For a few years now I’ve always taken Vitamin D during the winter and felt it helped reduce the incidence and severity of colds I would get. Now a study just published shows that giving vitamin D to school children reduced the incidence of influenza. We should all be having our Vitamin D levels checked, especially if we are one to get a lot of colds each year. Taking 1000-2000IU/day through the winter may be your best bet if you cannot get your blood tested. There is almost no risk of developing any toxicity at 2000IU/day, unless you already had high levels of D in your blood.
Background: To our knowledge, no rigorously designed clinicaltrials have evaluated the relation between vitamin D and physician-diagnosedseasonal influenza.
Objective: We investigated the effect of vitamin D supplementson the incidence of seasonal influenza A in schoolchildren.
Design: From December 2008 through March 2009, we conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial comparing vitamin D3 supplements (1200 IU/d) with placebo in schoolchildren.The primary outcome was the incidence of influenza A, diagnosedwith influenza antigen testing with a nasopharyngeal swab specimen.
Results: Influenza A occurred in 18 of 167 (10.8%) children in the vitamin D3 group compared with 31 of 167 (18.6%) children in the placebo group [relative risk (RR), 0.58; 95% CI: 0.34, 0.99; P = 0.04]. The reduction in influenza A was more prominent in children who had not been taking other vitamin D supplements (RR: 0.36; 95% CI: 0.17, 0.79; P = 0.006) and who started nursery school after age 3 y (RR: 0.36; 95% CI: 0.17, 0.78; P = 0.005). In children with a previous diagnosis of asthma, asthma attacks as a secondary outcome occurred in 2 children receiving vitamin D3 compared with 12 children receiving placebo (RR: 0.17; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.73; P = 0.006).
Conclusion: This study suggests that vitamin D3 supplementation during the winter may reduce the incidence of influenza A, especially in specific subgroups of schoolchildren.
