Comments on: Vitamin D and influenza

By: INDIRA DONEGAN

INDIRA DONEGAN — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:08:48 +0000

Doc-

So if I start taking 5000 IU of D3 a day during the flu season, is it safe to stop taking it in the spring/summer? I am confused. Taking 1000-2000 IU of D3 can INCREASE my chances of getting the flu, but taking 5000 IU a day will DECREASE my chances? If I start taking 5000IU a day now, will I be even more susceptible to the flu if I stop taking the D3 in that amount? Basically, once I start on 5000 IU a day, I can’t stop?

Please help.
Indira

On summer days that I don’t go into the sun, I take a 5,000 IU vitamin D. On spring/fall/winter days I take one whether I go into the sun or not. I’m not sure about the info showing that you may be more susceptible if you stop taking. I don’t worry about it and just take as described above with one exception. If I am making a long flight, I pop a 50,000 IU cap before.

By: Ted Hutchinson

Ted Hutchinson — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:04:50 +0000

Robert Marshall is a fraudsterThere are serious life threatening consequences to following the Marshall Protocol that anyone with any common sense would do well to take note of some examples here there are more if you want. It's Trevor Marshall. Thanks for the link.

By: Deon Binneman

Deon Binneman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:52:21 +0000

What is your take on the findings in this article:

http://autoimmunityresearch.org/transcripts/AR-Albert-VitD.pdf

Thanks,

Read the very last section of this newsletter. Those are pretty much my views as well.

By: Ted Hutchinson

Ted Hutchinson — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:55:54 +0000

Without wishing to confuse the very clear information provided in the illustration at the top of the page I’d like to point readers to this abstract
Demonstration of UVB-induced synthesis of 1a,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (calcitriol) in human skin by microdialysis showing that calcitriol, vitamin d’s active metabolite, can be made by cells in the skin.

In my opinion, given the amount of skin surface we have, it seems a pity that many people never allow our body’d largest peripheral organ to function in the way evolution intended.

By: Ted Hutchinson

Ted Hutchinson — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:22:52 +0000

@ Alex The Vitamin D newsletter scroll to the bottom of the page for Dr Cannell's comments on Marshall. This Information about Trevor Marshall also raises concerns about integrity. If the computer software that underlies Marshall's claims were available for independent scrutiny then maybe others would be able to replicate his findings. But until then the overwhelming evidence is that levels below 75nmol/l 30ng/mL actual physical harm is measurable in bones.

By: Elenor

Elenor — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:35:15 +0000

I was able to … er… gently blackmail… my doc into writing me scrip for Tamiflu *and* Relenza by providing a copy of these two articles:
“The Dilemma of Personal Tamiflu Stockpiling” (http://www.psandman.com/col/tamiflu.htm) and
“Trying to get Tamiflu in case of a swine flu pandemic” (http://www.psandman.com/gst2009.htm#tamiflu2). It took a search of eight local pharmacies to find one that had any stock of Tamiflu (nearly $90 for a treatment course — single box, ten pills), but they didn’t have Relenza. (This was when the H1N1 flue was first becoming scary in Mexico.) I also bought face masks (I didn’t wear one on my last plane flight, came home with a HORRID cold… but not the flu {wink}).

Now is the time to get educated (not by the mass media) and prepared; because either H1N1 will reassort (swap genes) with H5N1 (bird flu, which is terrifyingly lethal) and kill millions — or it won’t. Either H1N1 will stay (reasonably) mild coming into the next Northern flu season (this fall), or it won’t. No way to tell — but as with hurricanes, we *prepare* as if the hurricane is going to land directly on our house — and then cheer if it doesn’t!

But I also take lots of Vitamin D: Preparation is preparation!

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:43:58 +0000

Re washing removes vitamin D on the surface of the skin, I think this is true but it's hardly relevant unless you're planning to lick it off. Vieth says in Effects of Vitamin D on Bone and Natural Selection of Skin Color: How Much Vitamin D Nutrition are We Talking About? " Since vitamin D can be extracted from UV-exposed human sweat and skin secretions (Bicknell and Prescott, 1946), it is also reasonable to think that early humans obtained some of their vitamin D by mouth as well, by licking the skin." An anthropologist gives alternative view of sunbathing and vitamin D. Mad dogs and .... Background on the centrality of meat in the diet of the European Paleolithic. P. 4 - hunting bands of the continental Arctic Thanks for the interesting links. I'm skeptical of the idea that vitamin D can be washed off, since the reaction making it occurs within the skin and not on the surface. The reason that vitamin D synthesis decreases with increased sun exposure is because increased sun exposure brings about tanning. And tanned or dark skin makes less vitamin D given the same amount of sun exposure, which is why dark skinned people living in northern climes are usually more vitamin D deficient than lighter skinned people living in the same area and getting the same sun exposure.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:49:53 +0000

Dr. Eades — I can’t find anything specific about where I thought I read this, but is Vitamin A needed when you’re supplementing with D3?

Thanks,
Cheryl

Excess vitamin A interferes with the proper functioning of vitamin D, so I wouldn’t take large supplemental doses of A. The amount you get in regular foods is not likely to be problematic.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:56:19 +0000

There is a (controversial) article about Vitamin D which explains well the behavious of Vitamin D exposed in this post. On the one side it stimulates the immune response, by producing AMP (LL-37). This is mainly produced by calcitriol (1,25D), on the other side high 25D Levels (calcidiol) acts immunosupressive and inhibits the innate response of the immune systems (and thus the immune response of the Flu shot is inhibited)

Details can be found here:
http://autoimmunityresearch.org/transcripts/AR-Albert-VitD.pdf

Alex

By: Cecelia Spitznas

Cecelia Spitznas — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:57:51 +0000

My understanding is that flu loves dry climates & mexico city is very dry relative to much of the US which has been experiencing rising humidity with the onset of spring and summer. Flu is much more prevalent when and were its dry.