Vitamin D deficiency linked to tuberculosis, flu and other respiratory diseases

"..the researchers point to studies showing that in winter, colds, flu, and other respiratory diseases are more common and more likely to be deadly than they are in summer. During winter, ultraviolet-light exposure tends to be low because people spend more time indoors and the atmosphere filters out more of the sun's rays, especially at mid and high latitudes.
Cannell's group cites a 1997 study showing that the rate of pneumonia in Ethiopian children with rickets, and therefore a likely vitamin D deficiency, was 13 times as high as in children without that disease. The researchers also point to five studies since the 1930s that have linked reduced risks of infectious disease to dietary supplementation with cod liver oil, a rich source of vitamin D."
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Gary Moller Comments:

It has always fascinated me why, in summer, there is less flu, why we are happier and why more babies are conceived.
A boys' school in Palmerson North. NZ, has suffered a terrifying outbreak of tuberculosis that has spread like wild fire through the pupils. Cases are now turning up in a nearby girls' school. Doctors in sunny Waikato have recently reported an upsurge in cases of rickets while doctors here in Wellington recently reported disturbingly low levels of vitamin D in immigrant populations. Is there a link? How could third world diseases like these be turning up in a country like New Zealand?
"Cold-weather wear and the sun's angle in the winter sky limit how much ultraviolet light reaches the skin. This can add up to a deficiency in production of vitamin D, which might explain why respiratory infections are common and severe in winter." (Quoted from the same report above).
I believe these Drs are dead right: Keeping our children swaddled head to toe in clothes and not allowing them to go outside to play in the sun is at the heart of the problem. Whether it be the flu, TB, meningococcal disease, rickets, osteoporosis or depression, our first defence is ensuring that we have adequate vitamin D levels.
Back in the old days, the sickly (including those with TB) were sent up to the fresh air of the mountainside sanitorium. Was the real health benefits from the exposure to unfiltered UVB?
To date, every person who has consulted me about a chronic ailment and subsequently had a blood test of vitamin D levels, has come up as deficient, or dangerously close to being so.
Note: If you have a blood test and your Dr prescribes a vitmain D supplements, ensure that your blood levels are closely monitored because it is easy to overdose. Getting D from the sun is safe because the production mechanism turns off once levels get high - the body is very smart!

technorati tags: vitamin+d, tuberculosis, influenza, sunlight, meningococcal, sanitorium

One Flu over the Cuckoo's Nest

Sure, we should be prepared for a possible Bird Flu Pandemic; but I do not agree that we should be stockpiling billions of $$$ on antiviral drugs that are of questionable efficacy and safety. We should be concentrating on:

• Ensuring that all of our citizens have robust immune systems that resist infectious attacks - concentrating on our most vulnerable - the elderly, the young and the infirm
• Cleaning up the world's poultry industry that is breeding these bugs
• Practicing effective public and personal hygiene practices like hand-washing with soap several times a day

On the hand-washing that is recommended in the emergency preparedness brochures; this is where we really are in Cuckoo-Land. I agree entirely that hand-washing is everyone's first line of defense against infection. However; this recommendation is often impractical, especially in schools where infections like influenza run rife during winter. My mother, Maisie, a retired school teacher, first pointed out to me the impracticality of getting school children to wash their hands. I have subsequently written several articles about this.
Each child should be washing their hands for at least 30 seconds at least 4 times a day while at school to remove the snot, saliva and also the dirt picked up in the playground and from door knobs, etc, etc. Here is the school maths:
20+ children per wash basin x 30 seconds/child x 4 times a day = 40 minutes without adding changeover time.
This means constant queueing throughout the breaks in class activity and, let's face it, this never happens with all of the kids usually being given no more than a few minutes to get the job done, if at all. To expect this to happen properly and consistently is just plain nuts.
Besides, if it did happen, already financially challenged schools would be flat broke within a few weeks and would require a full-timer employed to just keep the soap and hand towels flowing.
Of course, there are practical solutions; but these require investment. We could start by reallocating some of those billions being spent on mostly useless stocks of Tamiflu.