Vitamin D For Influenza
I thank Dr Korownyk and colleagues for their interesting review on the neuraminidase inhibitors.1 Having spent some time looking at the reviews on these drugs myself, I agree that they are not very useful and the risk of causing harm is greater than the purported benefit. I no longer use them in my patients. Unfortunately, they are administered facility-wide in nursing homes as a public health measure when there is a reported outbreak of influenzalike illness or influenza. Working in long-term care settings, I have seen some of these patients and staff develop vomiting some with serious diarrhea some with acute confusion, hallucinations, or delirium and a number with worsening cognitive function. Having patients develop vomiting and diarrhea makes it difficult to know if there is a secondary outbreak in the facility of gastroenteritis. These side effects cause increased work for staff when this happens and are unpleasant for both staff and patients. I would suggest that these medications should no longer be stockpiled or used. This would result in tremendous savings in health care dollars.
Intravenous Vitamin C Alone In Patients With Covid
A pilot clinical trial in China randomized 56 adults with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit to receive intravenous vitamin C 24 g per day or placebo for 7 days. The study was terminated early due to a reduction in the number of cases of COVID-19 in China. Overall, the study found no differences between the arms in mortality, the duration of mechanical ventilation, or the change in median sequential organ failure assessment scores. The study reported improvements in oxygenation from baseline to Day 7 in the treatment arm that were statistically greater than those observed in the placebo arm .4
How Much Vitamin D Should A Person Take
A persons daily vitamin D requirement several individual factors, such as age, sex, and health status.
Doctors consider vitamin D levels if a person has at least 20 nanograms of the vitamin per milliliter of blood. If levels rise above 50 ng/mL, a person may experience adverse side effects.
Below are some of the most serious side effects of over-supplementing vitamin D.
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How Much Vitamin D Should I Take For Specific Conditions
How much vitamin D should I take if Im deficient?
If a blood test has revealed that youre low in vitamin D, you can either take smaller doses for a long period of time to bring your level up, such as 5,000 to 10,000 IU per day, or a high dose administered over the course of several weeks. For adults with low vitamin D levels, the Endocrine Society recommends taking at least 1,5002,000 IU per day.
If youre taking a very high dose all at once, such as more than 40,000 IU, then its possible that side effects may occur due to vitamin D toxicity. The best thing to do is talk with your doctor about supplementing with higher doses of vitamin D if you are severely deficient or have a very low level according to a blood test.
How much vitamin D should I take for depression?
Theres some evidence that low vitamin D levels are linked with depression, although this doesnt mean that vitamin D deficiency causes depression. Rather, its speculated that people who dont spend much time outside or eat vitamin D foods may also be more likely to develop depression. The dosages of vitamin D used in studies that have focused on depression have varied, typically between 600 IU/day to 4,000 IU/day.
How much vitamin D should I take to lose weight?
Astragalus Tea A Home Remedy For Preventing Colds And Flu
If you frequently get colds and the flu, this earthy herb can help you strengthen your immune system. In fact, Chinese doctors have prescribed it for this purpose for thousands of years.
I make astragalus tea throughout the winter and sip it often.
The main reason to use astragalus is for prevention, but it may also give you an immune boost when youre sick.
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What Supplements Do I Need To Take
No one can answer that aside from your doctor. To learn more about the various supplements that doctors commonly recommend, check out this article.
Keep your body healthy by supplying it with the nutrients it needs and by engaging in routine exercise. Go PRO today for access to certified personal trainers, workout plans, and more.
Large Doses Can Be Harmful Even Without Symptoms Of Toxicity
Large doses of vitamin D can be harmful, even though there may not be immediate symptoms of toxicity.
Vitamin D is very unlikely to cause severe symptoms of toxicity right away, and symptoms may take months or years to show up.
This is one reason why vitamin D toxicity is so difficult to detect.
There have been reports of people taking very large doses of vitamin D for months without symptoms, yet blood tests revealed severe hypercalcemia and symptoms of kidney failure .
The harmful effects of vitamin D are very complex. High doses of vitamin D can cause hypercalcemia without toxicity symptoms, but can also cause toxicity symptoms without hypercalcemia .
To be safe, do not exceed the 4,000 IU upper limit without consulting a doctor or dietitian.
Summary
Vitamin D toxicity usually develops over time, and the harmful effects are very complex. Large doses may cause damage, despite a lack of noticeable symptoms.
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Vitamin C In Animals Vs People
As mentioned in a previous blog post, most animals and plants produce their own vitamin C, and only a few cant.
The amount of vitamin C that these animals produce is equal to between 5 and 15 grams per day, if they are healthy. They produce much more when stressed or sick. Up to three times more and some animals produce even more than that.
People must rely on external food stuffs or supplements to get enough vitamin C. Enough vitamin C so that all the body functions that depend on it work in an optimal way and prevent a vitamin C deficiency.
The challenge is that our bodies dont absorb all vitamin C we take. And we can only store very little as a reserve. Also, vitamin C has a very limited short life in the body and lasts only a few hours.
Remember, your body is in constant need of vitamin C. Especially when youre sick or stressed. Any kind of physical or emotional stress.
Heres an interesting study that proves the human body needs more vitamin C when is under stress or sick.
Vitamin D Supplements: What Parents Should Know
Getting enough vitamin D is essential so kids bones can grow strong and their immune systems can ward off illness.
Vitamin D gets into the body through absorption of sunlight and ingestion of food. From April through the end of October, spending just 15 to 30 minutes outside in the middle of the day with hands and face exposed will stimulate the skin to make all the vitamin D your child needs. In fact, on a sunny summer day, a child wearing a bathing suit can generate 10,000 to 20,000 international units of vitamin D after 15 to 30 minutes. In a neat biological trick, a persons body cant overdose on vitamin D created by the sun.
Foods such as salmon, sardines, tuna, cod liver oil, egg yolks and shiitake mushrooms contain a lot of vitamin D. Many kids dont seem to love these vitamin D superfoods, so luckily store-bought milk is often fortified with vitamin D, as are many cereals and even orange juice. Not all dairy products are fortified with vitamin D, however, so make sure to read the labels.
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Routine Vitamin C Supplementation Is Not Justified
A 2013 review of 29 trials which involved more than 11,300 people found no consistent effect of vitamin C on the duration or severity of colds. The only place the authors observed some benefits of vitamin C supplementation was in marathon runners, skiers, and soldiers on subarctic exercise and even in those small populations, the observed effect was small.
The failure of vitamin C supplementation to reduce the incidence of colds in the general population indicates that routine vitamin C supplementation is not justified, the study authors wrote.
And megadoses of vitamin C on the order of 2,000 milligrams or more may come with substantial harms, including raising your risk of painful kidney stones.
If you want to increase your overall vitamin and mineral intake, research backs getting it from fresh fruits and vegetables. This is the best way for your body to process it and ensures you get the most nutrients possible.
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How Much Vitamin D Does My Child Need
Vitamin D is measured in international units .
- Babies younger than 1 year old need 400 IU of vitamin D a day. Baby formula has 400 IU per liter, so babies who drink at least 32 ounces of formula each day get enough. If your baby drinks only breast milk or gets less than 32 ounces of formula each day, ask your health care provider about giving your baby a vitamin D supplement.
- Kids older than 1 year need 600 IU or more of vitamin D a day. Health care providers often want healthy kids to take 600 to 1,000 IU daily.
Some kids might need more vitamin D, such as those who:
- have certain medical problems
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Randomized Clinical Trial Of Vitamin D Versus Placebo In Patients With Moderate To Severe Covid
In a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial that was conducted at two sites in Brazil, 240 hospitalized patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 received either a single dose of 200,000 international units of vitamin D3 or placebo.10 Moderate to severe COVID-19 was defined as patients with a positive result on a SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test and a respiratory rate > 24 breaths/min, oxygen saturation < 93% on room air, or risk factors for complications. The primary outcome in this study was the length of the hospital stay.
The median length of stay was not significantly different between the vitamin D3 arm and the placebo arm . No significant differences were observed between the arms in the percentages of patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit, who required mechanical ventilation, or who died during hospitalization.
It should be noted that this study had a small sample size and enrolled participants with a variety of comorbidities and concomitant medications. The time between symptom onset and randomization was relatively long, with patients randomized at a mean of 10.3 days after symptom onset. In this study, a single, high dose of vitamin D3 did not significantly reduce the length of stay for hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
Vitamin C Does Not Prevent Colds
âNobel prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling famously claimed in the 1970s that high doses of vitamin C prevented the common cold,â says Mike Sevilla, a family physician in Salem, Ohio.
But Pauling had little evidence to back his claim. The foundations of his argument came from a single study of a sample of children in the Swiss Alps, which he then generalized to the overall population.
Turns out he overgeneralized, and numerous studies have since disproved Paulingâs claim.
âUnfortunately, follow-up research has shown that vitamin C does not prevent the common cold,â Sevilla says. Yet this misconception continues to live on.
âIn my family practice office, I see patients from a variety of cultures and backgrounds and the use of vitamin C for the common cold is well known across all of them,â Sevilla says.
Recommended Reading: Where Can I Get Vitamin D
Also Check: Can Vitamin C Cause Kidney Stones
Do Cashews Have A Significant Amount Of Vitamin K
With the exception of pine nuts and cashews, which contain 53.9 and 34.8 microg of phylloquinone per 100 g of nut, respectively, nuts are not important dietary sources of vitamin K. Similarly, most fruits are not important sources of vitamin K, with the exception of some berries, green fruits, and prunes.
Does Vitamin C Really Help Colds
30 May 2013
Each week, MyHealthNewsDaily asks the experts to answer questions about your health. This week, we asked nutrition and infectious disease experts: Does vitamin C help prevent or treat colds?
Joy Dubost, registered dietician and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association
The science shows that overall, regular ingestion of vitamin C had no effect on the common cold, as far as in the incidence . Now, most of these studies looked at people who took more than 2,000 mg of vitamin C, which is a very large dose.
The recommended dietary allowance, or RDA, is 75 mg for most adults, and 2,000 mg is the upper limit you donât want to go over that because youâll have gastrointestinal distress.
does support a healthy immune system. So if youâre not getting enough vitamin C, you will be more susceptible to colds. If you are taking vitamin C while you have a cold, it could prevent complications such as pneumonia by boosting your immune system.
****
Dr. Mark Levine, chief of molecular and clinical nutrition in National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
For the average person, vitamin C supplements for colds donât do much of anything, and I donât recommend them. After I say that I like to explain why: There are a lot of trials on vitamin C and colds, of variable quality and people analyze these, so there are analyses of analyses.
Overall, I say eat more fruits and vegetables.
****
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Cold And Flu: Prevention And Natural Therapies
Its important to strengthen and maintain a healthy immune system all year round so that your body can adequately fight influenza viruses and the viruses that cause the common cold. Though many people believe its not possible to ward off a cold or the flu, with the exception of the flu vaccine, the truth is we actually have a great deal of control over our health during the cold and flu season. Scientific studies support the effectiveness of cold and flu prevention strategies and natural therapies. By following these measures, we can exert some control over whether we get sick, the duration of recovery time, and the severity of symptoms.
WFPs Advice
8 Preventive Strategies To help you maintain a healthy immune system, incorporate these 8 strategies into your daily routine:
But How Much Vitamin D Do You Need To Take To Achieve These Levels
There is no simple answer, as it depends on many factors, including those we discussed earlier on in this article:
· Your age
· How much sun exposure you get
· Whether you have any health conditions that affect vitamin D absorption
If you’re not sure how much vitamin D you need, it’s best to speak to a doctor or nutritionist. They can help you determine the right dose for you based on your individual needs.
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What Causes Vitamin D Toxicity
Vitamin D toxicity is almost always the result of excess supplementation. Because your body regulates vitamin D production, you are unlikely to develop it as a result of sun exposure . Foods generally do not contain large amounts of vitamin D, so getting an excessive amount in your diet is unlikely.
People may begin taking vitamin D supplements in order to address a deficiency or to help relieve symptoms of things like seasonal affective disorder or depression. The problem is that they may go overboard or think that taking more will produce more beneficial effects.
How To Get Your Vitamin D Topped Up
Our findings support the UK governments recommendation to maintain vitamin D sufficiency all year round, and they show a potentially beneficial role of wintertime vitamin D supplementation.
It is not possible to get enough sunlight in the UK between October and March, so its advisable to take a 10 microgram vitamin D supplement daily during this period . If you cant get any sunlight at all, or you have not supplemented with vitamin D from October onwards, you may need to take 25 micrograms of vitamin D for four weeks to restore your vitamin D to a healthy level.
To ensure that you get enough vitamin D during the summer, make sure you get short periods of regular sunlight exposure. Safe sunlight exposure for people living at latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees north involves being in the sun for 15 minutes between 10am and 3pm while wearing a T-shirt and shorts.
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Sage Tea To Dry Up Extra Moisture In Your Body
Sage tea is another easy home remedy for sore throats and coughs.
To make sage tea all you need to do is pour hot water over about two tablespoons of dried sage. And then, steep for 10 minutes and strain.
Sage can also boost your mood. And some people believe that burning sage can help to clear the energy in rooms something that you might also find useful when youre sick.
