Besides improving bone health and preventing osteoporosis, steady supplementation of vitamin D may help patients overcome tuberculosis when added to an antibiotic regimen, recent research has determined.
Scientists at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry have found that 2.5 milligrams (mg) of the vitamin per day given to patients on a course of antibiotics sped up the recovery process by approximately one week.
Their data has been published in The Lancet.
The studys authors theorized that the participants, all of whom lived in the United Kingdom, may have benefited from the vitamin D doses due to the countrys general lack of sunlight.
Alternately, the vitamin may improve lung health through a mechanism that is not yet understood, the research team said.
They added that participants with a particular form of vitamin D receptoran inherited traitresponded more positively to the treatment than others.
Vitamin D is a nutrient vital to a number of bodily processes. According to The Vitamin D Council, cholecalciferol is the most effective form of vitamin D and should be supplemented into ones diet.