How To Support Healthy Vitamin D Levels
The recommended dietary intake of vitamin D is 600 to 800 IU per day for adults, although some experts believe the requirements should be increased. Your healthcare provider can evaluate whether you have a deficiency by conducting a simple lab test.
There are three ways that you can support a healthy vitamin D level or replenish a diagnosed deficiency:
- Ensure adequate sun exposure. Exposure to the sun is key for your body to synthesize vitamin D. But remember to still use sunscreen to protect from the sun’s harmful UV affects.
- Take vitamin D supplements. Any supplementation should be discussed with your doctor before starting a regimen. Choose vitamin D in the D3 form, and not the D2 form when possible
- Eat vitamin D-rich foods. While the list of foods that contain vitamin D is not extremely long, you have plenty of optionsfrom fish and some vegetables to fortified foods and milk.
Vitamin D For The Common Cold
Vitamin C has proven ineffective for the common cold, but some studies show that vitamin D can prevent colds and flu. In 2017, NPR published an article supporting vitamin D in this regard.
Another analysis stated that respiratory infections could be reduced by higher vitamin D. Thus, people need to get more sunlight. Results from 25 studies on over 10,000 participants were reviewed to see the effect of vitamin D supplements on reducing the number of infections.
The report was strong enough as it included many studies and was published in the reliable British Medical Journal. The participants were both adults and children, and both advantages and disadvantages were covered.
The problem was that they claimed, Vitamin D supplements seemed to reduce the risk of infection about 10 percent. The percentage is really not that significant, and the method of calculating it is not specified. However, it is safe to take vitamin D in reasonable doses, even if it does not cure the common cold or prevent it.
Learn more about alternative medicine in the news.
Strike Vitamin D Off The List For Cold Prevention
A new study shows that people who took large doses of vitamin D were as likely to catch colds, and suffer with them as long, as those who took placebo pills.
There were reasons to think otherwise. Various studies have suggested that vitamin D plays a protective role in the immune system. Vitamin D deficiency in children has been linked to higher rates of pneumonia and upper respiratory tract infections. And because the body makes vitamin D when in the sun, lower levels tend to occur in the winter, otherwise known as cold season.
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How Much Vitamin D Per Day When Sick
Increase your daily dose of vitamin D3 to 10,000 IU for every 100 Lbs. of body weight for a few days when you are sick with Cold, Flu or any other infection. There is no evidence of vitamin D toxicity at these doses. Risk of Vitamin D toxicity occurs if you take vitamin D as 80,000 IU per day for several months.
Cold And Flu: Prevention And Natural Therapies
Its important to strengthen and maintain a healthy immune system all year round so that your body can adequately fight influenza viruses and the viruses that cause the common cold. Though many people believe its not possible to ward off a cold or the flu, with the exception of the flu vaccine, the truth is we actually have a great deal of control over our health during the cold and flu season. Scientific studies support the effectiveness of cold and flu prevention strategies and natural therapies. By following these measures, we can exert some control over whether we get sick, the duration of recovery time, and the severity of symptoms.
WFPs Advice
8 Preventive Strategies To help you maintain a healthy immune system, incorporate these 8 strategies into your daily routine:
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Does Vitamin D Prevent Colds And Flu
I understand that taking vitamin D can prevent colds and the flu. How much do you have to take and how often?
Andrew Weil, M.D. | June 6, 2017
A British investigation published in February 2017 concluded that taking vitamin D supplements can help protect against colds, the flu, bronchitis and pneumonia. The researchers, from Queen Mary University of London, looked at data from 25 clinical trials involving some 11,000 patients from 14 countries and found a significant but modest benefit. The best results occurred among those who had very low levels of vitamin D to begin with. No benefit was seen in people who received one big dose of the vitamin instead of regular supplementation.
Overall, the analysis found that people who had the lowest vitamin D levels and then took a regular supplement had half the incidence of colds, the flu and other respiratory infections as those with low vitamin D levels who took no supplement. Among those with higher initial levels of D, supplementation reduced these infections by 10 percent.
I recommend that everyone take 2000 IU of vitamin D daily. Thats not a lot when you realize that with exposure to sunlight in the summer, your body can generate between 10,000 IU and 20,000 IU per hour with no ill effects. In addition, no adverse effects have been seen with supplemental vitamin D intakes up to 10,000 IU daily.
Andrew Weil, M.D.
Colds Flu Covid And Vitamin D Covid
Thought for the Week: An apple a day keeps the doctor away, so does vitamin D3 and your chiropractor.
Chiropractic Thought for the Week: Here is the science. Research shows that chiropractic care increases the rate at which the bodys DNA repairs itself. This is an important marker for immune system health. In addition, science shows that when the middle back is adjusted there is an immediate increase in white blood cells. White blood cells are the infection fighting, immune system blood cells. Lastly, in blood serum lab testing, chiropractic patients are shown to have higher levels of resistance enzymes. The higher the level of these enzymes, the better your immune system functions and the healthier you are.
Pregnancy / Prenatal Chiropractic Care Info: Prenatal care is the health care you get while you are pregnant. It includes your checkups and prenatal testing. Prenatal care can help keep you and your baby healthy. It lets your health care provider spot health problems early. Prenatal chiropractic care is important as pelvic alignment is vitally important to a less painful birthing delivery. As well as ensuring a proper nerve impulse flow to the reproductive organs and the baby helping to support a healthy pregnancy.
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- 5/5
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What This Means For You
Vitamin D is key for a healthy immune system. While you can get it from sunlight, if you live in a place that doesn’t get much during the winter months, there are other ways to boost your levels. There are some foods, like milk and eggs, that are naturally rich in vitamin D. Others, like milk and cereal, are fortified. You can also take supplements, if necessary, to prevent deficiency.
What Is Vitamin D
Although it has “vitamin” in its name, vitamin D is technically a hormone. Unlike many other key nutrients, your body can make vitamin D. When your skin is exposed to the sun for a long enough time, your body can synthesize vitamin D. You can also get it through foods and supplements. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to an increased risk of depression, weaker bones, and fatigue.
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Vitamin D For Influenza
I thank Dr Korownyk and colleagues for their interesting review on the neuraminidase inhibitors. Having spent some time looking at the reviews on these drugs myself, I agree that they are not very useful and the risk of causing harm is greater than the purported benefit. I no longer use them in my patients. Unfortunately, they are administered facility-wide in nursing homes as a public health measure when there is a reported outbreak of influenzalike illness or influenza. Working in long-term care settings, I have seen some of these patients and staff develop vomiting some with serious diarrhea some with acute confusion, hallucinations, or delirium and a number with worsening cognitive function. Having patients develop vomiting and diarrhea makes it difficult to know if there is a secondary outbreak in the facility of gastroenteritis. These side effects cause increased work for staff when this happens and are unpleasant for both staff and patients. I would suggest that these medications should no longer be stockpiled or used. This would result in tremendous savings in health care dollars.
Where Did The Story Come From
The study was carried out by a large group of researchers at various centres in Canada who were part of the TARGet Kids! Collaboration. This group is studying the health of Canadian children and the impact of early health in later life.
It was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institutes of Human Development, Child and Youth Health and Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes, and the Thrasher Research Fund.
The vitamin D used in the study was provided for free by the manufacturer Ddrops.
The study was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association .
The Mail Online provides good coverage of this story, making it clear that the study isn’t challenging the usefulness of the recommended vitamin D dosage, but saying more isn’t better for colds.
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Vitamin D Vs Common Cold: And The Winner Is
Now that winter is basically knocking at our door, many of us will have to face the most common and dreaded disease in America: the common cold. Upper respiratory tract infections represent the most common reason for U.S. emergency visits and is the most widespread disease in the States . Since so many of us fall victim to this almost, if not definitely, yearly, most Americans want to improve their immune system so as to be less likely to contract one. And if you walk through a pharmacy you’ll notice plenty of supplements touting the “immune-boosting” powers of Vitamin C, echinacea, and all sorts of other herbs and vitamins. The scientific and medical community, however, are still debating the efficacy of such supplements. Despite that, one vitamin has come to the spotlight with some very convincing evidence: vitamin D.
Vitamin D Inversely Correlated to URTI
In 2011, a large scale study was conducted in Britain to investigate the relationship between current vitamin D status D) and respiratory infections . It followed 6,789 Caucasian men and women all born in Britain in one week of March, 1958. The results were promising for vitamin D as a possible preventative measure against URTI.
While the study did not include non-white participants and therefore cannot extrapolate their data onto non-white ethnic groups, it does confirm previous findings with regards to the relationship between vitamin D and respiratory infections.
Support For Vitamin D Supplements
References:
What Did The Research Involve
The researchers enrolled 703 healthy children aged between one and five years old.
They randomly assigned the children to receive either 10mcg or 50mcg of vitamin D by mouth each day during winter. They then compared how often the children got colds or flu over this time.
The children were all from Toronto in Canada and were recruited at “well-child visits” to paediatric or family medicine practices between September and November 2015.
Children with any chronic illnesses and those born prematurely weren’t eligible to take part. The vitamin D3 given to both groups was given as a drop a day of identical-looking and tasting liquid.
Parents and children didn’t know what dose they were taking. The parents were told not to give their children any other supplements containing vitamin D during the study.
The children took the drops for between four and eight months.
Whenever the children got symptoms of a cold, their parents filled in a checklist to record what symptoms they had.
Parents were also trained to take a swab of the inside of their child’s nose and send it to the lab. The researchers then tested the swab for viruses.
The main outcome the researchers were interested in was how often the children got colds or flu that could be confirmed as being viral infections by laboratory tests.
The researchers also compared how often the parents reported their child as having a cold or the flu.
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Vitamin D Protects Against Colds And Flu Finds Major Global Study
- Date:
- University of Queen Mary London
- Summary:
- Vitamin D supplements protect against acute respiratory infections including colds and flu, according to a study. The study provides the most robust evidence yet that vitamin D has benefits beyond bone and muscle health.
Vitamin D supplements protect against acute respiratory infections including colds and flu, according to a study led by Queen Mary University of London .
The study provides the most robust evidence yet that vitamin D has benefits beyond bone and muscle health, and could have major implications for public health policy, including the fortification of foods with vitamin D to tackle high levels of deficiency in the UK.
The results, published in TheBMJ, are based on a new analysis of raw data from around 11,000 participants in 25 clinical trials conducted in 14 countries including the UK, USA, Japan, India, Afghanistan, Belgium, Italy, Australia and Canada. Individually, these trials yielded conflicting results, with some reporting that vitamin D protected against respiratory infections, and others showing no effect.
Lead researcher Professor Adrian Martineau from QMUL said: “This major collaborative research effort has yielded the first definitive evidence that vitamin D really does protect against respiratory infections. Our analysis of pooled raw data from each of the 10,933 trial participants allowed us to address the thorny question of why vitamin D ‘worked’ in some trials, but not in others.
Story Source:
Origins Of The Hammer
I first read about this hammer on a forum. The name sparked my curiosity and got me to investigate further.
This led me to a research paper by Doctor Gerry Schwalfenberg.
As it seems, upon reviewing some of the unpleasant side effects of the drugs commonly used to treat influenza, Dr. Schwalfenberg and a colleague proceeded to consider an alternative to them: vitamin D.
And, as it turns out, the results far exceed their expectations, hence, they dubbed vitamin D as “the hammer.”
How well did it work?
I’ve read, and written, a lot about the benefits of vitamin D, but I have to tell you, even I got surprised about they’re good results.
First, just by raising the vitamin D levels of most of their patients to above 100 nmol/l 40 ng/ml Dr. Schwalfenberg and his colleague saw a marked decrease in the incidence of influenza.
In his own words:
A colleague of mine and I have introduced vitamin D at doses that have achieved greater than 100 nmol/L in most of our patients for the past number of years, and we now see very few patients in our clinics with the flu or influenzalike illness.
Dr. Schwalfenberg
But, what about the times when high vitamin D blood levels werent enough to prevent someone from getting ill?
When a patient did come down with the flu, Dr. Schwalfenberg used a straightforward high-dose protocol:
A 1-time dosage of 50,000 IU or 10,000 IU of vitamin D three times a day for 2 to 3 days.
What were the results?
Dr. Schwalfenberg
This is remarkable.
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Vitamin D And Flu Symptoms
Can Vitamin D affect the rate of flu symptoms and even stave off epidemics? One comprehensive Vitamin D research paper, On the epidemiology of influenza, theorizes that Vitamin D and the flu may be even MORE closely linked. The study says that a low Vitamin D level may actually be the CAUSE of Flu Symptoms in the first place. This theory suggests that the seasonal nature of flu symptoms, almost always in the wintertime, is because of rampant low Vitamin D levels at that time of the year affecting the rate of natural antibiotic production and thus decreasing the effectiveness of the immune system.
A newer study, The Role of…Vitamin D in reducing case-fatality rates from the 19181919 influenza pandemic…, supports this theory and relates the correlation between sunlight exposure and the rate of death from the flu. It is an interesting point that cold and flu symptoms are primarily wintertime problems. Have you ever wondered why that is? Well, now you might have the answer.
“Critics say we should not recommend vitamin D to prevent influenza until it is proven to do so .The critics are thus saying, although they seem not to know it, “you should be vitamin D deficient this winter until science proves being vitamin D sufficient is better than being Vitamin D deficient.” Such advice is clearly unethical and has never ever been the standard of care.”Dr. John CannellThe Vitamin D Council
Vitamin D Resources