Vital Vitamin D
I've always taken a great deal of interest in nutrition. Partly because I was taught health studies, (which included understanding the role of vitamins and minerals for health) as part of eating a well-balanced diet. And partly because it was important for me to be physically in the best condition possible in order to train as an athlete from a young age. Sport depletes your body of its resources, therefore, it's important to be aware of what nutrition you need to maintain a healthy, strong body.
What is Vitamin D?⭐ It's known as calciferol which is a fat soluble vitamin. This means it's better absorbed when eaten with good fat. Hence, margarine, milk, cereal are often fortified with this vitamin. However, this isn't enough for your daily allowance. You need not only food rich in vitamin D, such as, cheese, sardines, salmon, trout, egg yolk, liver, but also sunshine. Plenty of sunshine! For sunlight to be effective it needs to hit naked skin to convert it into D3. No, I'm not suggesting we all become nudists. But you do need naked face, arms, legs and chest. Of course, sunscreen of SPF of 8+ reduces exposure to the sun so decreasing the potential for D3. (But to reduce cancer you need a factor of 15+.) The time of day or season also plays a role in how effectively the sun can do its job. It doesn't pass through glass so you might feel the sun while sitting in the car with the window shut but sun through glass does not convert to D3. Therefore, in order to receive vitamin D from the sun yet reduce the risk of skin cancer, a reasonable compromise would be 15 minutes in the sun without sunscreen during late morning/afternoon in the summer once a day.
Interestingly enough, being overweight or of mature years doesn't stop a person (female, male, trans, non-binary, polygender, gender neutral, agender, gender queer etc) absorbing the vitamin. However, people of colour absorb less Vitamin D from sunshine so need fortified foods and possibly supplements to ensure an adequate level of the vitamin in their bodies.
Vitamin D is vital for the immune system to function well. T-cells look for vitamin D in order to activate to become helper or killer cells. 🌠So, no vitamin D would mean no T-cell activation. Conversely, high vitamin D levels ensure T-cell activation which means a strong immune system which, in turn, helps the fight against viruses, bacteria and diseases. The BMJ⭐ ⭐(response to article in BMJ Sept 2020) has reported that 50% of people in the UK and 80% of Germans are resistant to C19 due to their efficient T-cell activation. So, T-cells are the big guns that shoot down the C19 virus. Vaccines don't activate enough T-cells, according to this BMJ response article, thus have less impact. Vaccines do however, activate antibodies but these play a lesser role than T-cells. Men have less T-cells than women which could be why women didn't become as susceptible to C19 as men.
Those who have fared better during this time are, first, those near the equator with high levels of sunshine. Second, Japan, because their diet is rich in vitamin D. Third, Finland and New Zealand, because they have either fortified foods with the vitamin or lead an outdoor life as in New Zealand. The latter also prescribe vitamin D to those in care homes (2011 onwards).
MP David Davis (Conservative) and Rupa Huq (Labour MP) have both been strong advocates of taking vitamin D to combat C19. ⭐⭐⭐As have various medical professionals who wrote to the BMJ to argue for the use of Vitamin D to ensure everyone has adequate levels of it to prevent serious C19 illness and/or death from the virus. This was not taken seriously enough by scientific advisors to the government despite one of their own supporting it, namely David Davis, who has relevant scientific knowledge having studied molecular science. Davis takes high doses of Vitamin D himself, as did many NHS staff who received vitamin D, C and zinc as part of a wellness pack at the beginning of the first wave. Furthermore, David Davis thought, and probably still does, that vitamin D is a promising treatment for C19 and wants more foods to be fortified with it. And he's right to promote this because 40% of people in the UK are low in vitamin D.
Let's look at some more studies and statistics:
There was a study in Spain (Sept 2020) which was small but tremendously important because it showed that there was a strong link between low levels of Vitamin D in the body and getting C19. So, in this study, 50 people received high levels of vitamin D, then a control group of 26 didn't receive any vitamin D supplement. Half of the control group ended up seriously ill and in ICU of which 2 died. However, those who did receive vitamin D, only 1 ended up in ICU but recovered fully. None died in that group.
Another study which took place in 2 Newcastle Hospitals gave C19 patients high levels of Vitamin D. 134 patients were given the vitamin, 94 responded well and left hospital, 24 remained in hospital and 16 died. Out of those 16 who died only 3 were given the high dose of Vitamin D. These 3 were also frail and over 90. This study supports the one carried out in Spain.
Vitamin D not only helps muscle and bone health (Churchill wanted margarine fortified with vitamin D during the war) but also immune and metabolic health. So why was it allowed to be taken out from margarine in 2013?
Despite such promising results it's hard to find research funding to conduct further studies into the role vitamin D plays in relation to C19, which I find incredulous.
'In the same way that prior infections protect us against future infections by means of cross-reacting T-cells, overcoming C19 naturally offers potential for greater protection against future C viruses. Vaccines have their place but so do our amazingly complex, sophisticated, highly effective immune systems which have evolved over millennia to protect us from the world teeming with trillions of pathogens.'⭐⭐
Here are relevant articles to read and ones I have used for this post:
⭐https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/
🌠Geisler, quoted in a 2010 article in the Scientific American, discovered this T-cell activation and he thought it would impact on vaccines and transplants. Geisler added 'It could help us to combat infectious diseases and global epidemics'.
Comments
Post a Comment