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Today's Vitamin D Council Newsletter includes an article with updated information on vitamin D and flu virus. The article contains some very useful (IMO) observations, such as:
A study that looked at the deaths associated with the large 1918-1919 influenza pandemic found that the lowest influenza-related death rates in the United States were found in the city with the highest amounts of UVB light, which helps the body make vitamin D. They also found that the most influenza deaths were in the city with the lowest amounts of UVB radiation.[25]
People with enough vitamin D may recover from influenza faster than people with low levels of vitamin D. A study found that people with vitamin D levels above 38 ng/mL recovered from influenza in an average of 2 days; whereas people with vitamin D levels below 38 ng/mL took an average of 9 days to recover from influenza.[26]
Note that this suggests that in order to have resistance to most flu viruses, we need to maintain a vitamin D blood level above 40 ng/ml (100 nmol/l), which is significantly higher than the so-called "sufficient" level of 30 ng/ml (75 nmol/l) recommended by most government and medical health "experts". Here are the references from that quote:
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Good information, now to go get some that my children can start taking....
Thank you for this information!
Martha E.
Philippians 4:13
Jul 2008 took Clindamycin for a Sinus infection that forever changed my life
Dec 2014 MC Dx
Jul 15, 2015 Elimination Diet
Aug 17, 2015 Enterolab Test
Dec 2015 Reflux
Sept 2016 IC
It is interesting reading some of the writings on the 1918 Spanish flu. The old battle lines were drawn then as with today between the conventional medical system with heavy drugs use, and the natural healer. I guess some believe the naturalists came out on top concerning the influenza battle of 1918/19 as I was reading not long ago that traditional hospitals lost around 33% of patients with drug treatments to the Spanish flu, while natural healer such as Battle Creek, Kellogs were felt to be curing most that came to their clinics with healthy diets, fasting, enemas, and sun exposure. I'm sure there are other opinions out there on it.
That is good to see about vitamin D3, helping to improve balance and prevent falls in the elderly.
Over the Christmas holiday I read the book, "Selling Sickness, How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies are Turning Us all into Patients" by Ray Moynihan. There was a section in the book on how commonly given bone scans are little help at predicting bone fractures. It was suggested other methods be used to teach the elderly on how to improve their balance in order to prevent falls. Sounds like vitamin D3 can help.
The book can be seen at:
"Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies are Turning Us all into Patients"
My daugther in law has grandparents still living. They are 94 years old. They are clear in their mind, but they keep falling and injure themselves. I have tried to tell their relatives about vitamin D3 and B-vitamins, but they won't listen, and the elderly home just takes care of the wounds and injuries from falling.
We are living here up in the north with so little daylight these days, and people just don't get it. We have daylight for 4 hours now, and the old people don't get any daylight. They stay inside all day.
Lilia
Collagenous Colitis diagnosis in 2010
Psoriasis in 1973, symptom free in 2014
GF, CF and SF free since April, 2013
Sorry to hear about that happening with your daughter in laws grandparents. Hope something can be done to help out the difficult situation.
Thinking about it, I can tell something I remember with my grandmother and vitamin D. My grandmother, and her mom, both developed some muscle wasting disease. There were guesses as to what the condition might have been, by doctors and family, but nothing was pinned down and nothing given really helped. It was a serious debilitating problem. My great grandma unofficially died from the condition.
I suspected the issue might have developed from the huge amount of aspirin they both took. It's a wonder they didn't OD on aspirin in all honesty. The other thing though is that both grandmas did not want the sun to touch their skin. I think it was a vanity beauty belief they held. It was something of their generations in that they covered up from head to toe all the time when outside.
Grandma in her later years was also crazy, or a nicer way to saying it, had severe dementia. One day I decided to begin bringing grandma a couple vitamin pills, with vitamin D3 being one of them. She was by now living in an assisted living old folks home due to falling, injuring herself, and not being able to walk again. Vitamin D3 made a big difference in her personality. It really brightened up her mood while she was taking it. As I used to joke pre-vitamin D, I would tell others I was off to see crazy grandma, lets see if she cusses me out today for looking at her wrong, or something along those lines. When she took vitamin D for awhile I could have conversations with her once again, she would smile, and we could play simple games which keep her entertained on visits. She never did walk again though.
Sadly she stopped taking the vitamin D3 for some reason. I never could get her to take it again. No one else in the family's was all that interested in helping promote the vitamins to her. Later the staff at the old folks place began giving her a psychotic medication to help with her moods. She had begun biting and scratching the staff in particular, which was a liability. The medication helped some, she was calmer, but the conversation wasn't there, her mind was pretty much lost.
Not to ramble to much, but I have wondered if grandma had been in the sun more in her life, or taken vitamin D3, if the fall that injured her, and severe mental deterioration, could have been avoided.
I have to agree with this Vit D3 topic as I caught a terrible cold three days ago...Wednesday sore throat - heachache, Thursday morning low grade fever by noon was gone - still headache, Friday still stuffy nose but could function without needing to sleep the whole day - headache better got eye auras in the afternoon, Today coughing up the dreaded phlegm still some stuffy nose but feeling much better as I was able to sleep the whole night without a drippy nose.
What I'm trying to get at here is these viruses used to take their toll on my for a good week and made me so weak by the end of it all that it took another week just to get my body able to function again....I think my VitD3 levels are at a much higher rate than they have ever been and that is why I believe I have gotten to the other side of this cold much quicker than not.
Still wish I hadn't caught it to begin with...but that is the breaks with grandchildren.
To Succeed you have to Believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a Reality - Anita Roddick
Dx LC April 2012 had symptoms since Aug 2007
Erica P-G wrote:
Still wish I hadn't caught it to begin with...but that is the breaks with grandchildren.
I have only one granddaughter and she is now 14 so my babysitting days are over but when she was younger I would often take care of her when she was sick and staying home from school. When I would get that call in the morning asking me to come over I would want to decline because I didn't want to catch anything but I never did decline. In fact I hardly ever caught any of her colds. Must be all the vitamin d I take.
Erica, I am going through the same thing. I got sinus issues on Wednesday, started feeling poorly on Thursday, still battling some cough issues today after a Christmas Holiday with all the grands. I seem to recover much more quickly and it doesn't seem to get as intense as before I started on Vitamin D3. I make myself feel better by telling myself my immune system is getting stronger with each session. :) Deb
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