Japanese doctors claim that the risk of flu in children can be lowered by 50 percent if they take vitamin D supplements on a regular basis. Under normal conditions, our bodies can naturally produce vitamin D through our exposure to direct sunlight. Vitamin D can be more powerful than anti-viral meds or vaccines, a research has shown.
The Power of Vitamin D
In a clinical trial, only one in ten children between the ages of 6 and 15 who took vitamin D caught the flu whereas the number of those in the placebo group was one in five. The head of the trial, Mitsuyoshi Urashima explains that vitamin D was found to be more powerful in averting the flu than vaccines were.
Additionally, vitamin D was also more beneficial when the comparison did not include children who were already given external vitamin D by their parents, outside of the trial. Vitamin D was able to lower the chance for flu to a third to what it would otherwise be.
This being said, it may not come as very shocking news to learn that a lot of Canadian and American physicians have been prescribing up to 50,000 IU of vitamin D on the daily as a therapy for numerous chronic illnesses.
Namely, lack of vitamin D is not uncommon during the winter period, especially in countries far north from the equator. And, vitamin D, also plays a role of an immune system modulator and averts excessive production of inflammatory cytokines and elevates the macrophage activity.
What’s more, vitamin D encourages the production of powerful anti-microbial peptides in cells which are lining the respiratory tract and thus, keep the lungs safe from infections.
Flu Reduction in Children Thanks to Vitamin D
The trial had 354 children participants and vitamin D kept them safe from influenza A, but not from the influenza B. This trial was randomized, double-blind and led by doctors and scientists from the Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan.
During the research, the children took 1200 IU of vitamin D on a daily basis for 3 months. In the first month, the children from the group who took vitamin D became sick as often as those from the placebo group. But, things changed during the second month when the level of vitamin D was much higher.
Though anti-virals are usually more beneficial than vaccines in the treatment of influenza, they are too expensive and also contain toxins. Therefore, vitamin D may be a much better solution. Namely, this vitamin does not just avert bone fractures, but it also lowers the chance for heart illness, cancer, diabetes, and viral and bacterial infections.
How Vitamin D3 Strengthens the Immunity
- Although called a vitamin, this is actually a steroid hormone precursor which has a significant impact on the immune system
- Adults need around 5000 IU of vitamin D per day
- The healthy level of vitamin D in the blood is between 70 and 90 ng/ml
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