Sunshine is good for you

Sunshine can boost your spirits and your immune system. Vitamin D, which your skin gets when exposed to the sun, can help protect the body from disease.

Vitamin D, which is made when our skin is exposed to sunlight, helps activate white blood cells that protect the body from flu, food poisoning and even cancer.

The discovery could help in the development of vaccines and ways to combat auto-immune diseases and cancer.

Vitamin D is vital for calcium absorption and bone health and latest research suggests it has cancer fighting abilities..

The newest research shows that Vitamin D plays a big role in helping our immune system, too.

A series of laboratory tests showed that the vitamin triggers dormant white blood cells into turning into ‘killers’ that seek out and destroy infections. Other white blood cells turn into ‘helpers’ that enable the immune system to build a ‘memory’ of the infection, allowing it to mobilise more quickly on the next encounter.

Researcher Carsten Geisler, of the University of Copenhagen, said: ‘If the T-cells (white blood cells) cannot find enough vitamin D in the blood, they won’t even begin to mobilise.’

This new discovery is documented in the journal Nature Immunology and could shed new light on conditions caused by immune system malfunctions, such as multiple sclerosis and organ transplant rejections.

Although vitamin D is found in foods such as oily fish and eggs, most of that found in the body comes from sunlight exposure, and many of us simply do not have enough.

In England, half the population is low in the vitamin when winter ends. In Scotland, it is two-thirds.  So, if you are thinking of a vacation in the sun – go ahead – the sun is good for you.