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Vitamin cure cuts your colds and flu in half
Ever wonder why colds and flu are more common in the winter and early spring?
Well, it may be because you’re not getting enough sunshine. Which means you’re also not getting enough of the sunshine vitamin — vitamin D.
Even though vitamin C is usually the first vitamin you reach for to prevent colds and flu, vitamin D plays an equally critical role in protecting your body from these nasty seasonal viruses. That’s because vitamin D is a powerful immune-booster that also has an antimicrobial effect on your body. But here’s the thing…
Up until now, research showing that vitamin D prevents cold and flu viruses has been inconclusive. Some studies showed that it helps, others showed that it doesn’t. But the latest study from the University of Queen Mary London may finally clear up the confusion once and for all…
Does vitamin D do the trick for colds and flu?
Researchers from University of Queen Mary London recently published the most comprehensive review of vitamin D’s effect on respiratory infections like colds and flu in the British Journal of Medicine. It included 11,000 participants in 25 clinical trials conducted in 14 countries. And here’s what they found…
Taking a daily dose of vitamin D could slash your risk of developing an acute respiratory infection (like a cold or a flu) by up to 50 percent. That’s because vitamin D increases the amount of antimicrobial peptides in your lungs. These natural antibiotics basically make your lungs infection-proof and keep you healthy.
But you may still be wondering why vitamin D works for cold and flu prevention in some studies but not others…
Researchers were wondering the same thing, so they looked into it and uncovered a few factors that impact vitamin D’s effectiveness. They found that vitamin D is most effective for people with the lowest vitamin D levels. They also found that taking vitamin D daily or weekly produces better results than taking it less frequently.
Vitamin D resuscitates your respiratory system
Excited by these results? A lot of us are. My colleague, Carl Lowe referred to it as the world’s most powerful antiviral super-vitamin.
If you are, you should know that vitamin D reduces symptoms of chronic respiratory conditions too, like asthma, wheezing diseases and cystic fibrosis.
So whether you have an ongoing respiratory condition or you just want avoid spending all night awake hacking up a lung because of a nasty cold or flu virus, vitamin D is the solution you’ve been waiting for.
And since it’s that time of year when you’re more likely to find yourself saddled with a cold or flu-related respiratory infection (or God forbid an even worse respiratory infection like pneumonia), you better get serious about your vitamin D intake right away. You can start by taking at least 1,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D3 daily or 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 twice per week.
If you want to learn more about how vitamin D can help you prevent everything from the flu to cancer, check out Dr. Michael Cutler’s post on defeating disease with vitamin D.
Sources:
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“Vitamin D protects against colds and flu, finds major global study.” ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
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R. Martineau, et al. “Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data.” BMJ, 2017.