To Your Health
April, 2020 (Vol. 14, Issue 04) |
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Boost Your Immune System's Performance With Vitamin D
By Editorial Staff
Could vitamin D supplementation reduce the risk of influenza (flu) and coronavirus infections and deaths? It makes sense when you consider what the authors of this new study in the peer-reviewed research journal Nutrients say:
"Vitamin D can reduce risk of infections. Those mechanisms include inducing cathelicidins and defensins that can lower viral replication rates and reducing concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines that produce the inflammation that injures the lining of the lungs, leading to pneumonia, as well as increasing concentrations of anti-inflammatory cytokines. ... Evidence supporting the role of vitamin D in reducing risk of COVID-19 includes that the outbreak occurred in winter, a time when 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations are lowest; that the number of cases in the Southern Hemisphere near the end of summer are low; that vitamin D deficiency has been found to contribute to acute respiratory distress syndrome; and that case-fatality rates increase with age and with chronic disease comorbidity, both of which are associated with lower 25(OH)D concentration."
We're talking about immune strength, a concept that's receiving increasing press time these days as the media transitions (at least slightly) away from morbid statistics and political divisiveness and toward what we can do, individually and as a society, to avoid complications from COVID-19.
Here's what the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has to say about the power of vitamin D: "Vitamin D is both a nutrient we eat and a hormone our bodies make. It is a fat-soluble vitamin that has long been known to help the body absorb and retain calcium and phosphorus; both are critical for building bone. Also, laboratory studies show that vitamin D can reduce cancer cell growth, help control infections and reduce inflammation. Many of the body's organs and tissues have receptors for vitamin D, which suggest important roles beyond bone health."
Many people don't get enough vitamin D, particularly during the winter months, because the primary source is sunlight. That fact also suggests it's fairly challenging to get too much vitamin D (otherwise people who spend an hour or two a day in the sun would be at risk of toxicity). Talk to your doctor about the immune-boosting, health-promoting benefits of vitamin D and how much you should be taking in supplement form to maximize your health and wellness during this particularly daunting virus season.
