Study shows flu shots ineffective but can vitamin d prevent the flu?

[Guest guest]

Yet another study finds flu shots ineffective

 

'COMMENT: In 2005, the Cochrane Collaboration reviewed studies that

involved nearly 500,000 people and concluded that the vaccine

was " no

better than placebo " in all three age groups for which the shot is

advocated: babies, " middle aged adults and the elderly " source

http://sayingnotovaccines.blogspot.com/2007/10/flu-shot-proven-to-be-

....

 

 

But was your grandmother right should you take you cod liver oil and

get some sun to avoid the flu? Evidently from

 

 

" Epidemiology and Infection " http://journals.cambridge.org/action/

displayAbstract?fromPage=online & aid=469543

 

 

" Epidemic influenza and vitamin D "

 

 

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------­-----

J. J. CANNELL a1c1, R. VIETH a2, J. C. UMHAU a3, M. F. HOLICK a4, W.

B. GRANT a5, S. MADRONICH a6, C. F. GARLAND a7 and E. GIOVANNUCCI a8

a1 Atascadero State Hospital, 10333 El Camino Real, Atascadero, CA,

USA

a2 Mount Sinai Hospital, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine,

Department

of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

a3 Laboratory of Clinical and Translational Studies, National

Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of

Health, Bethesda, MD

a4 Departments of Medicine and Physiology, Boston University School

of

Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

a5 SUNARC, San Francisco, CA, USA

a6 Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric

Research, Boulder, CO, USA

a7 Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of

California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

a8 Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of

Public

Health, Boston, MA, USA

 

 

Abstract

 

 

In 1981, R. Edgar Hope-Simpson proposed that a 'seasonal stimulus'

intimately associated with solar radiation explained the remarkable

seasonality of epidemic influenza. Solar radiation triggers robust

seasonal vitamin D production in the skin; vitamin D deficiency is

common in the winter, and activated vitamin D, 1,25(OH)2D, a steroid

hormone, has profound effects on human immunity. 1,25(OH)2D acts as

an

immune system modulator, preventing excessive expression of

inflammatory cytokines and increasing the 'oxidative burst'

potential

of macrophages. Perhaps most importantly, it dramatically stimulates

the expression of potent anti-microbial peptides, which exist in

neutrophils, monocytes, natural killer cells, and in epithelial

cells

lining the respiratory tract where they play a major role in

protecting the lung from infection. Volunteers inoculated with live

attenuated influenza virus are more likely to develop fever and

serological evidence of an immune response in the winter. Vitamin D

deficiency predisposes children to respiratory infections.

Ultraviolet

radiation (either from artificial sources or from sunlight) reduces

the incidence of viral respiratory infections, as does cod liver oil

(which contains vitamin D). An interventional study showed that

vitamin D reduces the incidence of respiratory infections in

children.

We conclude that vitamin D, or lack of it, may be Hope-Simpson's

'seasonal stimulus'.

 

 

(Accepted August 5 2006)

 

 

A fuller explanation of this study here

http://www.vitamindcouncil.com/newsletter/2006-oct.shtml

 

 

Works for me .Thanks Vince