Maintaining Optimum Health Requires Longer-Term Stable Vitamin D Concentrations

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Author Info

Sunil Wimalawansa

Corresponding Author

Sunil Wimalawansa
Professor of Medicine, Endocrinology & Nutrition, Cardiometabolic and Endocrine Institute, New Jersey, USA

A B S T R A C T

Humans are constantly invaded by environmental microbes. The body is protected from pathogen attacks by the immune defense system. In 99.8% of the time, our innate immune system is capable of getting rid of these organisms without before these can cause harm. Those who are with weaker immune systems constantly get infections and having chronic diseases. Among many factors contributing to maintaining a robust immune system, vitamin D has the highest impact. It has a major protective effect against acute respiratory infections and subduing both communicable and non-communicable diseases. A healthy person with stronger immunity may not manifest clinical signs and symptoms of COVID-19-silent, asymptomatic carriers of the virus and can be infectious. Whereas not all PCR positive persons are infectious. A rapid response occurs through the innate system that is followed by the adaptive response that lasts a longer period. Vitamin D kick starts both systems. However, the protective immune and other functions are damped in the presence of hypovitaminosis and also when the levels are fluctuating. Thus, the importance of maintaining serum 25(OH)D at a steady level above 30 ng/mL. When maintaining such, among all nutrients vitamin D has the widest benefits to multiple body systems. Thus, this sunshine vitamin (a steroid hormone) has been modulated through evolution to emerge as a key survival mechanism in humans. Nevertheless, vitamin D is not a panacea.

Article Info

Article Type

Review Article

Publication history

Received: Mon 28, Sep 2020
Accepted: Fri 30, Oct 2020
Published: Fri 20, Nov 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Sunil Wimalawansa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.RGM.2020.03.03