Vitamin D more effective at preventing Flu than Flu Shots

[DamianTV]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7061778.ece

The risk of children suffering from flu can be halved if they take vitamin D, doctors in Japan have found. The finding has implications for flu epidemics since vitamin D, which is naturally produced by the human body when exposed to direct sunlight, has no significant side effects, costs little and can be several times more effective than anti-viral drugs or vaccine.

Only one in ten children, aged six to 15 years, taking the sunshine vitamin in a clinical trial came down with flu compared with one in five given a dummy tablet. Mitsuyoshi Urashima, the Japanese doctor who led the trial, told The Times that vitamin D was more effective than vaccines in preventing flu.

Vitamin D was found to be even more effective when the comparison left out children who were already given extra vitamin D by their parents, outside the trial. Taking the sunshine vitamin was then shown to reduce the risk of flu to a third of what it would otherwise be.

(more on link)

No! No! No! This has to all be bullshit! If you dont take our expensive and unsafe flu shots, we wont make our record profits! Outlaw Vitamins! Outlaw Vitamins! Vitamins are unsafe! But our super synthetic chemicals we create in labs that get rubber stamed thru the FDA and we get sued over about two years later ARE safe, because we misconstrue the evidence in those studies to say so!

 

[roho76]

I have been on 2000 IU of Vitamin D since I started studying it and all winter long I have been "sick free" and I work around lots of people in car plants all over the country with people being sick. I will lower my intake as summer comes but will continue as my job requires me to be inside for long periods of time and sometimes I don't see the sun for days.

I also started eating super food that I found at a local health food store. It has tons of stuff in it. Two of the best things in it are Spirulina and Chlorella, both algae based and high in foliates as well as other vitamins. They have this stuff for kids in chocolate too which is good because two of my kids are very picky eaters.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Twenty years or so ago it was Vitamin C which was supposed to prevent colds and flu. Linus Pauling got a Nobel Prize for it. What will be the next "wonder vitamin"?

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/pauling.html

 

[Inflation]

5,000iu and a half gram of C works for me!

 

[giddyup]

We had swine flu back in November. My daughter was the first to get it and in the grand scheme wasn't that sick. We gave everyone Vitamin D (I took 16,000IU once then 4000IU until it passed) and no one else got as sick as her... we all caught something, but it was so mild it was barely an inconvenience. My son who has asthma and everything he catches goes straight to his lungs - he wasn't even touched by it.

 

[ctiger2]

My brother got the pig flu this past fall and I didn't get it. I work side by side with him daily. Later on he got a cold, which I got too. However, the Vit D kept the cold at a stage 1. I felt like I was coming down with something for like 5 days and then gone.

 

[Birdlady]

Great article! However, before supplementing with Vitamin D you really should get your levels checked. Vitamin D is fat soluable, so you can become toxic!

Even if you find out you are deficient, it's important to also check out your parathyroid if you've ever had above range or top of the range, calcium levels. In people with hyperparathyroid, your vitamin D will be artificially lowered by your body to protect itself from absorbing even more calcium. There's no way of distinguishing whether your deficiency is due to a lack of sunlight/intake or from your body's safeguard mechanism.

http://www.parathyroid.com/low-vitamin-d.htm

If you've been taking vitamin D for a while, you should be getting it checked at least twice a year to see what your levels are doing too.

 

[TCE]

Twenty years or so ago it was Vitamin C which was supposed to prevent colds and flu. Linus Pauling got a Nobel Prize for it. What will be the next "wonder vitamin"?

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/pauling.html

Uh...you need vitamin C to live. If you don't have enough, your immune system is weak, that much is true. As to it being a "wonder vitamin," yes and no. After reading your link, yes, Pauling missed a few puzzle pieces, but he was heading in the right direction.

Vitamin D is the same way. If the sun goes out tomorrow, we all die soon after, period.

On a side note, Quackwatch is the equivalent of Bill Kristol talking about conservative principles.

 

[DamianTV]

Great article! However, before supplementing with Vitamin D you really should get your levels checked. Vitamin D is fat soluable, so you can become toxic!

.../

That is true. The chemical name for Vitmain D is "Cholecalciferol" or just "Calciferol". Google it. Its also the active ingredient in RAT POISON.

Not kidding! In extremely high doeses, say like 15,000,000iu its nasty. But our body produces it naturally? It produces a potentially toxic substance naturally? Hey, maybe that Vitamin B-17 guy was on to something after all! Its one of the best examples I've ever seen for BALANCE. And like Birdlady said, get your levels checked as it is fat soluable.

 

[Inflation]

sort of.

"some newer rat poisons use Vitamin D analogs"

-the internet

 

[TCE]

Cholecalciferol is, but only because it moves calcium to the bones and rats can't take that. Humans, on the other hand, want calcium in their bones.

 

[dannno]

Twenty years or so ago it was Vitamin C which was supposed to prevent colds and flu. Linus Pauling got a Nobel Prize for it. What will be the next "wonder vitamin"?

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/pauling.html

You've gotta be shitting me.

Ok, tell me, was it the establishment that promoted Vitamin C?

Is the establishment promoting Vitamin D or flu shots?

Which one actually works for flu according to that article from England whose data originated in Japan? Which one has been promoted on this board for almost 8 months now for preventing flu?

All my coworkers got sick this year except for me, I was taking Vitamin D. I imagine none of my coworkers are supplementing vitamin D. I'm going to keep taking it. I am currently reading a study that is backing up everything I just said.

You can get a 1 year supply of 5,000 IU D3 for $15. The scam is the vaccine you are always on here promoting.

 

[TCE]

You've gotta be shitting me.

Ok, tell me, was it the establishment that promoted Vitamin C?

Is the establishment promoting Vitamin D or flu shots?

Which one actually works for flu according to that article from England whose data originated in Japan? Which one has been promoted on this board for almost 8 months now for preventing flu?

All my coworkers got sick this year except for me, I was taking Vitamin D. I imagine none of my coworkers are supplementing vitamin D. I'm going to keep taking it. I am currently reading a study that is backing up everything I just said.

You can get a 1 year supply of 5,000 IU D3 for $15. The scam is the vaccine you are always on here promoting.

Wins the thread.

 

[Zippyjuan]

You've gotta be shitting me.

Ok, tell me, was it the establishment that promoted Vitamin C?

Is the establishment promoting Vitamin D or flu shots?

Which one actually works for flu according to that article from England whose data originated in Japan? Which one has been promoted on this board for almost 8 months now for preventing flu?

All my coworkers got sick this year except for me, I was taking Vitamin D. I imagine none of my coworkers are supplementing vitamin D. I'm going to keep taking it. I am currently reading a study that is backing up everything I just said.

You can get a 1 year supply of 5,000 IU D3 for $15. The scam is the vaccine you are always on here promoting.

Nope- it is really true. Megadoses of Vitamin C were all the rage- supposed to help keep you from getting a cold or the flu and if you got it, the duration was supposed to be shorter. Also supposed to help fight cancer. Sound familiar to what is said about Vitamin D? And no, it was not a government plan. No, Big Pharma did not have any corner on the Vitamin C market either.

I am not saying either or neither works- just that we have heard it all before. I work with the public and most of my coworkers got sick this season. I did not- just a cold for a couple of days. I did not take any vitamins. Does this prove vitamins protected you or I? Or were we just lucky? Do we have better overall immune systems than our coworkers? Who knows. Maybe we just have better habits. I do not get any flu shots either- not because I fear that they may be bad for me- but rather that I don't think they offer me any real benefit.

 

[dannno]

So you got sick you say.

 

[specsaregood]

So you got sick you say.

5000 ICU D3/day for me and the wifey since last fall. Not a single cough or sniffle all through the "flu season". Lots of people around us got sick, but they weren't supplementing with D3, just saying.....

 

[TCE]

Nope- it is really true. Megadoses of Vitamin C were all the rage- supposed to help keep you from getting a cold or the flu and if you got it, the duration was supposed to be shorter. Also supposed to help fight cancer. Sound familiar to what is said about Vitamin D? And no, it was not a government plan. No, Big Pharma did not have any corner on the Vitamin C market either.

I am not saying either or neither works- just that we have heard it all before. I work with the public and most of my coworkers got sick this season. I did not- just a cold for a couple of days. I did not take any vitamins. Does this prove vitamins protected you or I? Or were we just lucky? Do we have better overall immune systems than our coworkers? Who knows. Maybe we just have better habits. I do not get any flu shots either- not because I fear that they may be bad for me- but rather that I don't think they offer me any real benefit.

It was a fad, that's what fads are, they come and they go all the time. It still remains that I haven't heard anyone who has died from taking Vitamin C or D, I have heard many stories of issues with vaccines and flu shots, though. I'm sure people dying from vitamins happens, but it's rare. I can't even imagine someone dying from eating too many kiwis, but I know it's possible to die from OD'ing on cold medicine. I'll take my chances with the kiwis and kale.

 

[Zippyjuan]

I have not said that vitamins are bad. I have not said that they are not benefical. I have not said that everyone should have a flu shot. I have only said that people need not fear the flu shot or other vaccines. On a risk factor basis, it is worth it to get the vaccines- thousands more die of flu related causes each year than have been killed by all the flu vaccines ever used. There was a lot of BS on both sides of the flu debate this year- from the ove- hyped H1N1 to the over-hyped fear of getting vaccine. How many people die from vaccinations in a year? The risks of any of the vaccinated diseases are significantly greater than the risks of getting vaccinated to prevent them. Good nutrition including vitamins are one important part of maintaining good health. All I was pointing out is that calling one vitamin a "miracle" has happened before and probably will again. (I don't take cold medicines when I am sick either- I have found I do not feel any better or get well any faster).

 

[BuddyRey]

I believe it. My mom made me undergo a D13 regimen over the course of the big Swine Flu scare, and it was the first winter in years that I can remember not getting sick once, not even with a head cold.

 

[DamianTV]

D13? Do you mean D3 or is that another variant?

BTW, whats the difference between D2 and D3?