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
just eat healthy, exercise a lot...don’t need to take any pills.
So how do you explain this study, and many others, which state that vitamin D reduces flu/colds ?
it means vitamin D isn’t good for you because it makes it easier for you to get sick.
FYI: The Flu is actually a massive over-response to a virus. It’s not the virus that does the damage, but the immune response.
Too much of immune response can be a bad thing.
wait, oh you mean the actual study, not what slow wrote.
With that as prelude, I think a closer examination is necessary when rating the value or harm from a given substance. We are NOT all created equal. My personal, anecdotal experience with 2000 IU of D3 daily has been good over this past winter. I live in Idaho, so I'm indoors most of the winter. I'm not getting much vitamin D from sunshine exposure. I haven't been sick all winter. Others around me have been sick. Your mileage may vary. We're different people.
>>It’s not weird. The latest reports on vitamin D show that it has immunosuppressive actions, which suggests that you get sick easier and stay sick longer if you load up on vitamin D.<<
The LATEST reports? The report you linked to was presented in 1994 according to footnote 1. Besides, you misinterpreted the result anyway.
Personally, I think the researchers who are claiming a virtual epidemic of vitamin D3 deficiency are right, and evidence is now accumulating to support them.
That's not what it suggests at all. From your link:
In mice, when given in vivo, the sterol prevents the induction of spontaneous and induced autoimmune diseases and inhibits Th1 induce IgG2a responses. These actions of the vitamin D3 compounds suggest that it may have potential therapeutic applications in Th1-mediated clinical situations such as autoimmunity and transplantation.
These last two sentences of your link directly contradict your comments. Why are you casting aspersions on Vitamin D?
I meant the link that slow linked.
That's ridiculous.
You should try to take some Vitamin A to balance out the Vitamin D.
Thanks for the link. Ponder the last sentence.
“These actions of the vitamin D3 compounds suggest that it may have potential therapeutic applications in Th1-mediated clinical situations such as autoimmunity and transplantation.”
Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, are both considered reactive airway diseases with allergic correlations.
Careful people, excessive doses of Vitamins A and D can be toxic, even deadly. Early arctic explorers sometimes died from excessive Vitamin A in seal or polar bear liver. I have personally cared for one patient with very severe Vitamin D toxicity due to a medication error. It took him weeks to recover.
>>I don’t think a tanning bed is the same as spending some time out in the sun.<<
Actually, a tanning bed, if it provides UVB (Ultraviolet B), is probably the best way in the winter, other than moving toward the equator for a time. This is because getting vitamin D3 stores via UVB creates a self-regulating mechanism so overdose is impossible. Taking it orally is the next best option, but it is possible (though unlikely) to take too much, mainly if the dosage is actually much higher than the labeling states due to a manufacturing glitch.
By the way, the data used in the present study was 15 years old, and vitamin D3 levels have probably dropped significantly since then.
Here’s the quote from the article: “Also disturbing, Ginde points out that the NHANES data he analyzed had been collected about 15 years ago, when almost twice as many people as today had vitamin D levels above 30 ng/ml.”
This is a huge issue that’s beginning to finally gain some traction, it would appear.
Check out the site, vitamindcouncil.org , for a lot of information if you’re interested.
We eat food that are high in vitamin A already, with A being fat soluble, I'd be concerned about a build up.
Dr prescribed me 50,000IU of vitamin D in December. I take one a week. Since we have insurance that includes precription coverage it is cheaper for me to pay $10 every 3 months and take it once a week rather than to fool with the OTC stuff.
mine prescribed it too and i am doing the same thing.
I am able to testify that after a similar thread except flu prevention, and much discussion last year, I began to take 2000 units every day.
I begin in October and will quit at the end of March when I will return to getting sunshine.
I have not had a single hint of a cold in the two years. I tend to have bronchial congestion and after about a month of resuming the Vitimin D the congestion begins to dissipate and then disappear.
There is a lot written on the subject and several solid studies about flu prevention and Vitimin D. It is also effective to combat pneumonia that accompanies flu.
I don’t advocate running to walmart and spending $5 for a big supply, but advocate reading up and making a decision.
Actually, as the article at the top of this thread shows, people who take vitamin D are less likely to get respiratory illnesses such as colds and flu. That doesn't mean they never get sick.
The journal article you posted concerns experiments on cell lines and mice, not on people. The experiments showed that vitamin D suppressed autoimmune reactions in the mice. It doesn't say that they get sick more often.
I've been taking plenty of vitamin D and I've noticed that I feel better and when everyone else in my house gets sick, I don't. (Knock on wood.)
>>We eat food that are high in vitamin A already, with A being fat soluble, I’d be concerned about a build up.<<
Not only that, according to Dr. Cannell at the vitamindcouncil.org, a case can be made for too much Vitamin A causing the body to reduce the effectiveness of Vitamin D. He recommends all Vitamin A be obtained from dietary sources. Check his Dec 2008 newsletter at the site for more information. Here’s a cut and paste link: vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/2008-december.shtml
WOW! Our doctor suggested 2,000 IU. 50,000 seems high.
This is not a multi vitamin. It is very specific, Vitamin D.
Check this out.....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1929828/posts
The doctor switched another of my meds in early November, maybe that is causing problems, I don't know, but I've been to the doctor twice for this and I'm still sick. :(
I would say say that the danger from Vitamin A is overrated.
The thing is to keep Vitamin A,D balanced.
You know, D is fat-soluble too.
btw, how much D3 are you taking ?
When you say foods high in vitamin A, do you mean Beta-Carotene ?
That’s really not the same thing. Some people have problems converting carotene to Retinol.
That is funny, but this is a true fact...
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!
So why waste all that oil if not taking a shower is just as good? and you save water to
This begs the question of how they determine whether or not somebody gets a respiratory illness. Since vitamin D is immunosuppressive, take a lot of it and you'd expect not to get the symptoms of an active immune system (congestion, etc) and so you'd never report getting sick.
Pump somebody full of prednisone and you get the same result, at least in the short run. That doesn't mean they don't get sick, just that the any symptoms of illness caused by an immune system response to that illness would be missing. And as I've noted in another posting on this topic, the normal symptoms of colds, etc are caused by the immune system.
Suppress the immune system, and you'll see no or fewer symptoms show up. The research methodology is flawed in assuming that symptom prevalence matches disease prevalence when immunosuppression is being used.
The level at which Vitamin A would become toxic or even somewhat detrimental, when supplementing with something like say 2000iu Vitamin D, should be ridiculously high.
Check this out:
http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/vitamina-osteo.html
Yes, I know D is fat soluble, too. I was concerned about that, too. My D was too low though, only at 14.
We eat a lot of chicken, beef and dairy.
Maybe our granmas were right when they fed us that yucky Cod Liver Oil by the spoonful.
Nowadays, it doesn’t taste so bad. Think I will go get a spoonful right now, since I have to head out to the market. That is where I usually catch something.
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