Special edition: Immune support
Vitamin D
The immune support benefits of the sunshine vitamin have grown in recent years. A 2010 study by scientists from the University of Copenhagen found that vitamin D is necessary to trigger T cells – the immune system’s killer cells – into action, and insufficient levels of the vitamin mean the cells remain dormant and inactive.
“Scientists have known for a long time that vitamin D is important for calcium absorption and the vitamin has also been implicated in diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis, but what we didn't realize is how crucial vitamin D is for actually activating the immune system – which we know now,” they wrote in Nature Immunology.
A highly publicized paper in a recent edition of JAMA questioned vitamin D’s ability to reduce the number of upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), compared to placebo.
Flaws in the study design opened it up to criticism, however, and renowned vitamin D researcher Michael Holick PhD, MD, from Boston University Medical Center told NutraIngredients-USA: “This trial showed that people who were already vitamin D sufficient did not receive an additional benefit from vitamin D supplements.”
