After stress and sugar here comes the sun

Vitamin D3 is essential to our immune system. The best source is the sun! However we seem to shun the sun, or affront it after sloshing all kind of sunscreens. Vitamin D deficiency is much more common than we imagine. You will be surprised to know that Vitamin D3 is a repair and maintenance steroid responsible for the regulation of over 3,000 genes. It is also a potent antibiotic that is intimately involved with a vast amount of disorders and diseases. This makes it a vital component of a healthy immune system and is best obtained from the sun, with supplementation being an alternative option.

There are many articles to substantiate this. In a major breakthrough  discovered that Vitamin D is crucial to activating our immune defences and that without sufficient intake of the vitamin, the killer cells of the immune system -- T cells -- will not be able to react to and fight off serious infections in the body. For T cells to detect and kill foreign pathogens such as clumps of bacteria or viruses, the cells must first be 'triggered' into action and 'transform' from inactive and harmless immune cells into killer cells that are primed to seek out and destroy all traces of a foreign pathogen. The researchers found that the T cells rely on vitamin D in order to activate and they would remain dormant, 'naïve' to the possibility of threat if vitamin D is lacking in the blood.

So a very simple and inexpensive way of recharging your body's defence system is sitting in the sun. This applies for everyone, not only cancer survivors! So do spend sometime in the sun without SUNSCREEN! You can get up to 90% of your requirements from exposure to sunlight.

As I said there are innumerable articles on how Vitamin D influences our immune system. Some studies explore the health impact of suboptimal circulating levels of vitamin D, with association studies linking vitamin D 'insufficiency' to several chronic health problems including autoimmune and cardiovascular disease, hypertension and common cancers.

Vitamin D plays a key role in boosting the immune system. So the question arises about how to boost your immune system with vitamin D. Well sunshine of course and we in India are lucky to have plenty of it. One should try and get 20 to 30 minutes of exposure per day. You can also take a supplement or still better eat foods rich in vitamin D. The best sources are: cod liver oil, salmon, eggs, mushrooms and shrimps in moderation.

Ranjan does like sitting in the sun in winter. I guess once he resumes golf than he will have plenty of sunlight. Will have to figure how to manage the 30 minutes in the hot summer.