Vitamin D is crucial in human immune response to tuberculosis

Medical Xpress reports that Vitamin D is crucial in human immune response to tuberculosis. The researchers "found that T-cells, which are white blood cells that play a central role in immunity, release a protein called interferon-gamma that triggers communication between cells and directs the infected immune cells to attack the invading tuberculosis bacteria. However, this activation requires sufficient levels of vitamin D to be effective."

This important finding stirs very mixed emotions in me. In childhood and adolescence I suffered repeated bouts of pulmonary tuberculosis, after which time I was advised by health professionals to avoid exposing my skin to sunshine in case it reawakened the dormant TB germs. Vitamin D is known as the 'sunshine vitamin'. Clearly, in the light of this research finding (published online today,Oct. 12, in the peer-reviewed journal, Science Translational Medicine) the advice that I was given was completely wrong, and since I followed that advice for a long time, it cannot but have compromised my health. More and more, researchers are reporting the many health benefits that vitamin D bestows on us, and the many disbenefits that are caused by inadequate levels of vitamin D.

Vitamin D essential for efficient immune system

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that Vitamin D is crucial to activating our immune defenses and that without sufficient intake of the vitamin, the killer cells of the immune system - T cells - will not be able to react to and fight off serious infections in the body.
Read article at physorg.com

Some of the many beneficial rôles of Vitamin D

Vitamin D is being appreciated as "nature's antibiotic” as a string of recent discoveries about the multiple health benefits of this nutrient have come to the fore.
Right from the health of your immune system to prevention of heart disease and even vulnerability to influenza, vitamin D is now seen as one of the most critical nutrients for overall health. But it is also one of those most likely to be deficient – especially during winter when production of the "sunshine vitamin" almost grinds to a halt for people.
Read article in The Times of India

The Guardian reports that less than half of doctors and nurses in the NHS intend to have the swine flu vaccine.

The Guardian reports that less than half of doctors and nurses in the NHS are intending to have the swine flu vaccine. "There are growing signs that large numbers of workers will shun the jabs because they see them as unnecessary and potentially unsafe."

See Might Swine Flu Vaccine increase Risk of Cancer?
Concerns about safety of swine flu vaccine
Drug firms dodge swine flu liability

You can boost your immunity to infection by cutting down on salt and salty food. Good nutrition has no adverse side-effects.

Tamiflu-resistant swine flu infections are occurring in different parts of the world.

See Reuters Report about case in Australia and Boston Globe report about cases in Atlanta USA. The ill-conceived practice of Tamiflu being provided for and used by people who were not ill, will undoubtedly have rendered it more likely for drug-resistant strains of the virus to develop.

Good nutrition boosts your immune system, as does cutting down on salt and salty food. - Above all, do not lower your resistance by dieting. - If you need to lose excess weight you can do so easily, without dieting; you need to reduce salt intake, not calorie intake, in order to lose excess weight.

Lose weight and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt/sodium! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Sodium in foods

When Obese People Get Swine Flu There Is a Risk of Severe Complications

Google News today has a number of reports about obesity resulting in severe complications and even death for people who catch H1N1 swine flu. My advice to anyone who is obese is to cut down your intake of salt and salty food as much as you can. - This is the way to lose weight safely and it will boost your immunity to infection.

People who are overweight/fat/obese are sensitive to salt, which for them can result in sodium and water retention and therefore, obviously, weight gain. This in turn can result in calcium deficiency, which causes fat retention. Reducing salt intake reduces both the fluid retention and the fat retention. - Reducing calories does not address the fluid retention problem at all and that is the explanation for the fact that diets don't work.

Prescription drugs including many steroids, many antidepressants, anti-psychotics and epilepsy drugs as well as other pharmaceuticals, are a major cause of fluid retention/obesity/salt sensitivity and especially of morbid obesity. - Avoid taking prescription drugs unless they are absolutely necessary.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Swine flu has now reached Britain

The Telegraph reports that two people are being treated in a hospital isolation unit in Scotland after contracting the disease on holiday in Mexico.

You can boost your immune system by cutting down on salt and salty food and by eating good healthy food with plenty of fruit and vegetables. Dieting should be avoided as inadequate food intake lowers your resistance to infection.

Vitamin D deficiency in infants and nursing mothers carries long-term disease risks

Once believed to be important only for bone health, vitamin D is now seen as having a critical function in maintaining the immune system throughout life. The newly recognized disease risks associated with vitamin D deficiency are clearly documented in a report in the December issue (Volume 3, Number 4) of Breastfeeding Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., and the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.
Read article at physorg.com

Obesity can weaken the body's immune system and reduce its ability to fight off infections

Obesity may harm immune system

Extracts from the Guardian:

"Obesity can weaken the body's immune system and reduce its ability to fight off infections, according to scientists.

Previous studies have hinted at a link between obesity and increased risk of bacterial infections, but there has been little research into how serious the effects are.

It is a pressing issue because obesity has reached epidemic proportions. In the UK, more than a fifth of adults are obese and of the remaining population half of men and a third of women are overweight.

Worldwide, there are an estimated 300 million obese people and obesity is already linked to heart disease, diabetes and premature death."

"Though it is unclear exactly what causes obesity to affect the immune response, the researchers suggested that gaining weight might upset a mechanism in the body that reacts to foreign organisms. They added that the effect would have implications for many bacterial infections."

I have long known that obesity weakens the body's immune response and I suggest that the reason is the impaired nutrition of most obese people - impaired because most obese people do not eat enough. - Most of the time they are 'dieting' - i.e. eating insufficient food, because they are constantly told by experts that dieting is necessary for them to lose weight. - But it is NOT necessary. - Obesity is caused by fluid retention, not by over-eating. - I hope that the day will soon dawn when those estimated 300 million obese people worldwide are told the truth: that dieting is unnecessary, ineffective and, indeed, harmful, and that they can rapidly and safely lose excess fluid/weight by cutting out salt/sodium and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and heart problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake is what causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Cold potatoes strengthen your immune system - but don't put salt on them!

Cold spuds strengthen immune system - Telegraph

"The general decrease of leucocytes in the pigs suggests an overall beneficial effect, says the immunology expert Lena Ohman at the Department of Internal Medicine, Göteborg University, Sweden."

Extract:

"New scientific research has discovered that the potato is especially effective in boosting the immune system when eaten cold or in a salad.

A three-month study on the health of pigs, fed largely on potatoes, discovered that they had significantly decreased levels of white blood cells, produced as a result of inflammation or disease.

Spanish researchers observing the animals observed a 15 per cent reduction in leucocyte levels, a common chemical in the blood which can signify the presence of disease."

It's good to hear of research about good nutrition rather than funded by drug companies...

Reducing salt intake also strengthens your immune system, so don't put salt on them or you will undo the good the cold potatoes can do you!

Lose weight and benefit your health in countless other ways by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Two child deaths after taking Roche anti-flu drug, Tamiflu (oseltamivir)

Flu drug warning after two child deaths

Extracts:

"The anti-flu drug that has been stockpiled by the Department of Health for a future epidemic has been given a new pack warning after reports of teenagers falling to their deaths from tower blocks.

It has been reported that two 14-year-olds in Japan died in separate incidents while taking the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) says packets of the drug will include new advice to patients and doctors about "neuro-psychiatric" events.

The packets will say: "Convulsion, depressed levels of consciousness, abnormal behaviour, hallucinations and delirium have been reported during Tamiflu administration, leading in rare cases to accidental injury."

"The Department of Health has stockpiled 14 million doses of the drug - enough to treat a quarter of the population in an epidemic.

A spokesman from Roche said: "Following a recent review of the antiviral drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir), the EMEA and CHMP have proposed wording in the precautions section of the European label to include an observed increase of neuro-psychiatric reports, mainly in Japan, in those patients being treated for influenza.

"As clinical studies have already shown, patients not treated with Tamiflu experience delirium and other events as a natural course of the infection and its associated high fever. The changes in labelling are a precautionary measure."

She said reports of neuro-psychiatric events in patients taking Tamiflu were rare and there was no established causal relationship between the drug and the likelihood of neuro-psychiatric events in influenza patients."

The drug company's spokesperson has adopted the same stance as years ago was taken by the drug companies about appalling adverse side-effects from taking tranquillisers, i.e. she seeks to blame the illness itself, rather than the drug, for what happened to these two children.

You can to some extent boost an impaired immune system by reducing the amount of salt you eat. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html - There are no adverse side-effects to cutting down on salt...

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)