General Health Vitamin D prevents flu epidemic
By Ben Wasserman
Nov 14, 2008 - 2:11:58 PM
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There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that taking high
doses of vitamin D may effectively reduce the risk of getting respiratory
infections like influenza or flu.
There is a theory that explains why flu peaks in certain
reasons.
R. Edgar Hope-Simpson in 1981
proposed that a "seasonal stimulus" associated with solar radiation
explained the seasonality of epidemic influenza, according to John J Cannell
and colleagues of Atascadero State Hospital in California.
Cannell, who has studied the associations between vitamin D and diseases
extensively, and colleagues published an article in the Dec 2006 issue of
Epidemiology and Infection suggesting that the seasonal stimulus may be vitamin
D.
Vitamin D plays an important role in innate immunity
against viral infections including flu.
Studies showed that people who volunteered to receive attenuated
influenza virus were more likely to develop fever and serological signs of an
immune response in the winter.
In the winter, people get less exposure to sunlight and
are more likely than in other seasons to have vitamin D deficiency or
insufficiency, which is the reason for a weakened immune response against infections
like flu.
In another article published in the Feb. 2008 issue of
Virology Journal, Cannell and colleagues mentioned studies suggesting that
taking high doses of vitamin D (2000 IU per day) for three days may completely
eliminate the incidence of flu and colds.
In one study mentioned by Cannell et al., 104 post-menopausal
African American women given vitamin D were three times less likely to report
colds and flu than 104 controls.
Black
men and women are more likely to suffer vitamin D deficiency because their dark
skin makes absorption of ultraviolet rays difficult.
Editor's note: Thank Dr. Cannell for sending us a reprint of his study on vitamin D and flu epidemic. A full report is available from http://virologyj.com/
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