When it comes to immune health supplements, vitamin C, zinc and echinacea probably come to mind first. Here’s another immune health vitamin to put on your radar: vitamin D. Not ringing any bells? You might recognize it from your milk carton: almost all cow milk in the U.S. is fortified with vitamin D.
Dr. Sudipta Veeramachaneni, GNC’s VP of Global Research, Development & Innovation, digs into vitamin D, sharing the connection between vitamin D and immune health and how you can get more vitamin D in your diet.
Find the full transcript of her video here.
Hi everyone. It’s Sudipta and today I want to talk to you about the “sunshine vitamin,” vitamin D. Most of you are probably familiar with the fact that vitamin D can play an important role in bone health and also in the health of your teeth, but did you know that vitamin D can also play a role in immune health?
One of the cool things about vitamin D is that it has the ability to modulate and influence different genes in the body. Genes that can play a role in a variety of biological functions. More recently, there is evidence to show that vitamin D can actually impact genes that are involved in the immune system.
Now, a combination of lab and animal studies have shown that vitamin D can play a role in the innate immune system, which is your body’s first line of defense, and the adaptive immune system. In the case of the innate immune system, vitamin D is able to boost immune cells and also plays a role in the production of key proteins that are involved with immune cells’ ability to fight off various foreign bodies in the body when it comes to the adaptive immune system.
Vitamin D activity has been identified in both the T lymphocytes and the B lymphocytes, important cells of the immune system. One of the really unique things about vitamin D is that your body has the ability to produce vitamin D in the skin. Now, one thing that’s very important for this ability is the presence of UV rays from the sun. That’s why it’s called the sunshine vitamin. If you don’t spend a lot of time outdoors or if you live in a place that doesn’t get a lot of sunshine, you may not be making enough vitamin D in your skin. Or you can also get it in the diet from a variety of foods, including fatty fish or fortified dairy.
But if you’re vegan, vegetarian or you’re sensitive to dairy products, this may not be a viable option for you. Now, national nutritional service in the United States indicate that many Americans don’t get enough vitamin D in their diet. So, if you’re concerned about filling nutritional gaps, you may want to consider a vitamin D supplemen that can help you ensure you’re getting enough amounts of the vitamin and help support your immune health.
Thanks for listening. And if you’re looking for more information, check out my other videos linked below.
