Vitamin D may help ward off TB

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Vitamin D may help ward off TB
15 May, 2007 l 1205 hrs ISTlKounteya Sinha/TIMES NEWS NETWORK
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Vitamin_D_may_help_ward_off_TB/articleshow/2050675.cms

NEW DELHI: A single vitamin D pill every six weeks may help keep tuberculosis at bay.

In a first of its kind study that evaluates how vitamin D affects the body?s immunity to mycobacteria that causes TB, researchers from Queen Mary?s School of Medicine and Imperial College have found that regular vitamin D intake helped boost the ability of the human body to inhibit the growth of the bacteria that causes TB.

In the study, blood samples were taken from 131 subjects which were later infected with mycobacteria that causes TB.

The subjects were then split into two groups with 64 given a dummy pill and the rest a 2.5mg dose of vitamin D.
After six weeks, the blood was taken once again and infected with the same mycobacteria. Scientists found that the growth of the bacteria in the subjects who were given vitamin D was 20% less than the placebo group.

Eminent TB researcher Soumya Swaminathan from Tuberculosis Research Centre, Chennai, said, ??Scientists had known that microphages when cultured with vitamin D were more effective in killing bacteria. Following this highly interesting small-scale study, what we need is a large-scale clinical trial to fully prove the findings.??

This study is highly significant for India where both vitamin D deficiency and TB is rampant. Inadequate exposure to sunlight and poor nutrition are factors contributing to the vitamin D deficiency. TB has become the single largest killer of AIDS patients in India.

Over 60% of AIDS patients die of TB. Every year, 1.8 million new cases occur in India while over 1,000 people die of the disease every day.

The study, which appeared in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, recruited patients from London who belonged to high-risk groups like migrants and the elderly.

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Re: Vitamin D may help ward off TB

Vitamin D dose could ward off TB
http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p...rint_list_item

A single dose of vitamin D may be enough to ward off developing tuberculosis (TB) for six weeks or more, researchers say.

In March, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) issued figures showing that cases of TB are on the rise.

Between 2005 and 2006, TB rose by 2% to over 8,000 new cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. London had the highest proportion of cases (42%), owing to its higher migrant population and number of at-risk groups, including the homeless and those with a history of drug abuse.

Most cases of TB in London arise from people in whom the bacteria has laid latent for some time, experts say. This means they have been infected with TB at some point but do not currently have an active TB infection.

The study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, found that a single 2.5mg dose of vitamin D may be enough to boost the immune system to fight TB and similar bacteria for at least six weeks.

Researchers from Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Research in Clinical Tropical Medicine at Imperial College London studied around 200 patients who had been exposed to TB.

Around two-thirds had latent TB while the rest had been exposed to TB but had not become infected. The patients, from London, were in high-risk groups and included migrants and the elderly. The researchers found that more than 90% of the patients were suffering from a vitamin D deficiency but that a supplement helped the body fight infection by mycobacteria, the family of bacteria that includes TB.

The supplement was found to stop reactivation of latent TB in those sufferers.

Dr Adrian Martineau from Imperial College London, who co-ordinated the study, said: "We found that a single large dose of vitamin D was sufficient to enhance a person's immunity to the bacteria. This is very significant given the high levels of vitamin D deficiency in people at the highest risk of TB infection, and shows that a simple, cheap supplement could make a significant impact on the health of people most at risk from the disease."

Sunlight is the main source of vitamin D, although a diet of oily fish can also provide some of what is required. However, Dr Martineau said the amount of sunlight in Britain is not enough to provide what most people need, and the elderly do not have the ability to absorb it as well as other people.