Posted on 02/25/2009 10:22:58 AM PST by neverdem
People with asthma and other preexisting lung diseases face an especially exaggerated year-round risk from a deficiency
Getting plenty of vitamin D — more than diet can offer — appears to provide potent protection against colds, flu and even pneumonia, a new study reports. Although the amount of protection varies by season, the trend is solid: As the amount of vitamin D circulating in blood climbs, risk of upper respiratory tract infections falls.
Though that’s not too surprising (SN: 11/11/06, p. 312), the researchers found one unexpected trend: “In people with preexisting lung disease, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — or COPD, low levels of vitamin D act like an effect modifier,” says Adit Ginde, an emergency room physician at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine in Aurora who led the study. The findings appear in the Feb. 23 Archives of Internal Medicine. In people with lung disease, he says, low levels of the sunshine vitamin “magnify many-fold” the apparent vulnerability to infection seen in people with healthy lungs.
“It’s well-documented that at the turn of the century, kids with rickets [due to vitamin D deficiency] had much higher risk of upper respiratory tract infections,” notes Michael Holick of Boston University. “And treating them with vitamin D lowered that risk. We also know that your immune function is carefully regulated by vitamin D.” For instance, he notes, vitamin D controls the activity of the immune cells that are responsible for destroying infectious germs.
“It’s nice to see that it’s now being documented” with nonanecdotal data, Holick says.
Ginde and his colleagues correlated vitamin D levels of nearly 19,000 adults participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with their recent health. NHANES periodically samples a random cross section of the U.S. population; people are...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
“a new study reports”
timely, huh.
are they releasing these at a time to get maximum coverage now?
I took my vitamin C this morning. I am going to apply for a stimulus grant since I reduced my carbon footprint!
I've heard so many studies one way or the other that it's hard to know what to believe.
Going without bathing greatly diminishes the risk of colds and flu. It keeps the people with viruses away from you.
I’ve never seen any convincing evidence that it can hurt. It’s dirt cheap, and it might help, so I take a Centrum Silver every day.
Actually, Vitamin D3 is one of the safe ones.
A multivitamin isn’t necessarily the best or safest way to go about adding supplements.
In really cold weather you are less likely to get cold, or catch colds, if you don't shower just before you plan to spend hours outside in the cold.
It has something to do with removing the protective oils from your skin, they keep you warmer.
In winter you should rub your body down with baby-oil after you shower, and before you spend the day outside.
It does work!
Believe the studies on Vitamin D....esp. if you live north of Santa Fe
That’s weird because our doctor started us on vitamin D3 last summer and I have been sick since November with sinus and upper respiratory infection. On one visit he called it acute bronchaitis.
It seems to me that for every 30 studies on the practical effects of vitamin supplements, you get 30 different answers.
It would be nice to know if the vitamins and minerals actually stay in your body or if you just pee and poop them back out.
No, vitamins D2 (plant origin) or D3 (animal origin) are not inherently safe.
The RDA is about 50 micrograms/day (2000 IU) and toxicity is 2500 micrograms/day. Death is one possible result of overdose.
Vitamin D analogs are sold as rat poison (Rat-B-Gone, Quintox see Rat Poison), but are in disfavor with some as there is no antidote.
A short visit to the local tanning booth will take care of this, relax you, and make you look good.
The risk of death decreases with exposure to the sun (somewhat higher skin cancer deaths, much lower deaths by other cancers), so enjoy!
I don’t think a tanning bed is the same as spending some time out in the sun
Immunosuppressive Actions of 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3: Preferential Inhibition of Th1 Functions
vitamin d bump
If it's the activity of the immune system itself that causes the runny nose, and if vitamin D stops the running nose, does it do so by preventing the viral infection or by preventing the immune system response to the viral infection?
It would seem to me to be very important to figure out which action was occurring before dosing up a bunch of folks to see what happens. Especially since the answer is already known: Immunosuppressive Actions of 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3: Preferential Inhibition of Th1 Functions
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