Which fat soluble vitamin is not essential? Explain why.?

Answer 1

Technically, all four fat soluble vitamins are essential - that is why they are considered vitamins!

Potentially, the body can produce adequate levels of vitamin D from sunlight. In reality, vitamin D deficiency is now at epidemic levels. Most Americans do NOT get enough sunlight all year long to maintain healthy levels of vitamin D in their blood. Consequently, it is still a vitamin! Most people will benefit from an increased dietary intake of vitamin D - generally, this requires supplementation (e.g. cod liver oil or vitamin d supplements).

As for the other person's comment about vitamin K, the scientific literature is NOT clear about how much vitamin K is produced in the gut from commensal bacteria. What is clear, is that a lot of people have less than optimum levels of vitamin K in their body and that higher intakes of fresh green vegetables (good sources of the vitamin) can help maintain optimum levels.

Best wishes.

Answer 2

fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) are all essential
as well as fat
as well as Cholesterol--
Don't Think Without It: Heart clogger helps neurons connect
Katharine Miller

http://sageke.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sageke;2001/7/nw26
Key Words: synaptogenesis • cholesterol • Alzheimer's disease • ApoE • glia


Abstract: Sometimes it takes an outsider to make conversational sparks fly. Nerve cells meet at sites called synapses to deliver and receive electrical messages, but building these structures requires help from other cells known as glia. The active substance produced by glia has eluded scientists, however. Researchers have now unveiled the mystery agent: cholesterol, a fatty molecule commonly associated with heart disease and membrane integrity--not nerve development. The finding advances our understanding of how the brain develops and hints at explanations for why one form of a cholesterol-carrying protein increases the risk of some neurodegenerative diseases.

Researchers reported in 1997 that neurons require neighboring glial cells to produce synapses. In the new study, Mauch and colleagues sought the synapse-promoting material that glia presumably secrete. After growing glia in a broth, they removed the cells and collected what remained, including anything that the glia had churned out. In a series of steps, they split this material into portions that share physical and chemical characteristics and identified one that kindled synapse formation in neurons isolated from rat retinas. Further analysis pointed to ApoE--a protein component of the containers that transport cholesterol throughout the body--as the secret agent. But purified ApoE that lacks its cholesterol cargo did not spur neurons to forge synapses. So the researchers added cholesterol by itself. Even without its protein taxi, enough cholesterol gained access to the neurons to exert an effect: It triggered construction of 8 to 10 times more synapses than untreated neurons built. In further experiments, the researchers either prevented glial cells from producing cholesterol or blocked neurons from slurping up ApoE and its associated cholesterol; both conditions reduced synapse activity. Together, the results suggest that synapse development requires glia-made cholesterol.

Answer 3

vitamin K and vitamin D. Vitamin K is made by healthy bacteria living in your intesteeenes, and vitamin E can by synthesized by your skin when exposed to sunlight. Both of these are fat soluble
horray for sunlight