End of summer used to shove me into an autumn plummet. A fall fall, as it were. As summer waned, so did I. Health problems that had eased in summer would separate me from my moorings in September, and I'd be cast adrift by November. Winter was a gradually deepening sinkhole with no relief in sight until late May when I was out in the sun again.
I knew I felt better when the sun shone. I said I ran on solar energy. But I never made the connection between health and sun.
Three years ago I read an article by Dr. Joseph Mercola on the seasonal aspect of vitamin D deficiency. It was all I found on the subject back then.
That article prompted me to buy a bottle of vitamin D tablets. And that was my finest winter in years.
Back then vitamin D wasn't considered very interesting. It certainly wasn't considered news.
I saw nothing more on the potential health benefits of vitamin D for some months. Then a trickle of speculative reports began, full of question marks.
It's nice to see vitamin D taking its rightful place and validating itself so fully. Vitamin D has offered up some pleasant surprises, like maybe a greater resistance to the flu.
One study from Greenwich Hospital and Yale University School of Medicine hypothesized that low amounts of vitamin D in temperate climates could be linked with the high incidence of flu and other respiratory viral infections.
Only 16.6 percent of the participants whose vitamin D levels were 38 ng/ml or more got viral infections. However 45 percent of the other participants developed viral infections. And the vitamin D subjects who fell ill were not sick as long as the other subjects.
Leader of the study, Dr. James Sabetta, believes these results suggest that a vitamin D level of 38 ng/ml can significantly reduce the risk of respiratory viral infections.
In another study half the children received 1200 IUs of vitamin D per day. The control group did not.
The children taking vitamin D had 42 percent less incidence of influenza A, the most severe type of flu. They also had six times less asthma attacks than the control group.
Dr. Mitsuyoshi Urashima, professor of epidemiology at Jikei School of Medicine in Tokyo and lead author of the study, is so convinced by the findings that he takes 3,000 IUs a day, and has done so over a few flu seasons without flu symptoms. He recommends taking vitamin D all year long.
U.S. psychiatrist John Cannell noticed that during an influenza epidemic in the hospital where he worked, his ward didn't get hit. It so happened all his patients were on high doses of vitamin D.
All the speculation about vitamin D began when researchers noticed that the flu season parallelled the rise and fall in vitamin D levels, which were tied to the presence and absence of the sun. Sunshine decreases in fall and winter, vitamin D levels dwindles, flu rises.
When the sun's rays hit our skin, vitamin D is manufactured. But unless we're naked on the equator year round, vitamin D production can be spotty.
The further north we go, the less vitamin D is produced, especially in fall and winter. People with darker complexions living in a northern climate are most likely to be deficient.
Now we know that vitamin D is good for more than bones and teeth. And we know we need alot more than the 200 - 400 IUs we used to believe was sufficient.
Some foods supplement vitamin D though reviews are mixed on their efficacy. These tend to be vitamin D2 which may not be absorbed well by the body.
Vitamin D3 is said to be the more effective supplement. This can be bought in tablet form.
There is no consensus as yet as to what dosage is best. I've read numbers as low as 1,000 and as high as 10,000. There may be no standard amount, with many variables to be considered.
One thing seems clear however. The researchers are reaping gratifying results from their studies and new information about vitamin D seems to appear every week.
So take your vitamin D and beat the flu this year.
Resources:
Vitamin D May Protect Against Influenza and Other Viruses
http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/news/2010/06/vitamin-d-may-protect-against-influenza-and-other.aspx
Vitamin D May Cut Risk of Flu
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=117281
1200 IU of vitamin D daily may prevent flu
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/1200-iu-of-vitamin-d-daily-may-prevent-flu/article1517109
Vitamin D helps fend off flu, asthma attacks: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62I3MK20100319
Vitamin D deficiency linked to more colds and flu
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=vitamin-d-deficiency-linked-to-more-2009-02-23
Flu vaccine push already underway; first batch causes seizures in children
http://www.naturalnews.com/029334_flu_vaccines_seizures.html
Visit Jody's website and blog at http://www.ncubator.ca and http://ncubator.ca/blogger