Dr. Michael Holick, professor, recommends this vitamin “It is one of the major regulators of your immune system”

Health experts are constantly advising us to follow a balanced diet that includes all the vitamins and minerals we need, along with exercise, in order to stay in tip-top shape. However, there is one vitamin that over half of the world population lacks, even though we can get it by just going out into the sunlight, vitamin D.

The sunshine vitamin, as it is known, is among the 13 essential vitamins we need and has properties that promote wellbeing. It plays an important role in normal bone mineralization among the several health benefits it provides.

One of those is giving a boost to our immune system. Speaking to HuffPost Dr. Michael Holick, a professor of medicine, pharmacology, physiology & biophysics and molecular medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, said, “we know that vitamin D is playing a critical role in controlling both adaptive and innate immunity. It is one of the major regulators of your immune system.”

Vitamin D helps keep illness at bay

Research has shown that insufficient vitamin D can result in people getting sick more often as the body is unable to efficiently counterattack viruses. Dr. Holick’s own research found that people were 54% more likely to catch covid-19 that are vitamin D deficient. Additionally, those individuals had an increased risk of death and complications from the virus.

Fellow expert Diane Stadler, the director of the graduate programs in human nutrition at the school of medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, backed up his findings. “Vitamin D acts in a few different ways to enhance the immune response,” she explained.

“If you don’t have sufficient amounts of vitamin D, your immune system isn’t going to act as effectively in combating those traditional bacterial, viral infections that we seem to be more exposed to,” Stadler added. She said that this is especially the case during winter months.

Furthermore, Stadler shared that having sufficient levels of vitamin D in our bodies can help boost the effectiveness of vaccines by improving our response to them. “It helps to kind of prime, or make our bodies ready to have the appropriate response if we are getting vaccinated,” Stadler explained.

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