Monica RodrÃguez Portela
Isabel I University, Burgos, Spain
Biography
Senior student of Human Nutrition and Dietetics at the Universidad Isabel I (Burgos), specialization course in Advanced Clinical Nutrition at Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud y Nutrición, Natural Healing Practitioner at the Escuela Europea Parasanitaria. Currently in an Erasmus+ with Dr. Paolo di Cristófaro specialist in metabolic diseases and eating disorders (Italy).
Abstract
Nowadays, certain natural substances contained in food, are claimed to be beneficial for health. They are called nutraceuticals (NT). Therefore, it is proposed as a general objective to determine vitamin D efficacy as a nutraceutical agent, as well as the effective dose in case of evidence. In order to respond to this objective, a qualitative methodology has been carried out with a bibliographic review study design. The scientific review has been carried out on original studies published during the time period between the 1st of January 2010 and the 1st of January 2019.These studies analyze the therapeutic application of vitamin D and its relationship with the improvement of the immune system. The databases used were: PubMed, Scielo and Cochrane. As descriptors "Decs" were included: nutraceutical, vitamin D3 and immune system. The Boolean operators "AND" and "OR" were used. As an inclusion criterion, it was decided the fact that all the articles must be original and available to full text for free in English and Spanish languages.
On the other hand, we excluded all those studies conducted in a population other than humans or in humans with a sample of less than 30 subjects or with an age lower than 18 years old.
The results of this review have shown that "vitamin D" has a strengthening action of the immune system in different pathologies (acne, multiple sclerosis, infection of the upper respiratory tract or systemic lupus erythematosus) and even in non-pathological but special situations such as pregnancy.
Thus, the analyzed research shows the efficacy of vitamin D supplementation in the general immune system regardless of the pathology and the variables involved, both in small samples (39 subjects) and in large samples (179 subjects). In short treatment (12 weeks) or long duration (52 weeks), with a minimum effective dose of 400 IU / day. After the previous presentation, we can conclude that Vitamin D presents forceful evidence to be recommended in a protocoled way.