The importance of vitamin D and the immune systems response to illness has long been known but not as effectively quantified or qualitated.
A major part of the issue is the standards used are very obsolete. The medical industry often refers to the RDA which is based on the standard average blood levels of ‘expected healthy’ individuals. The current RDA is incredibly low, almost borderline starvation levels.
Rickets is the softening and weakening of bones in children, primarily caused by extreme or prolonged vitamin D deficiency, which impairs the body’s ability to absorb calcium and phosphorus. And current vitamin D recommendations are made only to prevent or reduce this most extreme condition.
Vitamin D in the body is far more complex than that as it is also tied to atherosclerosis, immunity, and cancer as well. So, you might not get rickets but end up dying of heart attacks, cancer, or even viral diseases that could be prevented or at least reduced if optimal vitamin D levels existed in the body.
However, taking vitamin D while sick may help some, it does so only minimally for a couple of reasons.
First, taken as vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), it is not fully functional in the human body. In order to be fully effective, vitamin D must go through several changes. Vitamin D3 is first converted in the liver to 25(OH)D (calcifidiol) by 25-hydroxylase, then to 1,25(OH)
D (calcitriol) in the kidneys by 1alpha
-hydroxylase. This conversion
in the kidney is tightly regulated by parathyroid hormone (PTH),
calcium, and phosphorus levels. High levels of 1,25(OH)
D inhibit its own production.
This transformation of vitamin D also occurs in cells of the immune system, parathyroid gland, intestinal epithelium, prostate, and the breast.
Vitamin D deficiency actually impairs this entire cycle, often leading to reduced
calcium absorption, which in turn elevates PTH, further increasing
catabolism of existing vitamin D stores.
Vitamin K2 (menaquinone) is also important in the activity of vitamin D as it helps with the proper transport of calcium to the bones.
The active 1,25(OH)
D
binds to the vitamin D receptor (VDR) to regulate gene expression,
enhancing intestinal absorption of calcium and phosphate as well as modulating
bone metabolism.
The conversion of cholecalciferol to calcifitriol is a slow process , sometimes taking several days to weeks. This is a major influence in studies of vitamin D and its immune modulation effects. It is also, why building vitamin D levels well before an illness appears is important.
Early in the progression of the Covid-19 epidemic and later the pandemic, the Chinese studied the influence of vitamin D on the progression of the illness and they found that people that had higher levels of calcifitriol in their blood, had far lower risk of mortality but also found that taking large doses of D3 had little effect but the effects slightly increased over time.
The statistics are important and they show that having higher levels of vitamin D in the blood not only increase the survival rate in Coronavirus infections, influenza infections, and cancer as well, they also reduce the risk of severe infections.
Back in Nov. 2020, I wrote: ‘There
has been a cure for the Covid-19 Coronavirus that is caused by SARS-2
Coronavirus but they are not telling people about it. In fact, they are
hiding the truth because it takes away the profits from unnecessary
vaccines. To-wit, while they are spending billions of dollars around the
world on vaccine research, there has been a dearth of studies where
vitamin D3 is being given to either prevent or to fight the illness.’
For further discussion, see
Covid-19 coronavirus cure
Wuhan Coronavirus Covid-19 No cure for it?
Vitamin D: Production, Metabolism, and Mechanism of Action
Survival and catastrophy – living through calamity and mass destruction
Wuhan Coronavirus / 2019-nCoV: Failure to contain
Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak Beware the hidden mortality statistics
Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak Surpasses SARS
Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak How far will it spread and how bad?
Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak
Zapper Dave Blog