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Fight Infectious Diseases with Vitamin D
Vitamin D may be instrumental in activating your defenses and warding off infectious diseases, scientists recently discovered.
In a Reuters report, a group of Danish researchers found that vitamin D is vital in activating the immune system’s T cells or “killer” cells. If you are vitamin D deficient, your T cells remain dormant and unaware of threats from an infection or pathogen.
Led by Carsten Geisler of Copenhagen University’s Department of International Health, Immunology, and Microbiology, the researchers considered these findings to be helpful in fighting global epidemics.
“What we didn’t realize is how crucial vitamin D is for actually activating the immune system – which we know now,” Geisler wrote in the study.
Geisler explained that when a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a vitamin D receptor — an “antenna” or signaling device that’s on the lookout for vitamin D.
T cells won’t begin to mobilize without enough vitamin D in your blood.
Geisler and his team lamented the vitamin D deficiency that prevails in almost half of the world’s population. According to them, most have “lower-than-optimal” levels of the nutrient.
Because vitamin D is a byproduct of your skin’s healthy exposure to sunlight, vitamin D deficiency worsens as people spend more time indoors.
Natural health expert Dr. Joseph Mercola warns against the host of diseases that may afflict you due to unrecognized vitamin D deficiency. Among these health conditions are bone and muscle problems, high blood pressure, depression, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and many types of cancer.
In the absence of adequate sunlight exposure, Dr. Mercola recommends the use of a safe tanning bed to optimize your vitamin D levels.
A safe tanning bed’s UV rays help you produce the right amount of vitamin D without overdosing. Other benefits include more youthful skin, temporary relief of muscle and joint pain, and improved blood circulation.
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Tags: tanning bed, Vitamin D, vitamin d deficiency
