Vitamin D essential to fight off infection

Researchers in the Netherlands said in a recent report that vitamin D is essential in activating the human immune defense system.The researchers, from the University of Copenhagen, said that without vitamin D, T-cells, which fight off serious infection in the body, cannot do their job. Vitamin D activates T-cells to detect and kill foreign pathogens. It transforms the cells from harmless immune cells into what the researchers called "killer cells," which search for and destroy all traces of a foreign pathogen. Without vitamin D, the researchers said the T-cells would remain dormant and do nothing to protect the body against illness. The study appears in the latest edition of the journal Nature Immunology.