Vitamin D is crucial in human immune response to tuberculosis

Medical Xpress reports that Vitamin D is crucial in human immune response to tuberculosis. The researchers "found that T-cells, which are white blood cells that play a central role in immunity, release a protein called interferon-gamma that triggers communication between cells and directs the infected immune cells to attack the invading tuberculosis bacteria. However, this activation requires sufficient levels of vitamin D to be effective."

This important finding stirs very mixed emotions in me. In childhood and adolescence I suffered repeated bouts of pulmonary tuberculosis, after which time I was advised by health professionals to avoid exposing my skin to sunshine in case it reawakened the dormant TB germs. Vitamin D is known as the 'sunshine vitamin'. Clearly, in the light of this research finding (published online today,Oct. 12, in the peer-reviewed journal, Science Translational Medicine) the advice that I was given was completely wrong, and since I followed that advice for a long time, it cannot but have compromised my health. More and more, researchers are reporting the many health benefits that vitamin D bestows on us, and the many disbenefits that are caused by inadequate levels of vitamin D.

New Study suggests Sunshine may help prevent Multiple Sclerosis

A new study in Australia suggests that obtaining Vitamin D through sun exposure may help prevent the onset of multiple sclerosis as well as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and some types of cancer.
Read article on the Daily Nexus website (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)

Birmingham launches Vitamin D Against Rickets drive

Birmingham is launching a Vitamin D Against Rickets drive. Well done to Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, who have taken this important initiative to safeguard/improve the health of the children of Birmingham.

Rickets, in former times a disease of poverty and deprivation, has re-emerged in Birmingham and other parts of Britain, partly because of our chronic shortage of sunshine, partly because screening children from possible sunburn has been too zealous, and partly because the preponderance of processed foods and salty snacks makes modern-day children's meals less nutritious than they might be.

You've heard of rickety stairs, no doubt: rickety meaning shaky, not strong, weak, liable to break, etc. A child with rickets is recognisable by bowed legs as well as weakness and by the physical disabilities of this serious bone disease.

Safeguard your children's health by ensuring they get their share of sunshine when our summer eventually brings us some. And protect them from the harm that a salty food intake and ready meals with insufficient nutrition can do to them. Read Fat Retention and the consequences of salty food, insufficient calcium and insufficient Vitamin D. Read also about Salt Intake and Child Health. You can read further about Vitamin D and its many health benefits by clicking on the labels beneath this blogpost.

I've had my vitamin D level tested and have received the result

As some of my readers will know, I have been taking Vitamin D3 supplements since last Spring, and have greatly benefited from them: feeling stronger, finding it much easier to get up from a chair, steadier on my feet so less likely to fall, etc. - Well last Wednesday I had a dental appointment. This entailed climbing steps. - Suddenly I found this sooo much easier! I didn't need to hold onto the handrail. - My leg muscles managed on their own.

So the benefits of my vitamin D3 supplements are continuing to increase. And I've not had a cold or flu or any other respiratory infection since I started seriously supplementing with this vitamin. - It's my favourite vitamin now...(o: It has helped me so much.

I recently sent off for a home testing kit to get my vitamin D level measured and I received the results a week or two ago. I am informed that most experts consider the optimal level for health to be 50-70ng/nl, and mine was found to be 52ng/ml, so that's fine. - I reckon it shows clearly that I certainly needed the supplementation! I shall continue supplementing. I feel so much stronger.

There is a great deal of research these days that shows vitamin D deficiency to be common, especially in people who cannot get out into the sunshine in the summer to build up their stores of the sunshine vitamin. Maybe you too could benefit from taking vitamin D3 tablets. Especially if you are unsteady on your feet as I was, or have had a fracture from a fall, or find it difficult to rise from a chair or to climb stairs, or you repeatedly catch colds - maybe your doctor would consider it a good idea to arrange for you to have your vit D level checked and then take it from there. - It's worth checking, don't you think, for the sake of your health? There's more information about vitamin D on my Fat Retention webpage.

14 year old Ryan McLaughlin succeeds with his vitamin D campaign in Scotland

BBC News reports on the success of 14 year old Ryan McLaughlin, in drawing the attention of the Scottish government to the "urgent need" to provide information to all health professionals who work with pregnant women and young children about current guidance on vitamin D.

"Ryan became the face of a YouTube campaign to publicise the use of vitamin D, and led hundreds of supporters down Edinburgh's Royal Mile to Holyrood before he put his proposals to the petitions committee in June.

He told MSPs research into the genetic effect of vitamin D deficiency showed a link to the development of MS. Vitamin D, which the body needs for healthy, strong bones is largely gained through sunlight and food."

Living in Scotland tends to result in extreme Vitamin D deficiency because of chronic lack of sunlight. While deficiency in the UK is widespread the situation in Scotland is worse than for the rest of the country. Scotland receives 30-50% less ultraviolet radiation (UVB) from the sun than the rest of the UK owing to its high latitude and persistent low cloud cover.

Scotland is thought to have the highest rate of MS in the world.

People who live in Scotland may be interested to read this

It's information about your need for vitamin D being higher because of living in Scotland:

http://www.vitamind3uk.com/Scotland.html

Living in Scotland often results in extreme Vitamin D deficiency due to chronic lack of sunlight. (reference) While deficiency in the UK is widespread the situation in Scotland is worse than for the rest of the country.

A lack of exposure to sunlight, rather than too much time spent in front of the television or playing computer games, has been found to damage childre

Spending time in sun can prevent children becoming short-sighted
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The study, carried out by researchers from the Australian National University and Sydney University, compared the eyesight of young Chinese Australians and Singaporeans. It found that 30 per cent of six-year-olds in Singapore need glasses, compared with 3 per cent of Chinese Australians.

Both groups spend the same amount of time playing video games, reading and watching television, but children in Singapore spend an average of 30 minutes each day outside, compared with two hours in Australia.

The figures were similar when contrasting children of Chinese descent from both nations, allowing researchers to eliminate ethnicity as a factor.

Short-sightedness is traditionally a problem among the highly educated who spend a lot of time indoors, lead researcher Professor Ian Morgan said.

"There's a driver for people to become myopic and that's education," he said. "And there's a brake on people becoming myopic and that's people going outside."

Mr Morgan said the research found playing video games had the same effect on vision as reading, using the computer had a "neutral" effect, and watching television had no affect at all."

Low Vitamin D may lead to cardiac death. Recommended daily intakes of vitamin D should be raised.

Sunshine is the key to a long and healthy life, for a new study has found that vitamin D deficiency can harm cardiovascular health and also result in death due to heart failure. Read article in the Times of India

'Call to action' issued for raising vitamin D levels

Recommended daily intakes of vitamin D should be raised to 2,000 International Units, says a group of 18 scientists from the University of California. The “call to action” by the UC scientists, led by Anthony Norman, echoes a number of others from leading academics across the globe, and may increase the need for policy makers to review current guidelines for the vitamin. Such increases could also open opportunities for food fortification and supplements. Current recommended daily intakes (RDIs) of vitamin D are 200 IU for people up to 50 years of age, 400 IU for people between 51 and 70, and 600 IU for over the 70s years. “The consensus among UC scientists who signed this statement is that 2000 IU per day of vitamin D3, a form of vitamin D, is the appropriate intake for most adult Americans,” said Norman.
Read article at nutraingredients.com

Babies kept out of the sun may be at risk of developing rickets.

Keeping babies sun-free increasing rickets risk - Telegraph

Extract:

"Protecting babies against skin cancer by keeping them out of the sun is putting them at risk of the crippling bone disease rickets, doctors have warned.

Breastfed infants need a top-up of vitamin D because they are no longer exposed to sufficient sunlight to generate the daily requirement themselves."


Also safeguard your children's health by feeding them meals low in salt. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html