Vitamin D and H1N1 Swine Flu *****

Editor's note: The following article is part of a (or the) Sept 2009 newsletter by Dr. John Cannell, one of the most knowledgeable vitamin D experts in the world.  According to Dr. Cannell, sufficient vitamin D boosts the innate immunity against infections of all types by producing hundreds of antibacterial peptides. Dr. Cannell and colleagues wrote an excellent study report in an academic journal demonstrating the link of vitamin D deficiency and eleated risk of influenza.  The following article provides readers with convincing evidence that vitamin D may be one powerful weapon that can be enlisted to help children prevent and even treat a potential swine flu outbreak or pandemic (are we still having the pandemic WHO announced earlier? It neevr said it has been over!), which has been hyped by the news media ever since it was first reported in Mexico.

We strongly recommend that foodconsumer readers read an authoritative vitamin D site at www.vitamindcouncil.org a non-profit organization managed by Dr. John Cannell. In the meantime, do not forget to send this article to your friends who might be interested in knowing this vital information that may potentially save many lives in this coming winter.

So far, Swine flu, H1N1, has killed thirty-six children in U.S. and analysis of CDC data indicates Vitamin D deficient children at higher risk of death

I'm not sure I can do this, watch our children die this winter from what may be a preventable disease, influenza, I'm not sure I'm strong enough. A few minutes ago, the CDC issued a report on Swine flu deaths among children; 36 U.S. children dead so far this season and the season hasn't started yet. The dead children were much more likely to be Vitamin D deficient; but the CDC did not realize they discovered this. However, anyone familiar with the Vitamin D literature will recognize it.

The clue: almost two-thirds of our dead children had epilepsy, cerebral palsy, or other neurodevelopmental conditions like mental retardation. What do we know of these neurological conditions? All are associated with childhood Vitamin D deficiency; I won't bore you with the references but anyone who has ever cared for these children knows it; anyone who has studied these diseases on Medline knows it; anyone who has one of these kids knows it; these kids just don't go in the sun very much. If they do live at home and go outside, parents use sunblock because the child is so vulnerable, never robust. In addition to sunlight deprivation, many of these kids take anticonvulsant drugs, which lower Vitamin D levels.

One more thing, 36 dead kids before the flu season has even started alarms me. In the last 4 years, around 100 kids died per year from influenza; this year the toll is 36 and the flu season has not yet begun.

Swine Flu Sends More Blacks, Hispanics to Hospital

The above racial differences apply to hospitalization rates for H1N1 in Boston and Chicago. It looks as if Vitamin D is a big factor in H1N1. During the 1918–1919 pandemic, Blacks actually had lower illness rates, not higher, perhaps because they had antibodies from previous H1N1 infection in 1916 and 1917. It worried me to read that the 1918 H1N1 was circulating in the world for several years before it devastated that same world in 1918–1919. The same could be true now, that is, this H1N1 may be relatively benign (only kill 50,000 Americans/year) for several years, infect more Blacks than whites, then erupt into a merciless killer in 2011, when Blacks will be relatively protected because of their higher antibodies from higher infection rates in 2009 and 2010.

American Children Vitamin D Deficient

Most American teenagers are Vitamin D deficient and low levels in teenagers are associated with teenage hypertension, obesity, and metabolic syndrome

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the NIH (led by Dr. Jared Reis) looked at 3500 American teenagers and found teenagers with the lowest Vitamin D levels, compared to the highest, were 5 times more likely to be obese, 2.5 times more likely to be hypertensive, 2.5 times more likely to have elevated blood sugar, and about 4 times more likely to have the metabolic syndrome. Only 25% of the teenagers had levels higher than 26 ng/mL while 25% had levels lower than 15 ng/mL.

What upset me the most about this study was that the authors did not conclude teenage Vitamin D deficiencyng/mLNIH, and Johns Hopkins doesn't think anything should be done but give scientists more money? Email Dr. Reis and tell him what you think: reisjp@nhibi.nih.gov. should be treated; they concluded scientists should be given more money to study the deficient teenagers: "Additional research is necessary..." and "evidence from randomized controlled trials is required before Vitamin D supplementation can be recommended..." One fourth of American teenagers with levels less than 15  and Dr. Reis, the

58 million American children are Vitamin D deficient; 7.6 million are severely deficient and nobody is doing anything about it

Dr. Jahi Kumar and colleagues at Albert Einstein School of Medicine looked at more than 6,000 American kids (age one to 21) who were carefully selected to be representative of the average American child. 9% of the kids had 25(OH)D levels less than 15 ng/mL and 70% (representing 58 million kids) had levels less than 30 ng/mL. The older, blacker, or heavier the child, the more TV and video games, the higher the chance the child is deficient. Tragically, 59% of black teenage girls had levels less than 15 ng/mL.

Children with low levels were more likely to have abnormal blood lipids, high blood pressure, obesity, and abnormally elevate parathyroid hormone levels, all risks for future cardiovascular disease. Only 4% of American children take recommended doses of Vitamin D supplements, surely a failure of U.S. pediatricians.

Here is another wonderful article published in May 2009 in Vitamin D Council's Newsleter.

Dear public:

First, read what I have written about influenza. Both papers can be downloaded and printed out in their entirety:

• On the epidemiology of influenza
• Epidemic influenza and vitamin D (PDF download)

My short executive answers:

1. Take enough Vitamin D3 to get your 25(OH)D level above substrate starvation levels (50 ng/mL or 125 nmol/L). Levels of 50 ng/mL usually require at least 5,000 IU per day for adults, some adults will require more. Children should take 1,000 IU per every 25 pounds of body weight. After taking this dose for 3 months test your 25(OH)D level. Individual variation in dose response is great and natural 25(OH)D levels (50–70 ng/mL) are not assured by these doses. For reasons I will discuss below, I think it possible that Vitamin D levels of 30 ng/mL, which are often obtained by people taking low doses of Vitamin D (1,000–2,000 IU/day), may increase your risk of death from a 1918-like influenza virus.
2. It is clear to me that Vitamin D did not play a controlling role in 1918. The lethality of the 1918 virus easily overwhelmed innate immunity although I am unwilling to impair my innate immunity by taking inadequate doses of Vitamin D.
3. Stock your home's pharmacy with several fresh bottles of 50,000 IU capsules of Vitamin D3 (a medicine a this dosage, not a supplement) and if you get this flu, take 2,000 IU per kg of body weight per day for a week. As I weigh 220 pounds, I would take 200,000 IU per day for seven days if I thought I had an infection with a 1918-like influenza virus.
4. Get the H1N1 flu shot as soon as it is available in the fall, especially if the virus shows evidence of lethality this summer in the southern hemisphere, For reasons I will discuss, a flu shot probably will not generate an immune response in people with 25(OH)D levels above 50 ng/mL, but that is simply conjecture. That is, the flu shot may not work, may not generate antibodies, in people with 25(OH)D levels above 50 ng/mL. In my opinion, the risk of a lethal virus is higher than the risk of Guillain-Barré Syndrome. In fact, the risk of Guillain-Barré Syndrome is probably the highest in non-vaccinated people who are infected with the virus and quite low in those who take a modern flu vaccine.
5. Besides the above actions, stock up on TamiFlu in your home medicine cabinet so you have it next fall and winter. And follow common-sense precautions, especially frequent hand washing.
6. Most medically trained physicians, scientists, or practitioners think in terms of something bad causing illness, not something good preventing it. Ask any physician what George Bernard Shaw meant when he said, the characteristic microbe of a disease might be a symptom instead of a cause. The idea that seasonal influenza or the common cold is a symptom, even the presence of the virus itself being a symptom of an underlying condition, is foreign to modern medical thought. Influenza researchers at the CDC and NIH think only in terms of vaccines and anti-virals, mainly because most of them have such strong economic affiliations with some aspect of the influenza industry. The idea of diagnosing and treating Vitamin D deficiency as one part of influenza preparedness is simply foreign to them. Unfortunately, their attitude contributes to the 36,000 deaths every year in the USA from seasonal influenza and leaves American's innate immune system naked in facing a pandemic.