How to use vitamin D to fight swine flu

By Dr. John Cannell, MD

As the H1N1 pandemic looms, it is heartening that Dr. Alexandra Yamschchikov and colleagues at Emory University conducted the first meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of Vitamin D treatment of infections, concluding that significant scientific evidence exists to support further research of Vitamin D treating, not just preventing, infections like the flu. The only mistake I can see is that she confused activated Vitamin D and one of its analogs with Vitamin D.

Yamshchikov AV, Desai NS, Blumberg HM, Ziegler TR, Tangpricha V.
Vitamin D for treatment and prevention of infectious diseases: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Endocr Pract. 2009 Jul-Aug;15(5):438-49.
 
If you have been taking 5,000 IU per day for several years, you know Vitamin D helps, but certainly does not prevent all respiratory infections. Because H1N1 may be deadly, besides taking 5,000 IU per day every day (1,000 IU for every 25 pounds of body weight for children) to prevent deficiency, make sure you have some 50,000 IU capsules of Vitamin D on hand this winter.

I recommend 2,000 IU per day per kilogram of body weight (which is about 1,000 IU per day for every pound of body weight) for three days at the first sign of influenza. While there are no randomized controlled trials showing it will help, there is a randomized controlled trial showing such doses will not hurt. This month, Dr. Bacon and colleagues at the University of Auckland found that a single dose of 500,000 IU (half a million units) did no harm to the elderly; a month after a single 500,000 IU dose, Vitamin D levels were about 40 - 50 ng/ml; two months later they were deficient again, only 30 ng/ml.

Bacon CJ, Gamble GD, Horne AM, Scott MA, Reid IR. High-dose oral vitamin D3 supplementation in the elderly. Osteoporos Int. 2009 Aug;20(8):1407-15.

Editor's note: This article is cited from the Aug 19, 2009 vitamin D newsletter released by Vitamin D Council.

It is likely that vitamin D helps fight swine  flu because this vitamin is known to help boost immunity against bacteria and viruses by promoting production of antibACTERIAL PEPTIDES.

However, just like we do not know how safe it is to use swine flu vaccine, we are not certain how effective it could be to use vitamin D to treat and or prevent swine flu.  One thing for sure is that vitamin D is very safe to use.