Vitamin D and Illness Update

13 June 2009

Adit Ginde, of the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine provided some more great updates on the importance of vitamin D and illness.

Research indicates that a lack of vitamin D is associated with weaker production of an antimicrobial peptide called hCAP-18, a protein that works with immune-system cells to kill pathogens (invading bugs).

"We think that if you're exposed to a virus [and] you have sufficient vitamin D, those cells will be better equipped to fight off that organism so you don’t get an infection," says Ginde,. In people with vitamin D deficiency, it's possible that "those cells don’t work as well so you're more like to get a cold or infection or something more severe."

"It's clear that the American population needs more vitamin D overall for its effects on bone health and the growing literature on non-skeletal benefits for general health," says Ginde, who expects participants in an upcoming vitamin D trial will get the amped up levels of 1000-2000 IUs that advocates are pushing for.