VITAMIN D
and cholesterol
The importance of the sun
DR DAVID GRIMES
Vitamin D and Cholesterol:
The importance of the sun
Why do people develop tuberculosis?
Tuberculosis is due to bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis and many people are in contact with this worldwide. Usually it will simply lie dormant but it activates into a disease when immunity is low, and there are two main reasons for this. The first is HIV infection leading to AIDS, a viral form of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. This has resulted in a resurgence of tuberculosis in certain parts of the world and in particular in Africa. As a result of this, the main group of people with tuberculosis in the United Kingdom are those who were born in Africa and this can be seen well in the figure below.
Why do people develop tuberculosis?
The other group is people from south Asia. They are immuno-suppressed because of deficiency of vitamin D. The TB usually develops after about five or eight years in the UK, by which time the vitamin D stores they had in their body at the time of arrival in the UK had become exhausted, allowing the disease to develop. In India, TB notifications are higher in the northern states, and they increase in the late winter when vitamin D levels of the body are lowest.
