Kiwi,

Thank you for your thoughts and the information. Much appreciated. And my apologies for the late reply. I went back to work, a number of other issues arose, and so I’ve had very little time. I’m trying to keep up with the forum and today I did what I could.

Anyway, I wanted to comment on a couple of things, or something in particular, even though we could speak about a number of issues raised. I’ve quoted/pasted the relevant bit below.

Here’s the issue/question: Why aren’t you/we connecting the two issues below. If, as the article maintains, 1,25 affects B-cells in the way noted, why can’t it be both good and bad so to speak? It caused apoptosis, sure, but it also decreases production of B-cells, etc. Perhaps that could explain my low neutrophils and IgG. I mean, most likely, or at least my suspicion is that I have some sort of infection, or simply bacteria being released from my intestine into my blood stream, and my low WBC, here the neutrophils, are dying off fighting the infection, or something along those lines. Anyway, just a thought, an idea. But this article does note that there is some immunosuppressive aspect to vitamin D, and the research seems to speak to this. If so, on some level, our good engineer might have a point, one which he clearly takes to an implausible and unsupported extreme.



"B-cells are also affected by 1,25(OH)2D, demonstrating decreased immunoglobulin production, proliferation and differentiation, but increased apoptosis."

I think that this is OK. Most B cells are passive. They only get activated by encountering specific antigens made by pathogens, usually with assistance from helper T cells. Two things happen to activated B cells; they differentiate into passive memory cells which are "ready and waiting" for the next time that their specific pathogenic antigen is present - they then get activated - this is why vaccinations are effective.

Activated B cells also differentiate into plasma cells, which secrete specific antibodies, which deal with the pathogen. If both activated B cells and plasma cells persisted in the absence of their specific antigen there is a risk that they could mutate, leading to an autoimmune disease or a B cell cancer like multiple myeloma. Because of that they "commit suicide" - undergo apoptosis - it seems that Vitamin D/VDR has a role in this.


"keeping an eye on my IgG and neutrophils, which I should mention have slightly gone down in the last few months - I have two blood samples over 3 months on that - and the reading was already on the lowest end of the acceptable range."

I don't know enough about the clinical side of things to say much about this - mrsD could well help.