For decades, India has been a Vitamin D deficient country. Studies have revealed that 65-70 percent Indians are Vitamin D deficient. Even sunlight, considered to be an impeccable source of Vitamin D and available in abundance in India, has not been sufficient for Indians. The reason for this is high pollution levels, which filter out useful ultraviolet B rays and impact the production of Vitamin D from sunlight.
Dairy products, considered as fundamentally fortified with Vitamin D are often tampered with in India, and hence even a regular intake of dairy products doesn’t guarantee sufficient Vitamin D.
Vitamin D deficiency can lead to a lot of health problems including osteoporosis, rickets, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer.
If that’s not convinced you to check your vitamin D levels, a new study now reveals that the regular intake of Vitamin D supplements may also help protect against cold and flu, as well as tackle high levels of the vitamin’s deficiency.
The ‘sunshine vitamin’ as it known, not just improves bone and muscle health but also protects against respiratory infections by boosting levels of antimicrobial peptides — natural antibiotic-like substances — in the lungs. Acute respiratory infections such as pneumonia are a major cause of global morbidity and mortality.
The findings showed that daily or weekly supplementation halved the risk of acute respiratory infection in people with most significant Vitamin D deficiency — below 25 nanomoles per litre (nmol/L). Administering an occasional high doses of Vitamin D did not produce significant benefits.
People with higher baseline Vitamin D levels also benefited, although the effect was more modest (10 per cent risk reduction), the researchers noted, in the paper published in the journal BMJ.
Our study strengthens the case for introducing food fortification to improve Vitamin D levels in countries where profound vitamin D deficiency is common,” added lead researcher Adrian Martineau Professor at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) in Australia.
Apart from supplements, other sources of vitamin D include adding fish, mushrooms and eggs to your regular diet.
With inputs from IANS