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Vitamin D and the Immune System(cancers and autoimmune diseases)Presently many claims are being made about vitamin D and its influence on cancers and the immune system. While these statements have some basis in fact, it's important to recognize that an overall understanding of vitamin D is far from being achieved. What is known: Receptors for vitamin D and the enzymes to convent circulating 25-OH cholecalciferol to the active hormone are found in most human tissues - not just kidney, intestine and bone. Marine organisms that do not have calcified skeletons make vitamin D – which is used for non-calcium/skeleton cellular regulatory processes. (It is interesting to note that osteoclasts, which participate in bone remodeling, are derived from the same human cell line as our white blood cells.) There is epidemiological evidence that many tumors and some autoimmune diseases are associated with low vitamin D levels or reduced sun exposure. EDITORIAL Vitamin D Status and Cancer Incidence
and Mortality: Something New Under the Sun Giovannucci EG, Liu Y, Rimm EB, et al. Perspective study of
predictors of vitamin D status and cancer incidence and mortality in
men. J Natl Cancer Inst 2006; 98: 451–9. Merlino L, Curtis J, Mikuls T, et al. Vitamin D intake is
inclusively associated with rheumatoid arthritis . Arthritis
Rheum 2004; 50: 72–7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd= Carlos A Camargo, Jr, Sheryl L Rifas-Shiman, Augusto A Litonjua, Janet W Rich-Edwards, Scott T Weiss, Diane R Gold, Ken Kleinman, and Matthew W Gillman Maternal intake of vitamin D during pregnancy and risk of recurrent
wheeze in children at 3 y of age Am J Clin Nutr 2007 85: 788-795. Vitamin D plays a role in recognizing and responding to genetically predetermined immune responses and in the differentiation of immune regulatory cells. Liu PT, Stenger S, Li H, et al. Toll-like
receptor triggering of a vitamin D-mediated human antimicrobial response .
Science 2006; 311: 1770–3. J. Clin. Invest.117:803-811 (2007). doi:10.1172/JCI30142 Injury enhances TLR2 function and antimicrobial peptide expression through
a vitamin D–dependent mechanism Experimental Biology and Medicine 229:1136-1142 (2004) Margherita T. Cantorna 1 and Brett D. Mahon Reinhold Vieth, Heike Bischoff-Ferrari, Barbara J Boucher, Bess Dawson-Hughes, Cedric F Garland, Robert P Heaney, Michael F Holick, Bruce W Hollis, Christel Lamberg-Allardt, John J McGrath, Anthony W Norman, Robert Scragg, Susan J Whiting, Walter C Willett, and Armin Zittermann The urgent need to recommend an intake of vitamin D that is effective A comprehensive review of this topic is beyond the scope of this website or its author (who has a background in chemistry and medicine.) Vitamin D is very important in human physiology. An understanding of its actions is very complex and far from complete. At the present time, this author believes that vitamin D should not be ignored but that supplementing with a reliable product to achieve approximate physiologic blood levels using the pro-hormone native to human beings – cholecalciferol, D 3 – is the prudent action to take. |
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