Vitamin D deficiency in pneumonia patients associated with increased mortality

Wiley-Blackwell ^ | May 10, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

A new study published in the journal Respirology reveals that adult patients admitted to the hospital with pneumonia are more likely to die if they have Vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D is known to be involved in the innate immune response to infection.

The team of researchers at Waikato Hospital and the Universities of Waikato and Otago, measured vitamin D in the blood samples of 112 adult patients admitted with community acquired pneumonia during the winter at the only acute-care hospital in Hamilton, New Zealand.

The researchers found that Vitamin D deficiency was associated with higher mortality within the first 30 days after hospital admission for pneumonia. The association between vitamin D deficiency was not explained by patient age, sex, comorbidities, the severity of the systemic inflammatory response, or other known prognostic factors.

The authors conclude that "improved understanding of Vitamin D and its role in immunity may lead to better ways to prevent and/or treat pneumonia. We now need to investigate whether Vitamin D supplements could be a useful addition to pneumonia treatment and whether using supplements could help to prevent or reduce the severity of pneumonia among high-risk populations."

[Ditter]

Mine are from Whole Foods and the brand is Bluebonnet Sweet Earth Chewable Vit. D3 2000IU. They worked for me and they taste pretty good but I usually swallow them anyway.

[Georgia Girl 2]

I’ll check them out next time I’m at Whole Foods. Thanks

[Yaelle]

No food, no reasonable amount of sun, will provide a therapeutic dose of vitamin d. Blood testing, supplementation, and retesting is the only way to be sure the # is over 60. This is the testable amount one needs to prevent cancer, infection, and illness.

If only doctors actually gave a hoot about vitamin d. There would be so much less illness.