What is Vitamin D’s effect on the immune system?
What is Vitamin D’s effect on the immune system?
It has been known for years that excessive ultraviolet light, especially the shorter, burning rays UVB, can cause non-melanoma skin cancer such as squamous cell cancer of the skin, basal cell skin cancer as well as pre-skin cancers called actinic keratoses. It is as well proven how much ultraviolet light is responsible for melanoma skin cancer, although certainly parts of the world where fair skin people gets lots of ultraviolet light (such as Australia) have higher rates of melanoma. It is also known that sunburns, especially in childhood, are associated with a higher risk of melanoma.
More recently, scientists have recognized that Vitamin D plays an important role in maintaining a healthy immune system, as well as its role in calcium absorption. Vitamin D may help other organs fight off cancer, including cancer of the breast, prostate and colon. Some authors suggest that too little Vitamin D may increase the risk of these internal cancers. Too much Vitamin D, on the other hand, can result in too much calcium absorption. Therefore, as in many issues in health care, a proper balance in obtaining Vitamin D needs to be found.
Reference for more reading about the Vitamin D controversy:
Shedding light on vitamin D deficiency “crisis’.
Brian Alexander
2009 msnbc.com