If you want to avoid the misery of a cold, read on.
On his web site, one of my favorite health writers (J F McCaffrey MD), recently wrote about yet another study confirming the importance of vitamin D for our well being.
The study Dr. McCaffrey reports on reviewed data collected as part of a national health survey of 18,883 participants. The researchers measured the vitamin D levels in specimens collected during the survey. They then compared that information with which people experienced respiratory infections and cold and flu symptoms over the course of the survey.
It turns out that someone with low levels of vitamin D were much more likely to develop respiratory infections. The likelihood was even higher in those who had chronic problems such as asthma.
The authors of the study are quick to say that their study doesn’t test whether or not supplementing with vitamin D cuts your chance of coming down with a respiratory infection. They’re right, it doesn’t. Two things happening one after the other doesn’t prove the first caused the second. In this case maybe the people who don’t get colds are already healthy so they’re outside more and therefore have higher vitamin D levels than sickly people who are in bed more.
That may be true, but it’s also true that no such explanation was identified when they reviewed the surveys. And it’s true that more and more reports show that vitamin D is much more important than we ever knew before. Low levels of vitamin D are associated with increased risks of a wide range of health problems, including cancer and heart disease.
So while strictly speaking it’s true that “controlled trials are warranted” to prove absolutely that supplementing withvitamin D protects you from respiratory infections, it may not be prudent to wait. It will be years, if not decades before such trials are completed, if anyone ever does them at all (there’s not much money in selling vitamin D). Vitamin D is free of side effects and I’m going to make sure I’m getting enough.
The easiest (and most pleasant) way of doing that is getting a healthy amount of sun exposure. But not everyone can get out in the sun or enjoys it. Taking a supplement is a good idea. 2000 units a day is reasonable.
Vitamin D can do a lot more for you besides preventing you from coming down with a cold. Find out about Vitamin D and Heart Attacks at that link.
And again, to get the information you need to be your healthiest, I highly recommend visiting:
You can request a great free report while you’re there on the Surprising Power of the Heart while you’re there. It has some pretty amazing information in it you can use right now.
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