Below are links to articles about the importance of Vitamin D3 in preventing colds and flu. Vitamin D is produced at the skin level with skin to sunlight exposure. Have you ever noticed that colds and flu increase when we are receiving the least amount of sunlight?? Coincidence?? You decide?
WebMD "Low Vitamin D Levels Linked to Colds"
This article relates information just being released about low vitamin D levels and increased pulmonary diseases.
Dr. Oz on Swine Flu Prevention
"Take Vitamin D
Vitamin D is produced in the body during exposure to sunlight. During the winter we tend to get less exposure so vitamin D supplements are recommended. People who take vitamin D supplements have better luck avoiding the seasonal flu; there is no reason to think that it won't do the same for H1N1 virus. Flu outbreaks tend to occur in places where solar radiation is low."
Medical News Today and Epidemic Flu
Long articles, but great read. Both included the same study, which discusses pandemic and epidemic flu out breaks, and then gives an account of what happened during a mental hospital flu epidemic on the wing where patients were given vitamin D supplements daily. The following is a quote from the article:
"In the paper, we propose that vitamin D explains the following 14 observations:
1. Why the flu predictably occurs in the months following the winter solstice, when vitamin D levels are at their lowest,
2. Why it disappears in the months following the summer solstice,
3. Why influenza is more common in the tropics during the rainy season,
4. Why the cold and rainy weather associated with El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which drives people indoors and lowers vitamin D blood levels, is associated with influenza,
5. Why the incidence of influenza is inversely correlated with outdoor temperatures,
6. Why children exposed to sunlight are less likely to get colds,
7. Why cod liver oil (which contains vitamin D) reduces the incidence of viral respiratory infections,
8. Why Russian scientists found that vitamin D-producing UVB lamps reduced colds and flu in schoolchildren and factory workers,
9. Why Russian scientists found that volunteers, deliberately infected with a weakened flu virus - first in the summer and then again in the winter - show significantly different clinical courses in the different seasons,
10. Why the elderly who live in countries with high vitamin D consumption, like Norway, are less likely to die in the winter,
11. Why children with vitamin D deficiency and rickets suffer from frequent respiratory infections,
12. Why an observant physician (Rehman), who gave high doses of vitamin D to children who were constantly sick from colds and the flu, found the treated children were suddenly free from infection,
13. Why the elderly are so much more likely to die from heart attacks in the winter rather than in the summer,
14. Why African Americans, with their low vitamin D blood levels, are more likely to die from influenza and pneumonia than Whites are."
1. Why the flu predictably occurs in the months following the winter solstice, when vitamin D levels are at their lowest,
2. Why it disappears in the months following the summer solstice,
3. Why influenza is more common in the tropics during the rainy season,
4. Why the cold and rainy weather associated with El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which drives people indoors and lowers vitamin D blood levels, is associated with influenza,
5. Why the incidence of influenza is inversely correlated with outdoor temperatures,
6. Why children exposed to sunlight are less likely to get colds,
7. Why cod liver oil (which contains vitamin D) reduces the incidence of viral respiratory infections,
8. Why Russian scientists found that vitamin D-producing UVB lamps reduced colds and flu in schoolchildren and factory workers,
9. Why Russian scientists found that volunteers, deliberately infected with a weakened flu virus - first in the summer and then again in the winter - show significantly different clinical courses in the different seasons,
10. Why the elderly who live in countries with high vitamin D consumption, like Norway, are less likely to die in the winter,
11. Why children with vitamin D deficiency and rickets suffer from frequent respiratory infections,
12. Why an observant physician (Rehman), who gave high doses of vitamin D to children who were constantly sick from colds and the flu, found the treated children were suddenly free from infection,
13. Why the elderly are so much more likely to die from heart attacks in the winter rather than in the summer,
14. Why African Americans, with their low vitamin D blood levels, are more likely to die from influenza and pneumonia than Whites are."
Centers for Disease Control
From the CDC Site::
2. Vitamin D Deficiency and Tuberculosis Progression
Najeeha Talat et al.
The association between vitamin D and tuberculosis (TB) has long been known. Specifically, in TB patients, low levels of vitamin D are associated with the activation of the disease. But what about in those who are healthy? A study of people in Pakistan who were healthy but in close contact with TB patients found a similar association. Those with low levels of vitamin D, especially women, were five times more likely to get tuberculosis. Thus, low levels of vitamin D may be a risk factor for tuberculosis. However, the value of vitamin D supplements for preventing TB infection is still unknown.
Contact Dr. Rabia Hussain via:
Hassaan Akhter
Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
hassaan.akhter@aku.edu
The next three sites are personal opinions of the authors, but they do contain some great points about the use of vitamin D. I am not sure of the validity of some of the studies they cite, as I have not read those studies myself and they give no link to the source. I did read the Japanese study somewhere else, but it has been a couple of years ago and I am not sure that is the same study the author of the first site is quoting.
Vitamin D for Flu Prevention
Immune System Health
Lew Rockwell Blog
The chart below shows common causes of Vitamin D Deficiency on the left and Consequences on the right.
