Welcome to our daily dose of Bitachon . We continue in Chovot HaLevavot Sha'ar HaBechina where he tells us to think about the sun, the benefits of the sun, as we said every day, we make a beracha on the sun יוצר אור ובורא חושך. We say Yotzer HaMeorot and whenever you make a beracha on something, you want to benefit from it and appreciate the benefit. So one of the main benefits of sun, I'm sure many people have heard of this before, is vitamin D. Now, I like most people, go for a physical once a year and as of late, I'm sure you've been told by your doctor that you have vitamin D deficiency. And I always wondered like what happened over here? Why suddenly they get vitamin D deficiency? And the answer is I didn't change, but the USDA requirement for vitamin D changed. They decided you need more vitamin D. Vitamin D is extremely essential for many, many different body benefits and vitamin D comes from sunlight. Now, how in the world does that work? How does vitamin D come from sunlight? It's like you just is vitamin D coming in through the air? That doesn't sound right. How does vitamin D get to you from the sun? And here for the big chiddush . The vitamin D is already inside of you. This is a tremendous yesod in everything Rav Wolbe once said. Everything you need is inside of you. We just need outside things to bring them out. You learned all the Torah in your mother's womb before you came to this world and what happens when you learn is it brings it out. It's inside of you. And God works like that in everything. The vitamin D is inside of you. The only problem is that the vitamin D that's in your skin has not yet all put together. It's got the building blocks but it's not put together. So what happens is your skin's epidermis absorbs the ultraviolet rays from the sun and then this causes a certain ring of chemicals, not important what they're called, breaks down and causes different rings to be connected and disconnected and it forms the vitamin D in your skin. So the vitamin D was potentially there. It's like I'll give you a simple example. When you take an egg and put it in a frying pan with heat under it and it goes from an egg white and an egg yolk to a scrambled egg, the heat did not put a scrambled egg into the pan. The scrambled egg potential is already there in the egg yolk and the egg white. We just needed the heat to cause the chemical reactions to turn it from egg yolks and egg whites into a scrambled egg. That's what's going on here. All the building blocks for the vitamin D are already there. I need the heat to induce the change to form the vitamin D. Wonder of wonders. So no, there is not vitamin D pouring down on your skin from the heavens. It's not the man landing from the heavens. It's the heat of the sun and the ultraviolet rays that are causing the vitamin D to be released into your skin and eventually going into your bloodstream. Now what does vitamin D do for you? Well, it does a lot of things for you. We're just going to give you one now. Everybody knows that sunlight is a mood booster. You're in a better mood when you go on vacation. You know why that is? Because sunlight increases serotonin in your bloodstream. We'll get to what serotonin is in a minute. How this works I don't know exactly, but the vitamin D is not just a vitamin; it functions like a hormone that influences the genes responsible for serotonin levels in your brain and gut. Now this is fascinating because you don't have to admit if you've ever heard of the word serotonin or tell it to your spouse, but if you did, you probably heard it because it's part of the acronym called an SSRI. And SSRI stands for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which is a common drug used for depression or anxiety, they're more well known as Prozac, Zoloft, or Lexapro. And they help increase serotonin and therefore help with depression, anxiety, OCD and the other conditions. But get this, your sunlight itself boosts serotonin. Wonder of wonders. So again the serotonin's inside of you. Now people, if they're depressed, they might not be having enough serotonin or but this is the The sunlight by stimulating the retina tells you to produce more serotonin and it also prompts the skin to produce the vitamin D which is needed for the serotonin. So you want to know why you feel good when you're on vacation? It's not just the vacation, it's the sunlight. Wonder of wonders, our sunlight, and tomorrow we'll continue about the great benefits that are linked to vitamin D which is all unleashed by the sun. So tomorrow morning when you say יוצר אור ובורא חושך yotzer hame'orot appreciate the sunlight. What has it done for you so far? Well today's discussion is vitamin D and serotonin.