Why this Vitamin is Better than ANY Vaccine and Improves Your Immune System by 3-5 Times

Why this Vitamin is Better than ANY Vaccine and Improves Your Immune System by 3-5 Times

Posted By Dr. Mercola | January 04 2012 | 37,721views


























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Story at-a-glance
Dr. Joe Prendergast explains that vitamin D is likely more powerful than any vaccine you could take, as German researchers have found it increases your immune system by a factor of 3 to 5.
Vitamin D is a steroid hormone -- not a vitamin -- that influences virtually every cell in your body, and is easily one of nature's most potent cancer fighters.
Vitamin D influences nearly 3,000 of your genes, and it plays a major role in your immune response, including helping your body produce over 200 antimicrobial peptides that help fight all sorts of infections.
Your best defense against any disease is a robust immune system, which vaccines can compromise; supporting your immune system should always be at the top of your list, and optimizing your vitamin D levels is one crucial component of this.




By Dr. Mercola


In the video above, Dr. Joe Prendergast, one of a growing number of experts who are recognizing the phenomenal health importance of vitamins, shares why, in many ways, vitamin D is more powerful than any vaccine you could take.

He cites a study by German researchers, who have found that vitamin D increases your immune function by a factor of 3 to 5, while dramatically stimulating the production of potent anti-microbial peptides.

Furthermore, ultraviolet radiation exposure from the sun, which stimulates the production of vitamin D in your skin, has been shown to reduce the incidence of viral respiratory infections, along with a wide range other health conditions.

Vitamin D is a Hormone -- Not a Vitamin


The conventional medical community, with the pharmaceutical industry at the helm, is hard at work creating a vaccine for any and every health condition they can – and then passing them off as the “solution” for disease prevention. Of course, there has never been a disease that is caused by a “vaccine deficiency,” but there absolutely are diseases that are caused by vitamin D deficiency -- many of them, ranging from cancer to depression!

You may find it surprising that vitamin D is so important for your health, especially if you’re still under the impression that it’s mostly a nutrient for your bones. Most people also think that vitamin D is really a vitamin, but in reality, the active form of vitamin D is one of the most potent hormones in your body, and regulates more genes and bodily functions than any other hormone yet discovered. Vitamin D is produced as a pro-hormone in your skin after sunlight exposure, and is then converted to the potent hormone form.

Without this hormone, you could die, and indeed, many do die from vitamin D deficiency-related causes.

Your Immune System Needs Vitamin D, Not Vaccines, to Function Properly


Vitamin D has a remarkable role to play in your health, influencing nearly 3,000 of your 25,000 genes, and playing a critical role in your immune response -- a role far superior to the synthetic (and often harmful) immune responses that vaccines elicit. Vitamin D could rightly be described as a “miracle nutrient” for your immune system, as it enables your body to produce well over 200 antimicrobial peptides, which are indispensable in fighting off a wide range of infections.

From a recent Oregon State University press release:


A new study has concluded that one key part of the immune system, the ability of vitamin D to regulate anti-bactericidal proteins, is so important that it has been conserved through almost 60 million years of evolution and is shared only by primates, including humans – but no other known animal species.

The fact that this vitamin-D mediated immune response has been retained through millions of years of evolutionary selection, and is still found in species ranging from squirrel monkeys to baboons and humans, suggests that it must be critical to their survival, researchers say.

Even though the "cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide" has several different biological activities in addition to killing pathogens, it's not clear which one, or combination of them, makes vitamin D so essential to its regulation.

The research also provides further evidence of the biological importance of adequate levels of vitamin D in humans and other primates, even as some studies and experts suggest that more than 50 percent of the children and adults in the U.S. are deficient in "the sunshine vitamin."

"The existence and importance of this part of our immune response makes it clear that humans and other primates need to maintain sufficient levels of vitamin D," said Adrian Gombart, an associate professor of biochemistry and a principal investigator with the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.

The presumed intent of a vaccination is to build host immunity through exposing the immune system to small, attenuated doses of the organisms (or their antigens) that have the potential to cause illness and disease. This preemptive strategy in the “war against germs” often causes such a high burden of collateral damage that world governments are forced to underwrite the risk of vaccines (private insurers would quickly go bankrupt from paying out rightful claims, if the truth be told!), essentially colluding with vaccine manufacturers, and the conventional medical establishment that administers them, in the ongoing cover-up of the extensive harm they do.

The reality is that the health risks associated with the “vaccine preventable” diseases are far lower than those associated with the unintended, adverse effects of the vaccination process itself.

A serious cost-benefit analysis of the vaccine-based model of so-called “disease prevention” must take into account that our body's immune system is already hard-wired to fight off infectious organisms naturally, assuming an adequate supply of vitamin D, and other key nutrients, is available. Instead of viewing our bodies as essentially helpless without the synthetic immunity provided by vaccines, we must acknowledge that for countless eons our ancestors did quite well with good nutrition, sunlight and fresh air as the sole means of supporting immunity.

Is it any wonder, then, that vitamin D shows higher effectiveness against disease than certain vaccines?

For example, a Japanese study showed that school children taking vitamin D3 supplements were 58 percent less likely to catch influenza A. That's a higher effectiveness than any flu vaccine can claim, and doesn't come with a barrage of potentially devastating side effects! And there are numerous studies like these, showing the superior effectiveness of natural strategies like vitamin D in the prevention of disease.

In fact, here’s a list of conditions that are caused or made worse by vitamin D deficiencies:



Acute lower respiratory infection

Anaphylaxis

Anemia

Anxiety

Arthritis



Asthma

Atherosclerosis

Autism

Autoimmune diseases

Bipolar disorder



Brain damage

Breast-tissue density

Chronic fatigue

Chronic pain

Cognitive ability



Colds

Craniotabes

C-reactive protein levels

Crohn’s disease

Cystic fibrosis



Dental caries (cavities) and periodontal disease

Depression

Diabetes

Dyslexia

Eczema



Epilepsy

Falls

Fibromyalgia

Flu

Fractures



Headache

Hearing loss

Heart disease and heart failure

High cholesterol

HIV/AIDS



Hypertension

Immune system dysfunction

Infertility

Inflammation

Inflammatory bowel disease



Insomnia

Intermittent claudication

Kidney disease

Leprosy

Leukemia



Low back pain

Low birth weight

Lupus

Macular degeneration

Melanoma



Meningitis (bacterial)

Metabolic syndrome

Migraines

Multiple sclerosis

Muscle strength (low)



Myeloma

Myopathy

Myopia

Necrotizing fasciitis

Neuroblastoma



Neuropathy

Nonspecific muscle pain

Nursing home risk

Obesity

Osteomalacia



Osteoporosis

Parasites

Parkinson’s disease

Peripheral artery disease

Pneumonia



Polycystic ovary disease

Pre-eclampsia

Psoriasis

Retinoblastoma

Rickets



Schizophrenia

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

Sepsis and septicemia

Stroke

Tuberculosis




There is, in fact, research on over 200 diseases that have been linked to vitamin D deficiency, and which may respond to vitamin D supplementation – or better yet, sunlight-induced vitamin D production in the skin.

When's the Last Time You Spent Time in the Sun?


This is an important question to answer, because vitamin D from sun exposure is the best way to optimize your vitamin D levels and thereby reduce your risk of a wide range of diseases.

Unfortunately, it's been suggested that only about 30 percent of Americans' circulating vitamin D is the product of sunlight exposure, which is an unfortunate byproduct of public health agencies' misguided advice to stay out of the sun to avoid cancer (when in fact vitamin D from sun exposure will prevent cancer). Another obvious reason is the majority of us work indoors, and when not working, do not spend enough time enjoying outdoor recreation.

Occasional sunlight exposure to your face and hands is insufficient for vitamin D nutrition for most people. To optimize your levels, you need to expose large portions of your skin to the sun, and you may need to do it for more than a few minutes. And, contrary to popular belief, the best time to be in the sun for vitamin D production is actually as near to solar noon as possible. Ultraviolet light from the sun comes in two main wavelengths -- UVA and UVB. It's important for you to understand the difference between them, and your risk factors from each.

First there is UVB, the healthy wavelengths that help your skin produce vitamin D. Then there is UVA, which is generally considered the unhealthy wavelengths because they penetrate your skin more deeply and cause more free radical damage. Not only that, but UVA rays are quite constant during ALL hours of daylight, throughout the entire year -- unlike UVB, which are low in morning and evening, and high at midday.

So to use the sun to maximize your vitamin D production and minimize your risk of skin damage, the middle of the day (roughly between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.) is the best and safest time. During this UVB-intense period you will need the shortest sun exposure time to produce the most vitamin D.

As far as the optimal length of exposure, you only need enough to have your skin turn the lightest shade of pink. This may only be a few minutes for those who have very pale skin.

Once you have reached this point your body will not make any additional vitamin D and any further exposure will only result in damage to your skin. Most people with fair skin will max out their vitamin D production in just 10-20 minutes, or, again, when their skin starts turning the lightest shade of pink. Some will need less, others more. The darker your skin, the longer exposure you will need to optimize your vitamin D production.

If sun exposure is not an option, a safe tanning bed (with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields) can be used, or alternatively as a last resort, a vitamin D3 supplement can be taken orally.

Research published by Grassroots Health from the D*Action study shows the average adult needs to take 8,000 IU's of vitamin D per day in order to elevate their levels above 40 ng/ml, which they believe is the absolute minimum for disease prevention.



Do You Know Your Vitamin D Serum Level?


Some 40 leading vitamin D experts from around the world currently agree that the most important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level. So you really should be taking whatever dosage is required to obtain a therapeutic level of vitamin D in your blood, as noted in the table below -- multiply ng/ml by 2.5 to convert to nmol/litre.



If you don’t know your vitamin D levels, or you have never had your vitamin D levels tested, I urge you to consider doing so very soon, as simply assuming your levels are in the healthy range is quite risky. Vitamin D deficiency is at epidemic proportions in the United States and many other regions around the world today, largely because people do not spend enough time in the sun to facilitate this important process of vitamin D production.

So the first step to ensuring you are receiving all the benefits of vitamin D is to find out what your levels are using a 25(OH)D test, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D.

There are two vitamin D tests -- 1,25(OH)D and 25(OH)D -- but 25(OH)D is the better marker of overall D status. It is this marker that is most strongly associated with overall health, and it is the one you should ask your physician for.

Alternatively, you can have your vitamin D levels tested right in your own home by joining the GrassrootsHealth D* Action Study. D*Action is a worldwide public health campaign which aims to solve the vitamin D deficiency epidemic through focusing on testing, education, and grassroots word of mouth.

When you join D*action, you agree to test your vitamin D levels twice a year during a five-year program, and share your health status to demonstrate the public health impact of this nutrient.

There is a $60 fee + $5.00 shipping for each 6 months for your sponsorship of the project, which includes a complete new test kit to be used at home, and electronic reports on your ongoing progress. You will get a follow up email every six months reminding you "it's time for your next test and health survey." To join now, please follow this link to the sign up form.

Vitamin D is One of Your Best Defenses Against Disease -- But There are Others as Well


Overall, your best defense against any disease is a robust immune system, which vaccines can compromise. So supporting your immune system should always be at the top of your list, and vitamin D is one crucial component of this.

More simple tips to boost your immune system and health are available, for free, on my Web site in a clear, concise format that is broken down for beginners, intermediate, and advanced. I encourage you to browse through this information today for information on how to stay healthy, naturally.







Related Links:

This Vitamin D Supplement Mistake Raises Your Death Rate by 2% -- Are You at Risk?


The Vitamin Which Can Cut Your Flu Risk Nearly in Half


Vitamin D is a Key Player in Your Overall Health