Lack Of D Leads To The Flu

Vitamin D deficiencies are now thought to be the reason influenza epidemics are seasonal in this country, and the factor that makes both adults and children more susceptible to all kinds of respiratory infections during the wintertime.
. Flu season occurs in the months following the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year), when vitamin D levels are at their lowest.

. The elderly are much more likely to die from heart attacks in the winter than in the summer.

. Flu disappears after the longest day of the year (summer solstice).

. Flu is more common in the tropics during the rainy season.

. Ingesting cod liver oil (one of the richest food sources of vitamin D) reduces viral respiratory infections.

. Children exposed to sunlight are less likely to get colds.

. Russian researchers discovered that UVB sunlamps reduced colds and flu in schoolchildren and factory workers, by producing vitamin D in the skin.

. The elderly who live in countries like Norway that have high vitamin D consumption are less likely to die in the winter.

. Children with vitamin D deficiency (resulting in rickets) suffer from frequent respiratory infections.

. Physicians who have given high doses of vitamin D to children who were constantly sick from colds and flu found the children were suddenly free from infection.

. Dark-skinned individuals, with their lower vitamin D levels, are more likely to die from influenza and pneumonia than lighter-skinned people are.