Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection caused by a germ called Myocbacterium.  It spreads through the air when a person with TB of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes or talks.  Symptoms of TB in include a bad cough that lasts three weeks or longer, weight loss, coughing up blood or mucus, weakness or fatigue, fever and chills, and night sweats.¹

 

Although medicines have been available for more than 60 years to help treat TB, there are still more than 14,000 cases every year.²  Now a new study² has found that increasing vitamin D intake can help boost immune system strength and make you more resistant to TB infection.

 

In the study, 192 patients exposed to TB received either 2.5 mg of vitamin D per day or placebo for 6 weeks.  The patients had blood drawn before the study began and at the end of the six weeks.  Researchers looked at vitamin D levels in the blood as well as the numbers of myobacteria using a process called BCG-lux assay luminescence.  The study was a double-blind randomized controlled trial, meaning that neither the researchers nor the patients knew who was given the vitamin D until after the study.

 

While finding “a profound vitamin D deficiency” in 40% of the patients (in whom the vitamin D supplementation increased blood vitamin D levels by 91%), the researchers found that vitamin D “significantly enhanced” the ability of participants' whole blood to restrict mycobacterium replication.

 

For the researchers, “vitamin D supplementation primarily enhances [immune system] responses to mycobacterial infection.”

 

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Danville, CA.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at mailto:ChiroDocPSUalum@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.CompleteChiropracticHealthcare.com

 

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