Immune System – Lesson 4

The Role of Vitamin D in your health.

Vitamin D has been a hot topic in the news because of its role in keeping our immune system strong.  Unless you live in the Southern states many people up North are Vitamin D deficient because of the role the sun plays in Vitamin D production.  That’s why many people should supplement with a whole food form of Vitamin D.  But what role does Vitamin D play when it comes to Calcium?

First, let’s review an important fact about your immune system.  We spoke about how important it is to get Calcium Bicarbonate into your cells.  Cells that are filled with Calcium often don’t get “sick”.  Vitamin D does the opposite it raises your “blood” Calcium which reverses the normal flow of Calcium from blood to the tissues (cells).  But here’s the cool thing, natural forms of Vitamin D such as cod liver oil, contains a vitamin call Vitamin F as well as the D, the F being the essential partner of the Vitamin D, causing the Calcium to diffuse into the cells from the blood.  So, Vitamin D alone loads up the blood stream with Calcium but if that Calcium is not transported from the blood into the cells, then it will not enable our white blood cells to fight off infection.

The Role of Vitamin F in your healthy immune system…

I hope you can see now the importance of Vitamin F.  Vitamin F is the essential partner of Vitamin D.  and without Vitamin F, the Calcium can not get into our cells.  Most people have heard of Vitamin D and Calcium, but many never heard of Vitamin F.  So, where do we get Vitamin F from?  Of course, we can always supplement for it which is a good thing, but Vitamin F is found in butter fat.  If we think of babies, most prepared foods have the butter fat removed and replaced with oleo or refined vegetable oil.  So many babies have Vitamin F deficiencies.  Vitamin F is found in fatty acids which are found in essential fats.  Eating a mixture of essential fats helps improve the use of Calcium by the body.  Cells retain Calcium better and they are less likely to lost it through leaky membranes.

A quick note on Phosphorous.  The usual Calcium/Phosphorous ratio in blood is 10 mg of Calcium to every 4 mg of Phosphorous (10:4).  Sugar alters the ratio by decreasing Phosphorous and increasing Calcium.  Another example of why sugar is a danger to your immune system.

Next lesson we will explore the role of Vitamin C!