A New Way to Fight Swine Flu

Many of us are already familiar with Vitamin C's importance to our body and its immunity. But, with Vitamin D playing a crucial role to our immune system this is really something new.

Vitamin D is so important that our body makes it by itself, but, only after skin exposure to sufficient sunlight. But, it can also be obtained from food like salmon, mackerel, tuna, cod liver oil, sardines canned in oil, milk, yogurt, egg yolk and cheese, doesn't only help in calcium absorption and promotes bone growth, but also activates our T-cells in our bodies that seek out and destroy any invading bacteria and viruses.

The links between Vitamin D deficiency and dreaded diseases like cancer, heart ailments, diabetes, depression and many others, have been long time established. But only recently, scientists from University of Copenhagen, discovered that Vitamin D is also critical in activating our immune defenses and that without the sufficient intake of this vitamin, the killer cells of our immune system, which is the T cells, may not be able to react, or have enough strength to fight off serious infections in our body.

In battling with swine flu, Dr. John Cannell together with his colleagues have also reported that Vitamin D aids the production of antibacterial peptides that can protect us from viral infections like flu, or colds, which get rampant during winter season.

Dr. Cannell, is a well-known Vitamin D expert and serves as the director of the Vitamin D Council. He further reported that two physicians, one in Georgia and the other in Wisconsin attested that very few of their patients who maintained a high level of serum Vitamin D acquired H1N1 (a.k.a swine flu) last year, while their patients, mostly medical workers who did not take Vitamin D suffered from swine and all other flu viruses.

Meanwhile, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), although during the week of February 21 -27, 2010, most key flu indicators in the United States remained about the same as during the previous weeks, elevated ILIs (Influenza-Like Illnesses) were actually seen in regions 4 and 9. Region 4 is comprised of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. And region 9 is comprised of Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada.