vitamin D - IMPORTANT

am i still a blonde if it has gone to grey?

how come the "news" is fulla stuff we already know?
so this is just a reminder of past reminders
***
(Reuters) - Vitamin D is vital in activating human defences and low levels suffered by around half the world's population may mean their immune systems' killer T cells are poor at fighting infection, scientists said on Sunday.

Science | Health | COP15

The findings by Danish researchers could help the fight against infectious diseases and global epidemics, they said, and could be particularly useful in the search for new vaccines.

The researchers found that immune systems' killer cells, known as T cells, rely on vitamin D to become active and remain dormant and unaware of the possibility of threat from an infection or pathogen if vitamin D is lacking in the blood.

"When a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signaling device or 'antenna' known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D," said Carsten Geisler of Copenhagen University's department of international health, immunology and microbiology, who led the study.

"This means the T cell must have vitamin D or activation of the cell will cease. If the T cells cannot find enough vitamin D in the blood, they won't even begin to mobilize."

Scientists have known for a long time that vitamin D is important for calcium absorption, and that there is a link between levels of the vitamin and diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis.

"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 in the journal Nature Immunology.

Most Vitamin D is made by the body as a natural by-product of the skin's exposure to sunlight. It can also be found in fish liver oil, eggs and fatty fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel, or taken as a supplement.

Almost half of the world's population has lower than optimal levels of vitamin D and scientists say the problem is getting worse as people spend more time indoors.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6261IX20100308

I thought of you today WH, I was at the chiropractor who is an MD and we were talking about vitamin D3 when she asked me what supplements I take. She got all excited talking about the trials she had read and I told her about my success with it and other's that I had heard. She told me that other MDs are starting to advise patients to start taking mega doses after they determine the proper dose for them and I couldn't help but laugh at that.

lightning, i am so glad to hear you are in the care
of this person who has an open mind and who is
actually communicating with you, as well as helping
you achieve maximum health - i think it is a good
sign - for all of us