Vitamin D critical to fighting infections

[steven johnson]

Vitamin D has long been known to be important in calcium metabolism but it apparently also has a critical function with T lymphlocytes in the body's immune system.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, March 8 (UPI) -- University of Copenhagen researchers report vitamin D is crucial to activating immune defenses to fight off serious infections in the body.

Carsten Geisler said when specialized immune cells -- T cells -- are exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signaling device or "antenna" known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D.

"T cell must have vitamin D or activation of the cell will cease," Geisler said in a statement. "If the T cells cannot find enough vitamin D in the blood, they won't even begin to mobilize."

Identifying the role of vitamin D in the activation of T cells has been a major breakthrough, the research team said.


Vitamin D critical to fighting infections

[Uben]

1. Got milk?

Drink it!

[tiptoe]

2. Nope, unless 50 glasses of milk per day is practical -- that'll do it for many...but not all...

...based on latest medical research over the past decade -- not outdated 1997 standards.

Diet is not sufficient as a sole source for meeting latest (post-1997) daily vitamin D recommended requirements.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=222&topic_id=49922&mesg_id=49922

The body needs about 4000 IU per day in order to maintain a healthy concentration of 25(OH)D in the blood. Most of us don’t get that much; even so, most of what we do get seems to come from casual exposure of the skin to sunlight. The foods, fortified foods, and supplements we typically consume generally provide no more than 150–250 IU each day, on average. Because most of us don’t get enough sun exposure, the combination of what sun we do get, plus the vitamin D that we take by mouth, generally totals no more than 2000–3000 IU/day. Thus, in order to meet the body’s need for about 4000 IU/day, most adults in North America need to take a supplement providing somewhere in the range of 800–2000 IU/day.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/webcasts/a-healthy-dose-of-vitamin-d-transcript-3.aspx

Well, what about getting vitamin D from food, like milk and salmon? Can you get enough that way?

Dr. Holick:
Part of the problem is that I know and that's probably one of the controversies that I'm having with some of the dermatologists - that they often will tell their patients, “Oh, you can get it from your diet.” You can't. It's impossible to get 1,000 units a day from your diet. I'll give you some examples. There are 100 units in eight ounces of skim milk. There are 100 units of vitamin D in eight ounces of vitamin D fortified orange juice. There are about 500 units of vitamin D in 3.5 ounces, a typical serving, of salmon. So you'd have to eat salmon every day, basically, drink two to three glasses of milk and a glass of orange juice fortified with vitamin D, in order to get enough.

#143: Understanding Safety, MD recommended dosages -- "How Much Vitamin D Should I Take?"

* Well adults and adolescents should take 5,000 IU per day.
– Two months later have a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D blood test, either through ZRT or your doctor.

Start supplementing with the vitamin D before you have the blood test. Then adjust your dose so your 25(OH)D level is between 50–80 ng/ml, summer and winter. But remember, these are conservative dosage recommendations. Most people who avoid the sun—and virtually all dark-skinned people—will have to increase their dose, once they find their blood level is still low, even after two months of the above dosage, especially in the winter. Some people may feel more comfortable ordering the blood test before they start adequate doses of vitamin D. We understand. Test as often as you feel the need to, just remember, no one can get toxic on the doses recommended above and some people will need even more.

 

[tiptoe]

3. "Is Vitamin D an Antibiotic?" -- J Cannell, MD ("be warned that what follows is bizarre")

"Is Vitamin D an Antibiotic?"
The Vitamin D Newsletter June/July 2006

Antimicrobial Peptides

Dr. Liu and colleagues at UCLA, publishing in this March's edition of the prestigious journal Science , showed that vitamin D might be, in effect, a potent antibiotic. Vitamin D increases the body's production of naturally occurring antibiotics: antimicrobial peptides. Antimicrobial peptides are produced in numerous cells in the human body where they directly and rapidly destroy the cell walls of viruses and bacteria, including tuberculosis. Furthermore, Liu showed that adding vitamin D to African American serum (African Americans have higher rates of TB) dramatically increased production of these naturally occurring antibiotics.

Plenty of you have e-mailed me that pharmacological doses (high doses) of vitamin D (1,000–2,000 units/kg per day for three days), taken at the first sign of influenza, effectively reduces the severity of symptoms. However, has anyone ever studied giving 100,000, 200,000, or 300,000 units a day for several days to see if vitamin D induces antimicrobial peptides to help fight other life-threatening infections? (By the way, doses up to 600,000 units as a single dose are routinely used in Europe as "Stoss" therapy to prevent vitamin D deficiency and have repeatedly been shown to be safe for short-term administration.) No, you say, studies of "Stoss" therapy in serious infections have never been studied or reported in reputable journals. Well, maybe such treatment has been studied—and reported in the best journals—by way of the weirdest medical invention ever patented in the USA.
...
Before I get into this, be warned that what follows is bizarre. It might not make much sense in the beginning. However, if you'll bear with me, you'll see where I'm going. Remember how Professor Reinhold Vieth has written about the complete absence of studies using pharmacological doses of vitamin D (100,000 to 300,000 units a day for several days) in serious diseases. Are there frequently fatal illnesses, such as peritonitis (generalized infection in the abdominal cavity), septicemia (infection of the blood), pneumonia (the Captain of the Men of Death), etc, in which pharmacological doses of vitamin D may be clinically useful when added to conventional treatment?

We know that vitamin D has profound effects on human immunity. Quite recently, three independent groups have reported that vitamin D triggers the release of these powerful natural antibiotics called antimicrobial peptides. If you gave someone large doses of vitamin D, would their bodies make large amounts of antimicrobial peptides?
...
Blood Irradiation
...
Sunlight and the Knott Technic

It began in the 1920s. Seattle scientist Emmett Knott knew that sunlight and UV light was being used to successfully treat infectious diseases. The 1903 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Dr. Niels Finsen for his discovery that artificial UV radiation of the skin cured tuberculosis of the skin. If skin infections could be treated by irradiating the skin, Dr. Knott thought blood infections might be cured by irradiating the blood! Knott built an apparatus that would remove about 5% of the blood volume, anti-coagulate it, expose it to UVB and UVC radiation, and then pump the irradiated blood back into the body. Depending on the patient's weight, about 300 cc of blood is removed and circulated in thin glass tubing while being irradiated by ultraviolet light. The blood is then returned to the patient and the process is repeated a number of times, depending on the seriousness of the condition being treated. Sound crazy?

However, a couple of things caught my eye. First, the "Knott Technic" didn't really work on test animals until Knott began using ultra-thin quartz glass tubing. (Regular glass blocks UV radiation but quartz glass does not.) Second, Knott added a series of baffles to ensure all the blood came in direct contact with the interior surface of the quartz tube. (The heme molecule would absorb UV light if the blood was not agitated). Third, according to a book by Dr. William Douglas, the procedure rapidly cured both rickets and tetany. (Of course, a common cause of rickets and tetany is vitamin D deficiency.) Fourth, according to Douglas, Knott's early animal studies showed this procedure could maintain serum calcium in animals whose parathyroid glands were surgically removed. (We used to use pharmacological doses of vitamin D in humans who have had their parathyroid glands removed in order to maintain serum calcium.) Finally, when Knott experimented on dogs, he found that irradiating 100% of their blood volume (10 sessions with 10% of the blood removed and irradiated each time) cured experimentally induced infections, but all the dogs died 5–7 days later with cardiac arrhythmia, low blood pressure, respiratory depression, loss of reflexes, loss of muscle tone, followed by coma and death (this is the clinical course in fatal hypercalcemia—the cause of death in severe vitamin D toxicity). If the "Knott Technic" cured rickets and tetany, maintained serum calcium in parathyroidectomized animals, and caused hypercalcemia with over-irradiation, it must have delivered pharmacological amounts of vitamin D into the circulation. See where I'm heading?
...
~more~

[CountAllVotes]

4. very interesting!

I have been on the high levels of vitamin D (100,000 IU via prescription a week) for several months as I was deemed highly insufficient with a reading of 10.

I recently had surgery and it was a chaotic mess! It was so screwed up that they neglected to send me home with antibiotics.

I found out about this screw up last week when my doctor asked me if I'd taken all of the antibiotics I was given when I got out of the hospital. I told her I was unaware of a prescription for them.

So here I am some 6 weeks after major surgery and no infection has set in and it seems I did not need the antibiotics.

Maybe the high does of vitamin D I've been taking did the job dare I suggest?

Thanks for the info. steven johnson!

:dem: :kick:

[tiptoe]

5. Presumably D2 was prescribed? D3 is more potent, but D2 is what's usually prescribed.

Did you know your vitamin D status at the time of the surgery, i.e. after several months of treatment, leading up to the surgery?

Were you continuing the supplementation after the surgery?

Dr. Cannell might be interested to learn more about this experience. "Screwed up surgery" would seem a high-susceptibility to infection. He could probably guestimate your calcidiol levels at various stages of the whole affair.

Thanks for sharing.

[Duer 157099]

6. I posted in a different forum a couple of days ago

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=317&topic_id=3893&mesg_id=3893

I'm becoming very interested in the research with vitamin D. Fascinating stuff.