If you were limited to only taking one vitamin supplement, research shows that there’s a special vitamin that everybody’s immune system needs to maintain health. It even helps to repel the virus linked to AIDS.
Why is that important? Because vitamin D is not just a vitamin, it’s also a bone-building hormone, and the main activator of your immune system. Macrophages – the immune cells that guard your body and watch for invaders – have vitamin D receptors. That means they check whether or not you have enough vitamin D before they signal there’s danger. Not enough vitamin D, and your immune system doesn’t respond.
Research in Africa shows that vitamin D possesses such powerful immunity benefits – your immune system’s T-cells and beta cells also have vitamin D receptors – that it can even help the body fight a virulent invader like HIV-1.
The study included lab tests that exposed blood samples to HIV-1. The analysis showed that samples that contained more vitamin D were better able to resist infection.
So just imagine what vitamin D can do for you against more everyday viruses. But if you want to get enough vitamin D, you almost certainly need to take a vitamin D supplement.
Besides CoQ10 and magnesium, vitamin D might be the best argument for supplementation we have. The reason is that our modern lifestyle practically necessitates that most of us develop vitamin D deficiencies.
Most jobs are now indoor jobs and don’t allow us to be out in the sun enough for our skin to use sunlight to supply us with this nutrient. And many of us live in northern states where, in the winter, the sun isn’t strong enough to stimulate the body’s vitamin D production. And that would be true even if you stood naked outdoors all day long – which I don’t recommend.
That’s why experts estimate that at least 50 percent of Americans are missing out on vitamin D’s benefits which include resistance against cancer, a better chance of surviving a heart attack and less of a risk of suffering painful arthritis.
You are at greatest risk of not having enough vitamin D:
- As you age. The bodies of people over age fifty make vitamin D less efficiently.
- If you have mood problems. A lack of vitamin D can compromise your emotional health.
- When you constantly feel fatigued and achy.
- If you have digestive problems like gluten sensitivity or irritable bowel syndrome which can limit your vitamin D absorption from food.
- If you have dark skin. When your skin is more highly pigmented, less ultraviolet light from the sun can penetrate to stimulate vitamin production.
In food, fatty fish (sardines or salmon) is a valuable source of vitamin D. Although milk is supposed to be fortified with vitamin D, experts doubt that we absorb very much from dairy products.
This nutrient is crucial for keeping you healthy. It is an impressively surprising nutrient – Every time I think I understand all of vitamin D’s potential benefits, researchers come up with another one.
