was in, um, it was right before I started grad school is between college and grad school.
Jam: Okay. [00:28:00] Actually, I knew them, but I didn't know. Yeah.
Melissa: well. Yeah.
Jam: you hadn't moved here yet, I guess, but yeah, I had mine my senior year of high school and my doctor was like, yeah, you, yeah. High schoolers shouldn't be having kidney stones
Melissa: are you like not drinking enough water at all?
Jam: well that, and, um, he quite strongly suggested that it was tied to the amount of soda I drank.
Melissa: Yeah,
Jam: Um, again, that's what one doctor said. I trust him for sure, but I'm not the doctor. So, and I was like, okay, noted. And so I waited a few years and then I stopped drinking as much soda.
Melissa: yeah, I drink a lot of soda back then and I'm like did I ever drink water?
Jam: I know that's yeah
Melissa: I had a lot of spinach. I would have, like, spinach salad every day. That was, like, my way of being, quote unquote, healthy in college. And, um, that can have a lot, I think, in excess of some things that help form
Jam: Interesting. It's like this is good for you in so many other ways except that it also helped make your kidney stone.
Melissa: I [00:29:00] think what we're learning is that everything in moderation. You don't need to eat spinach every single day for lunch. And you don't need to have only Dr. Pepper all the time for drinking.
Jam: Yep, you heard of your first guys Right from the mouth of a chemist do not drink. Dr. Pepper constantly every hour of every day.
Melissa: Do not drink Dr. Pepper so much that you're not ever drinking water, which is what I did. And I worked at a restaurant, so you would get these like little cone cups and you could just like
Jam: Uh huh.
Melissa: shots of Dr. Pepper all day. And I'm like, did I ever fill that thing up with
Jam: Golly. Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah, just free Dr. Pepper on tap while waiting tables.
Melissa: Not good for your body.
Jam: Yeah. I drink it a ton too. I, I would have it, like, I wasn't into coffee. I was a high schooler. So I'd drink it in the morning for the caffeine and stuff. Like we had a little bit of a longer drive to school. And so I remember drinking one on the way there. I'm like, what? Doesn't even sound appetizing to me
Melissa: know.
Jam: drinking any sort of really sweet, sugary, soda y thing in the morning. Like, what was I thinking? [00:30:00] And like, I guess it's good that that happened to me early. So. I don't know.
Melissa: Not good.
Jam: Yeah. So then I switched to being that same amount of intensely, um, reliant on, uh, coffee a few years
Melissa: that's definitely healthy. Definitely a healthy swap.
Jam: Mm-Hmm? . Mm-Hmm.
Melissa: At least there are, there is some good stuff in coffee for sure. Okay, well that's it. That's my fun facts for you about vitamin D. And, um, the fact that our, we can make our own vitamin D right from our skins. I'll try to go look up what, why that precursor is there.
Melissa: I didn't even think to ask where that came from. I was just like, oh yeah, this is a whole, oh, I was gonna say. This is like all of you are organic chemists. You're carrying out complex organic chemistry reactions, natural product synthesis. We've talked about that before. Your, your bodies are carrying out complex organic chemistry, breaking bonds, isomers, adding functional [00:31:00] grooves, and you're making your own secret key.
Melissa: Wow. Yeah. Organic chemistry,
Jam: Wow.
Melissa: job. You're all, there's a little chemist inside all of
Jam: Nice. Nice.
Melissa: So that's my, that's my lesson for you today about vitamin D and how we get it from the sun.
Jam: I love it. That was
Melissa: was really interesting. I didn't know any of this before. And I'm now encouraged to actually take care of my vitamin D deficient, deficiency, which I probably tried for like five minutes and then quit.
Jam: Yeah. And your case is like, you already had an actual doctor tell you that. So kind of no brainer. So this case is for you. It's almost like vitamin duh. You know what I'm saying?
Melissa: All right, so anyway, that's it. That's our fun lesson for today. Um, do you have a fun, happy thing you want to share?
Jam: I think I do.
Melissa: I have like five.
Jam: Okay. Why don't you say at least just one of yours Okay. While I stew.
Melissa: Okay, well, my friend Sarah and I have been, [00:32:00] um, sharing glimmers at the end of the day. And glimmers are like, you know, little things that just make your life a little bit brighter. And it's a good way of practicing gratitude. And there's lots of scientific evidence that shows how practicing gratitude can contribute to, um, like improved mental health outcomes.
Melissa: There's an interesting episode of the Huberman Lab podcast about
Jam: Mm-Hmm?
Melissa: So I have been doing that with my friend at the end of the night, just like sending some things that make us happy. And it's made my days so much brighter because I then notice, funny, the studies are right, I then notice things throughout the day that make me happy.
Melissa: Like one day I sat down in my office and I was like, my office is so cute. And I was like, I need to remember this. This is my glimmer. Or I've been, Oh, this is, this is sort of another one that I almost shared, but I've been using this bird app that will listen to the bird calls and suggest which birds you might be hearing based on what area you're in.
Melissa: And um, so I've been like going on walks and listening to the birds and it's one of my glimmers like every[00:33:00]
Jam: Nice. So.
Melissa: yeah, just things like that, little glimmers throughout my day. I've been noticing them and writing them down and they've just, I have noticed that made a difference.
Jam: nice. That's cool.
Melissa: So, yeah. And my bird app, I'm really excited.
Melissa: This app is so cool. I think it contributes to research because they're like getting recordings of birds, but then they use that to help you log what birds you've seen. And, um, they, it's like, you can collect them. You can say like, I saw this bird this day. And so it's like collecting them like Pokemon.
Melissa: Like I have a list of all the birds I've seen and where I've seen
Jam: Wow, that's
Melissa: And I was able to go back and add like significant birds, like. You know, two years ago, before we had our big freeze, there was these cedar waxwings that were this really cool bird that was outside the window of our apartment. Or like, when we were in Colorado, uh, Colorado this summer, oh no, New Mexico this summer, we um, saw a steller's jay.
Melissa: It's like a dark blue bird that looks kind of like a blue jay, but it's like, [00:34:00] like a darker version. It's really pretty. So things like that, we've been able to like, I was like, oh yeah, and I remember seeing this bird. Oh, and I. Um, in our frieze two years ago, I also saw a red bellied woodpecker, and so then I was like, oh, when I saw red, so, like, all these, like, little, um, notes of birds that I've seen that I've been really excited about, I've been able to note,
Jam: Nice, that's cool. Very nice. That is that's those are cool, too I think I think I have two that I could share. They're pretty quick Oh, you know what? I remember though, just a comment on the bird thing. Remember that specific type of bird that would swoop at me and attack me? That is probably the only bird sound that I have, like, etched in my mind.
Jam: And when I hear it, I'm like, I know that a, I think it's something, something kite. I can't remember what the preface is because I guess there's different kinds of kites, kite birds. Um, so that one, one, it'd be cool if you find it, listen for it. I think it's in the summer that they'll come around. But. Uh, if you end up finding it on your [00:35:00] app, let me
Melissa: Will it be cool, or will you be scared?
Jam: Well, I think you might be safe, because your hair doesn't look like My theory was that my hair looked like good nest building material. And I had short hair back then, and I have it again now. So I think this summer I'm gonna need to be on guard. But when I wore a hat, I was safe. So, I don't know if you wear hats on your walks.
Melissa: I don't.
Jam: be safe, but you can
Melissa: hair is the one that would be, his is more like yours.
Jam: so he should wear a hat. He does wear hats, so But you'll hear them even if they're not swooping at you. That's not like It's like their call right before
Melissa: Okay, so I'll keep my ears open for a kite of
Jam: Yes. Yes. Um, so I have two Sort of phone related things, um that are cool one. Your husband specifically asked me to make sure I brought up to you
Melissa: Oh gosh, what is it? Yeah, intervention.
Jam: and no I was telling him the other day when we're hanging out about how Uh, this is your encouragement to
Melissa: Hang out with my [00:36:00] husband. I'm
Jam: hang out with mason. Yeah to um, to Look, it's worth taking another look at your budget and seeing something that you haven't thought of that you might could either cut or change to save money.
Jam: And by an encouragement to you, I just mean sort of to me. And if you're a penny pincher like me, or you're like, have a bunch of kids you're trying to feed and all that kind of stuff. So I realized the other day, I was like, haven't re evaluated our phone plan in years. Just haven't even thought about it.
Jam: When I'm looking through things to cut costs or whatever, um, It's I just skim right past it just I'm used
Melissa: set in stone.
Jam: so finally I did.
Melissa: where this is
Jam: Yeah, so finally I did I'm not gonna say the company because I don't want to give free advertisement if you're really interested You can just message us or whatever, but I just don't want to these companies have enough money but I did finally look into some other plans [00:37:00] and cut our Um, we were on a family plan with my family.
Jam: We all split up. I helped everyone get off and on to something else. And we're all paying less than half of what we were paying.
Melissa: Okay, but here's a question that I have. I have a hotspot that I use a lot for
Jam: hotspot. Mm
Melissa: But is it a good quality hotspot? Are you
Jam: Yes. How much data are you moving for work?
Melissa: I don't know, but I just can use it anywhere. Like on road trips and
Jam: Right. So, you're wanting it to have really good coverage around the
Melissa: Coverage, yeah. I'm less worried about how
Jam: Fast.
Melissa: I'm not like, I'm not uploading and downloading tons of stuff just like documents, you know, but, but I need to be able to get internet on my computer anywhere.
Jam: Unlimited. Are we, the thing we got. is unlimited call text data and hotspot. We were paying about 48 per line.
Melissa: Uh huh, I think
Jam: my wife and I, [00:38:00] now we're paying 20
Melissa: Okay, I'll think about it. You and Mason are both coming at me, but I'm just
Jam: I wasn't even trying to come at you. I was just telling him cause I was so excited.
Melissa: That is really
Jam: found an area of our budget that could change significantly that I didn't think could.
Melissa: That is very exciting. Yeah, there's a lot we could do with like an extra 50
Jam: Or just like the things that you bring you more joy anyway, where it's like, I mean one more, you know, eating out or ice skating lesson.
Melissa: Oh, that was another one. I was gonna share Oh, well, okay
Jam: So that's the first one, but I'm so excited about that. And it's like unreasonably, like, it's silly how interesting that is, but I just feel like I got it.
Jam: I found a way.
Melissa: yeah. All right. Well keep us posted and see if you still like it
Jam: And the next thing, I can't demonstrate because my phone is being used, but, um, I found this cool app that, um, basically, I think it's a sort of independent developer, so I'll say the name of it, because, you know, go independent people, it's called Blank Spaces, and I think it's a [00:39:00] different version of it for Android called something else, but this guy on the iPhone version called Blank Spaces, what he did is he figured out how to use the widgets, um, function, sort of deal on the phone, And instead of being a bunch of apps on your screen, it's actually just a list, like a text list of the apps.
Jam: And so my phone screen, I'll show you in a little bit, is literally just like, I unlock it and it's black and it has A, just a list of like six apps and it's like just so minimal, so not that interesting to like want to be on more. So not that like drawing you in, but it really is like open the thing, tap the thing I need to get to.
Jam: And so I've been digging that and like been in this refresh, like, like mode of like. Cut it all, get rid of everything, gut it, you know, um, for phone usage stuff.
Melissa: That is nice. I've, I've similarly have tried to streamline [00:40:00] my, I've just now started using the widgets, but also I've gone on like, um, screen time, except for like, you know, I basically, it starts at 10 PM and doesn't end until like 2 PM the next day. So that most of the day I can't be mindlessly scrolling because it was like really negatively interfering with my work and yeah.
Melissa: So and then by the time that I can get on it it's like I'm already working on other stuff and I don't think to be distracted. So if you message me or us on Instagram or TikTok or whatever there's a good chance that I haven't seen it yet or I saw it and then ran out of time. So yeah, that's um, that is something I wanted to
Jam: A lot of people are like I tried the screen time thing, but it doesn't work I just blow past it. The key, the only reason screen time ever works You gotta have somebody else has the passkey and not you and just somebody that, you know, you can call if you really need something.
Melissa: Yes, yeah, Mason. I made Mason put a password on it. I was like help me please. I don't want to [00:41:00] be I want to use this as a tool. TikTok is a great tool, especially for planning vacations, but also for interacting with our listeners. I really like meeting y'all, but it's not great for my mental health and
Jam: kernel of good stuff in all these things surrounded by a
Melissa: a lot of bad,
Jam: yes.
Melissa: well, that's cool. I like both of those things. Those are both really fun things. We haven't caught up in a long time, so I feel like there's so much to
Jam: Yeah, a hundred percent.
Melissa: All right, well, we'll wrap it up there, but I just want to say thanks for, well, thanks for telling me about the phone plan. And thanks for coming and learning about, about vitamin D.
Melissa: It was really fun to learn about it. This is like one of those things that I was sitting around wondering, like, how does vitamin D, like somebody was like, oh, you're going to go on a walk, get your vitamin D. And I was like, wait a second, what does that mean? So. I really enjoyed it and
Jam: or will
Melissa: get to explore it.
Melissa: Or will I? Is this even real? I just took it at face [00:42:00] value and never questioned it. Turns out it was accurate information, but I never questioned it.
Jam: Yeah, yeah, well, thank you for teaching us and Yeah for exploring all that and super super interesting And if you have a question or thought or something like this for you to like hey, what about vitamin D or whatever? Something you wonder about if it's chemistry probably is please message us We'd love to hear about your thoughts and ideas at chemforyourlife.
Jam: com on our website You can send those in chemforyourlife. com or follow up question for something. We've talked about we can talk about that in a q and r Um, so please do that We'd love to hear those and if you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making It you can join our super cool chemmunity of patrons just like radioactive dreams did That's at patreon.
Jam: com slash chem for your life. You're not able to do that. You can still help us by subscribing on our favorite podcast app, rating, writing a review on Apple podcasts, or subscribing on YouTube. Those things help us to keep, um, sharing chemistry with even more [00:43:00] people, keep growing audience, be noticed by more people, all that kind of stuff, and just keep it going.
Jam: We want to give. free chemistry knowledge to anyone and everyone.
Melissa: Yeah. This episode of Chemistry Free Life was created by Melissa Colini and Jam Robinson. Jam Robinson is our producer and this episode was made possible by our financial supporters over on Patreon. It seriously really means so much that you want to help make chemistry more accessible and that you're willing to support us and also that we get to know you.
Melissa: That's been a really special fun thing for Jam and I over the course of this last year. So those supporters on Patreon are Radioactive Dreams! Welcome to the team! Avishai B, Bree M, Brian K, Chris and Claire S, Chelsea B, Derrick L, Elizabeth P, Emerson W, Hunter R, Jacob T, Christina G, Katrina H, Latila S, Lynn S, Melissa P, Nicole C, Rachel R, Sarah M, Stephen B, Shadow, Suzanne P, Timothy P, [00:44:00] Venus R, and Carol R.
Melissa: Thank you again for everything you do to make Chemistry for Your Life happen, and an extra special thanks to Bree who often creates illustrations to go along with episodes of Chemistry for Your Life. You can see those on our YouTube channel. And you can thank Bree by following her and supporting her at intropic.
Melissa: artstation. com or you can see in our show notes.
Jam: Hey, if you'd like to learn more about today's chemistry lesson, you can look at the references for this episode in our show notes or in the description of the video on YouTube.
Melissa: Yay chemistry! Yay sun and vitamin D!