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researchers observed that they produced lower nutritionally-oriented doctor I follow says he uses 12,500 IU of vitamin
secretory IgA. We don’t want babies born to A daily to treat allergies and autoimmune disease. I think that is a good
mothers who are deficient in vitamin A and amount. Of course, the vitamin A should never be given alone but with
certainly, we want to encourage breastfeeding. sources of vitamin D and zinc.
We want the mothers to have plenty of vitamin A You also need to think about having a healthy gut microbiome, as
so their breast milk can support good immunity this works in conjunction with secretory IgA. If you’ve got vitamin A
and gut health for their babies. deficiency, you’ll have a higher propensity for autoimmune disease, partly
Speaking of gestational vitamin A deficien- because you don’t have as many T-regulatory cells.
cy, when mice were made vitamin A-deficient, What else happens in your gut when you don’t have enough vitamin
their offspring were born with smaller lymph A? Physical changes occur. The villi become shorter and thicker. You
nodes. That is where all the T- and B-cells are have reduced enzyme activity, such as the disaccharidases. Do you have
made. As adults, the mice had impaired immune problems digesting carbohydrates? We need disaccharidases to digest
response, indicating that vitamin A deficiency carbohydrates so they don’t ferment, and we need vitamin A to produce
effects are persistent into adulthood. It is hard disaccharidases. And with inadequate vitamin A, we make fewer goblet
to measure this type of thing in humans as cells that secrete “mucins” essential in forming the mucus layer that
there are so many different factors at play, but protects our gut.
we certainly know this is happening in animals In studies of vitamin A-deficient animals, scientists have observed
because of animal studies. inflammation in the large intestine that looks like colitis, accompanied
Besides keeping our immune system pre- by an altered gut microbiome. Ulcerative colitis is limited to the colon
pared to deal with pathogens, vitamin A allows but Crohn’s disease can be anywhere throughout the digestive tract,
our immune system to be tolerant. We want a even up into the mouth. Eventually you get the transportation of toxins
tolerant immune system that doesn’t overreact through the gut—the so-called leaky gut. If you have inflammatory bowel
to things. We want it to know when it should disease—either ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease—you don’t want to
do its job and when it should lie low. We want be vitamin A-deficient.
it to recognize ourselves as ourselves, so we In one study patients with ulcerative colitis received 25,000 IU of
don’t develop autoimmune diseases. We want it vitamin A per day. They had started with a Mayo Clinic score of six to
to know when something is a non-threatening twelve, indicating moderate to severe disease progression based on the
outsider because if we don’t, we get allergies. number and degree of their symptoms. There were significant decreases
Vitamin A helps us do that by keeping our in symptoms in one out of three patients, and one in five had complete
immune system from overreacting. It does the mucosal healing. I would not suggest that vitamin A supplementation is
majority of this work in the gut because the gut all a patient with ulcerative colitis should do, but it would be an important
is one of the first places where our bodies make part of the protocol.
these decisions. Unfortunately, these conditions are becoming more and more
Without adequate vitamin A, the body common these days. Have you noticed how many immuno-suppressive
makes fewer T-reg cells and more Th17 cells, medications, often injectables, are advertised for these conditions? It
which has a proinflammatory effect. One is outrageous and scary. These are serious diseases; people’s lives are
THE MAJOR COMPONENTS OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM: THREE LINES OF DEFENSE
INNATE (non-specific) ADAPTIVE
FIRST LINE: BARRIER SECOND LINE: SURVEILLANCE THIRD LINE: TRAINED
“Castle and Moat” “Patrol Officers” “Special Ops”
• Skin • Natural Killer Cells • Lymphocytes
• Tight Cell-to-Cell Junctions • Macrophages, Neutrophils, Etc. • T Cells, “Direct Kill”
• Cilia • Phagocytosis • B Cells, “Mark with Antibodies”
• Mucus • Antimicrobials • Memory Cells
• Secretions • Dendritic Cells
• Antigen Presenting
• Inflammatory Response, Cytokines
SPRING 2020 Wise Traditions 21