Echinacea And Vitamin C Control The Cold

It's not altogether certain why we get more colds in winter compared to summer, although it may, indeed, be related to exposure to the sun and production of vitamin D. Regardless of the exact reason, there was an article just published in the July 2007 edition of The Lancet Infectious Diseases magazine. A group of pharmacists from University of Connecticut did a meta-analysis to evaluate effects of echinacea on incidence and duration of the common cold. The researchers pooled a total of 14 different studies. It was determined that people who took echinacea had a 58% reduced risk of getting upper respiratory tract infections compared to those not taking this herbal supplement. It was also found that when echinacea was taken with vitamin C, there was an incredible reduction in number of colds by 86%. On average, echinacea reduced duration of a cold by 1.4 days.

There have been a series of more positive studies on vitamin D. There was a study published in the June 2007 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Almost 1,000 men and women, ages 65 and older, participated in a cross-sectional analysis. It was found that after adjusting for age, sex, chronic diseases, body mass index and alcohol consumption, seniors with serum vitamin D levels below 20 ng/ml had poorer physical performance and greater general decline in physical performance. Previous research has shown that low vitamin D levels are not uncommon among seniors. This is probably related to a combination of factors, including reduced dietary consumption of vitamin D, decreased exposure to sunlight and an impaired capacity to naturally synthesize the vitamin. Of the nearly 1,000 people studied, nearly half had low vitamin D levels at the start, and their deficiency was associated with overall poorer physical performance compared to their peers.

Over the course of the three-year study, vitamin D-deficient adults were also twice as likely to exhibit a decline in physical performance, such as more difficulty getting up from a chair. In another study also published in the June 2007 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers from Tufts and Harvard studied effects of vitamin D and calcium in the role they may play in development of inadequate blood sugar health. Studies and clinical trials in adults and found a relatively consistent association between low vitamin D status, calcium dietary intake and prevalence of developing inadequate blood sugar health.

It was noted that vitamin D and calcium insufficiency may negatively influence blood sugar levels, whereas combined supplementation with both nutrients may be beneficial for optimizing glucose metabolism. There were two recent studies published on the beneficial effects of fish oil in regard to abnormal cellular growth. The first was published in the journal Cancer, Epidemiology, BioMarkers and Prevention. Researchers compared blood levels of poly-unsaturated fatty acids in 476 men with abnormal cellular growth of the prostate and looked at a similar number of healthy controls. Those with highest levels of these fatty acids (primarily EPA and DHA from fish oil) noted that there was a 41% reduction in risk of abnormal cellular growth in the prostate compared to men with lowest blood levels.