The Interesting Link Between Vitamin D and Your Immune System

Vitamin D otherwise known as the "sunshine vitamin", plays an important role in Immune System function. If you would like to know why you should improve your vitamin D intake through supplementation or time spent in the sun this is the read for you.

A meta-analysis of studies has shown that the supplementation of Vitamin D can help with the prevention of acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs), this investigation was done in 2017 making it fairly relevant. The meta-analysis used a pool of 11 000 participants in randomized control trials and it found a significantly reduced proportional amount of people who experienced acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs). This means that, (*1)“Vitamin D supplementation was safe, and it protected against acute respiratory tract infections overall.” This was especially true for those with a Vitamin D deficit but it still showed that it was good for those who regularly used Vitamin D supplements. 

The vast majority of Vitamin D is produced by our bodies after our skin comes into contact with the sun but we do take in small amounts of it from the food that we eat. After the pandemic and with a lot more people from South Africa starting to work from home, more and more people are starting to have a Vitamin D deficit with a study showing that in Africa, more than 80 percent of people are in a deficit. Another study showed that with growing awareness of the increased skin cancer risk from the harmful ultra-violet (UV) rays from the sun people tend to avoid the sun or use sunscreen, which is good, but this leads to the sunscreen of SPF 30 and above reducing Vitamin D synthesis by more than 95 percent(*2). 

Luckily for us in South Africa, we love to braai which often involves an afternoon (or two) out in the sun having fun with friends and family. How ever we believe that, it still is a good idea to take Vitamin D supplements to equal out the remainder of the deficit. 

(*3-6)

A published Paper called “Evidence that vitamin D supplementation could reduce risk of influenza and COVID-19 infections and death”, says that the role of Vitamin D might play an important role in reducing the risk of Covid and recommended taking Vitamin D supplementation to reduce the risk of infection (*7). According to the same paper it would seem that in order for your body to activate the Vitamin D, magnesium is required (*7). The authors of the paper,  hypothesized that Vitamin D could help those infected with COVID-19, but further study is required on the hypothesis.

A lot more study is underway to further understand and investigate the link between a persons Immune System and Vitamin D however the link does seem apparent. One study shows that 82.2 percent of hospitalized patients with COVID-19  were Vitamin D deficient compared to the 47.2 percent of the general population(8*).

We at YourDay2Day believe that with these studies it seem like there is almost a defined link between your Vitamin D intake and your Immune Systems ability to combat acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs) and possibly COVID-19 and, because of this we encourage you to think about taking Vitamin D supplementation and spend more time in the sun!

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References

1. Martineau AR, et al. Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data. BJM. 2017;356:i6583.

2. Nair R, Maseeh A. Vitamin D: The “sunshine” vitamin. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 2012;3(2):118-126. doi:10.4103/0976-500X.95506

3. van Schoor N, Lips P. Chapter 59 – Worldwide Vitamin D Status. In: Feldman D, ed. Vitamin D (Fourth Edition). Academic Press; 2018:15-40. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-809963-6.00059-6

4. Mithal A, et al. Global vitamin D status and determinants of hypovitaminosis D. Osteoporos Int. 2009;20(11):1807-1820. doi:10.1007/s00198-009-0954-6

5. Macdonald HM, et al. Sunlight and dietary contributions to the seasonal vitamin D status of cohorts of healthy postmenopausal women living at northerly latitudes: a major cause for concern? Osteoporos Int. 2011;22(9):2461-2472. doi:10.1007/s00198-010-1467-z

6. Adams JS, Hewison M. Update in Vitamin D. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2010;95(2):471-478. doi:10.1210/jc.2009-1773

7. Grant WB, et al. Evidence that vitamin D supplementation could reduce risk of influenza and COVID-19 infections and deaths. Nutrients. 2020;12(4):988.

8. Hernandez JL, et al. Vitamin D status in hospital