Why I breath easier these days.....

The Vitamin D Newsletter
October/November 2006

Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D
In our recently published paper, Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D, we document the evidence that epidemic influenza, and even some of the viruses that cause the common cold, may be prevented by adequate doses of vitamin D. The Independent ran a feature article on our paper, but you'll have to pay a British Pound to read it. Medical News Today was kind enough to print a detailed article about how the observations were made, the theory developed, and the paper written.

Vitamin D Deficiency Season
Every autumn, as vitamin D levels plummet, the incidence of colds and flu skyrocket. After vitamin D levels bottom out during the darkest days of the cold and flu season, vitamin D levels rise again in the spring and the incidence of colds and flu steadily decrease until they virtually disappear during the vitamin D rich summer. It may be quite simple. Your body's innate immunity, especially the production of innate natural antibiotics called antimicrobial peptides, goes up and down every year with your vitamin D levels. (Acquired immunity is quite different, those are the antibodies you slowly develop after an infection or a flu shot.) Maintaining summer-time vitamin D levels in the winter — by taking adequate amounts of vitamin D (5,000 IU) — may help prevent colds or the flu by stimulating innate immunity. Preventing some of the one million deaths in the world every year from flu related illnesses is exciting enough; an equally exciting possibility is that large doses of vitamin D may be useful in treating the flu — as well as other infections.