Wellness Wednesdays: Benefits of Vitamin D
Hello George Fox! For this Wellness Wednesday, we’d like to share this interesting article on the benefits of vitamin D.
“The flu virus wreaks the most havoc in the winter, abating in the summer months. This seasonality led a British doctor to hypothesize that a sunlight-related ‘seasonal stimulus’ triggered influenza outbreaks. More than 20 years after this initial hypothesis, several scientists published a paper suggesting that vitamin D may be the seasonal stimulus.
Vitamin D: Quick Facts
- Vitamin D levels are lowest in the winter months.
- The active form of vitamin D tempers the damaging inflammatory response of some white blood cells, while it also boosts immune cells’ production of microbe-fighting proteins.
- Children who have vitamin D-deficiency rickets are more likely to get respiratory infections, while children exposed to sunlight seem to have fewer respiratory infections.
- Adults who have low vitamin D levels are more likely to report having had a recent cough, cold, or upper respiratory tract infection.
Vitamin D and the seasonal flu
A randomized controlled trial in Japanese schoolchildren tested whether taking daily vitamin D supplements would prevent seasonal flu. The trial followed nearly 340 children for four months during the height of the winter flu season. Half of the study participants received pills that contained 1,200 IU of vitamin D; the other half received placebo pills.
Researchers found that type A influenza rates in the vitamin D group was about 40% lower than in the placebo group; there was no significant difference in type B influenza rates.
Vitamin D and acute respiratory infections
Although randomized controlled trials exploring the potential of vitamin D to prevent other acute respiratory infections have yielded mixed results, a large meta-analysis of individual participant data indicated that daily or weekly vitamin D supplementation lowers the risk of acute respiratory infections. This effect was particularly prominent for very deficient individuals.
The findings from this large meta-analysis have raised the possibility that low vitamin D levels may also increase the risk of or severity of novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Although there is no direct evidence on this issue because this such a new disease, avoiding low levels of vitamin D makes sense for this and other reasons.
Vitamin D supplements
Thus, if there is reason to believe that levels might be low, such as having darker skin or limited sun exposure, taking a supplement of 1000 or 2000 IU per day is reasonable. This amount is now part of many standard multiple vitamin supplements and inexpensive.
More research is needed before we can definitively say that vitamin D protects against the flu and other acute respiratory infections. Even if vitamin D has some benefit, don’t skip your flu shot. And when it comes to limiting risk of COVID-19, it is important to practice careful social distancing and hand washing.”
Click here to read the original article.
Questions? Contact Aga Luptak (aluptak@georgefox.edu).
