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The following article was published in Your Health Magazine. Our mission is to empower people to live healthier.
Ronda Sharman, DC
Vitamin D For Cold and Flu Prevention
Life Care Chiropractic & Wellness Center
. http://LifeCareChiropracticAndWellness.com

Vitamin D For Cold and Flu Prevention

Germs and the flu virus exist everywhere you go, however you have a lot more control over getting sick then you think. Both your current health and the strength of your immune system during the time of exposure have an impact on cold and flu prevention.

Many people incorrectly believe that colds and flu are caused by bacteria when they are actually caused by viruses – rendering antibiotics a completely ineffective treatment. It is also important to recognize that, although a virus triggers your cold or flu symptoms, it is not the real cause of the illness.

What is the Real Cause of and Best Preventative for Colds and Flu?

While an impaired immune system is a somewhat simple response, research has confirmed that “catching” colds and flu may be a symptom of an underlying vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency has already been linked to a wide spectrum of diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, autoimmune disease and many others. Less than optimal vitamin D levels will significantly impair your immune response and make you far more susceptible to contracting colds, influenza and other respiratory infections. Vitamin D has a very powerful anti-viral affect.

The first thing is to find out what your baseline vitamin D level is. This is a simple blood test, however your doctor has to specifically order a vitamin D test when doing blood work – it isn’t automatically measured with the basic tests.

Once the blood work results show your D level, you can determine if you are low, borderline low or within the “sweet zone”. Anything below 26 ng/ml is considered “low”. Surprisingly, the majority of people are found to be low. If you are low, at least 4,000 IUs of Vitamin D3 is a good building dose. However, if someone is very low, up to 10,000 IUs a day may be recommended until they reach the optimal level. 50ng/ml in your blood is good level for fighting colds and flu.

How Does Vitamin D Help?

A new study explains this more clearly. T-cells in the body fight infections. For T-cells to be activated, they need help from vitamin D. When a T-cell recognizes a foreign “invader” like the cold or flu virus, it sends activating signals to the vitamin D receptor gene. That gene produces a protein that binds vitamin D in the T-cell…and then produces another protein that acts as the catalyst for the T-cell to start fighting the infection.

Additionally, if you can get your vitamin D level within the “sweet zone” there is a statistical decrease in cancer, diabetes, fractures, neurological disorders, and heart attack. The “sweet zone” would be around 50 ng/ml. If your level is below 50 ng/ml, it would be advisable to build your vitamin D stores.

Once you start building your store of vitamin D, have your doctor periodically repeat the blood work to recheck your vitamin D level.

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