foodconsumer.org: Vitamin D may help reduce deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic

Vitamin D may help reduce deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic
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admin on 08/27/2010 17:28:00
 
Flu associated illness kills 23,000 Americans each year
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a
report today in its weekly journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
saying that it overestimated annual flu deaths in the the country.
When the CDC promotes influenza vaccine, it would often times say flu causes
about 33,000 deaths each year. The new report estimates that the real casualty
is about two-thirds of the early estimate.
Some vaccines, but not flu vaccine are highly effective at preventing viruses
and viral disease. Observers suggest that the timing of the releasing of the
report could mean that the CDC has started its annual push for the flu
vaccination this year for the next flu season.
The estimate of annual flu-associated deaths actually include both pneumonia and
influenza causes. Critics have kept saying that the real annual death toll from
influenza is about 300.
Vitamin D may help fight flu
There are some alternatives that can effectively protect against influenza or
flu.  One possible alternative preventative is vitamin D, previous studies have
suggested.
In the July 2010 issue of Dermatoendocrinology, Grant W. B. and Giovannucci E.
from Harvard Medical School said their new study suggests that solar
ultraviolet-B radiation, which trigger the making of vitamin D after human skin
is exposed to the UV ray, might have played a role in reducing case-fatality
rates from the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic in the U.S.
The authors found both summertime and  wintertime solar ultraviolet-B doses were
associated with reduced case fatality rates.
They noted that vitamin D upregulates production of human cathelicidin, LL-37,
which possessses both antimicrobial and antoendotoxin activities. The effect of
this vitamin on the innate immunity has been explained by UK scientists early in
the journal Nature.
It is also possible, according to Grant and Giovannucci, that vitamin D can
reduce the production of proinflammatory cytokines, which are boosted by H1N1
infection.
Food Consumer has reported that vitamin D can be at least as effective as flu
vaccine in reducing the burden of influenza infection.
An observation reported last year by two physicians, one in Wisconsin and the
other in Georgia, according to Dr. John Cannell, a vitamin D expert and director
of Vitamin D Cuncil, suggests that intake of high doses of vitamin D in the form
of supplements may effectively prevent swine flu or H1N1 virus.
By Jimmy Downs