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Written By: Agencies | Updated : June 26, 2015 3:03 PM IST
Falling immunity levels are a primary concern for anyone suffering from HIV. While immunity foods and supplements are highly beneficial, scientists have now found that a cheap and efficient method of boosting immunity in HIV patients is a high dose vitamin D supplements.
The online issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says that vitamin S supplements not only can reverse deficiency but also boost the immune response. Places where proper resources are unavailable, vitamin D can be a simple and cost-effective help. Read: Top food sources of Vitamin D
The researchers examined two ethnic groups of South Africa's Cape Town to see whether high-dose vitamin D supplementation improved deficiencies and the cell's ability to repel HIV-1. Cape Town has a seasonal ultraviolet B regime and one of the world's highest rates of HIV-1 infection, peaking in young adults, making it an appropriate location for a longitudinal study like this one, said lead researcher Nina Jablonski, professor at Pennsylvania State University in the US.
The researchers found that both groups exhibited vitamin D deficiency during the winter, with women in both groups being more deficient, on average than the men. Because of vitamin D's impact on the immune system, the researchers provided six weeks of supplemental vitamin D3 to 30 of the Xhosa participants, which brought 77 percent of the participants to optimal vitamin D status.
Jablonski and her team determined that diet, genetics and other variables played tiny roles in vitamin D status, although some genetic variations did influence the success of supplementation. To test how vitamin D status affected the immune system and HIV-1, in particular, the researchers exposed the blood samples taken during the summer and winter when the participants were vitamin D sufficient or deficient. They found that after nine days, the winter blood samples had a greater infection than those taken in summer.
After six weeks of vitamin D supplementation, the blood sample levels of HIV-1 infection were same as those during the summer. High-dosage oral vitamin D3 supplementation attenuated HIV-1 replication, increased circulating white blood cells and reversed winter-associated anemia.
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Source: IANS
Image source: Getty Images
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