Study: Vitamin D critical to immunity

CHARLESTON, S.C., Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Vitamin D is now viewed not simply as having a role in promoting bone health, but as a complex hormone that helps regulate immunity, U.S. researchers said.

Dr. Carol Wagner, Dr. Sarah Taylor and Bruce Hollis of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston said that vitamin D deficiency is common across populations and particularly among people with darker skin. Long-term vitamin D deficiency has been linked to immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and cancer, the researchers added.

Nutritional rickets among nursing infants whose mothers have insufficient levels of vitamin D is an increasingly common, yet preventable disorder, the study said.

The study, published in Breastfeeding Medicine, also said perhaps the most startling information is that adults are commonly deficient in modern society. Vitamin D is now recognized as a pivotal hormone in the human immune system, a role far beyond the prevention of rickets.