Vitamin D Can Help Fight Tuberculosis

TuberculosisFindings in a recent study have proposed that Vitamin D, the fat-soluble secosteroids, which are synthesized by the body using sunlight, provide immunity to the human body to overcome major infectious diseases including tuberculosis.

Initially, when antibiotics were not available for the deadly disease of the lungs, patients were recommended to expose themselves to sun, which was commonly termed as sunbathing and medically as heliotherapy.

However, when antibiotics were introduced and they showed significant results in the treatment of the disease, heliotherapy was discouraged.

However, as time has passed the deadly disease has resulted into the deaths of almost 1.5 million people each year and worst of all, these many of its strains becoming resistant to antibiotics, hence, the disease becoming untreatable.

The study conducted by a team of researchers from the Queen Mary University examined 95 patients, who were affected by non-resistant strains. They were given a combination of Vitamin D with the antibiotics.

The study, which has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggested that the patients, who were given vitamin D along with antibiotics, were able to fight against the disease more efficiently and also their recovery was fast, in comparison to those subjected to only antibiotics. However, more tests have to be conducted to confirm if it can be given daily.