As we roll into January it is always a good time to make ourselves more healthy to take on the new year ahead!
It has long been a known fact that most of us are Vitamin D deficient and this as a direct result of our diets.
What has changed in these past months is that Vitamin D levels in our bodies have been directly linked to our Immune System and how this enhances our defence against a possible Covid 19 onslaught.
The role of vitamin D in reducing the risk of respiratory tract infections has recently been evidenced in several studies, this combined with the knowledge about the epidemiology of influenza and COVID-19 and how vitamin D supplementation might be a useful measure to reduce risks has made the importance for Vitamin D supplementation at the forefront of today’s combat strategy against the spread of Covid 19.
Through several mechanisms, vitamin D can reduce risk of infections. Those mechanisms include inducing cathelicidins and defensins that can lower viral replication rates and reducing concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines that produce the inflammation that injures the lining of the lungs, leading to pneumonia, as well as increasing concentrations of anti-inflammatory cytokines.