Vitamin D: The Unexpected Key to Healing Wounds
Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health
Briana Mercola
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
Story at-a-glance
- Keloids are an extreme overreaction of the body's wound healing process, causing thick, raised scars that continue to grow beyond the original injury, leading to pain, itching, and discomfort
- A study published in Burns & Trauma journal found that keloid cells overproduce CYP24A1, an enzyme that rapidly breaks down vitamin D, preventing it from regulating scar formation and inflammation
- Researchers discovered that inhibiting CYP24A1 allowed vitamin D to remain active longer, reducing excessive collagen buildup and helping keloid tissue behave more like normal skin
- Even individuals with sufficient vitamin D levels in their bloodstream could still have a functional deficiency in their skin due to rapid breakdown by CYP24A1, which explains why standard supplementation has not been effective for keloid treatment
- Another recent study found that vitamin D supplementation significantly improved wound healing, increasing skin hydration while reducing trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL), which strengthened the skin barrier and sped up recovery
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone, and welcome to Dr. Mercola's Cellular Wisdom, the show where we dive into the |
| 0:04.5 | microscopic drama unfolding in our bodies and try not to let it go to our heads. I'm Ethan Foster, |
| 0:09.9 | your affable observer of everything delightfully odd about human behavior, and apparently about |
| 0:14.5 | ourselves as well. And I'm Alara Sky, who can't resist turning biochemical mayhem into comedic gold. |
| 0:20.7 | If you're new here, buckle up. |
| 0:22.6 | We'll walk you through an enlightening yet entertaining journey about how our bodies heal, |
| 0:26.8 | sometimes a bit too enthusiastically. Today's episode is all about keloids. If you think scarring is |
| 0:32.1 | just your skin's quaint way of saying, been there, done that, get ready for a curveball. |
| 0:37.0 | Kaloids are more like the over-dramatic |
| 0:38.5 | friend who takes center stage and refuses to leave. They're thick, raised scars that can keep |
| 0:43.3 | growing beyond the original injury, sort of like a group chat that never stops. Most scars fade out |
| 0:48.6 | quietly after they've done their cameo. Keloids come back for an encore, rummage through the |
| 0:52.8 | snack table, and bring their entire extended |
| 0:54.9 | family to the party. They're itchy, painful, and impossible to ignore. And for years, treatments |
| 1:00.4 | were limited. But here's where it gets interesting. Vitamin D, yes, the sunshine nutrient, |
| 1:06.2 | may play a starring role in taming these pesky scars. You'd think vitamin D, the same stuff we associate with strong bones, and maybe a little mood |
| 1:13.6 | boost, wouldn't be connected to something as specialized as cheloids. |
| 1:16.6 | But apparently, it's been under our nose, or, more accurately, under our skin, this whole time. |
| 1:22.6 | Recent findings suggest that if your vitamin D is broken down too quickly at the wound site, |
| 1:26.6 | your skin can't reap its benefits. |
| 1:28.3 | Cue the drum roll for our troublemaking enzyme, CYP 24A1. |
| 1:32.3 | That's the enzyme that steps in like an uninvited auditor at a party, telling vitamin D to pack |
... |
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