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kalikshama -> RE: best time to get flu shot (9/29/2012 9:36:25 AM)
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The last time I had the flu was right after the last time I had a flu shot, and also the only time I've ever vomited from the flu. That was in 1990 when the military required me to get a flu shot. As a civilian, I have the freedom to chose alternatives like Vitamin D.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D_and_influenza
Numerous studies link vitamin D and influenza, as well as vitamin D and respiratory infections more generally. This vitamin up-regulates genetic expression of various endogenous antimicrobial peptides (AMP), which exhibit broad-spectrum microbicidal activity against bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Reports discussed below indicate that susceptibility to influenza is reduced with higher levels of sun exposure or vitamin D supplementation. Seasonal variation of vitamin D levels in humans can help explain the seasonality of flu epidemics.
Recently (2006 and 2008), John Cannell and colleagues have suggested that vitamin D deficiency is a major risk factor for influenza and that vitamin D may be effective in reducing influenza incidence and severity.[1][2]
In both publications, the authors concluded that physiological doses of vitamin D (5,000 International Units (IU)/day for adults and 1,000 IU/day for every 25 pounds of body weight in children) might reduce the incidence of influenza, and proposed that pharmacological doses (2,000 IU/kg/day for 3–4 days) may have a treatment effect in influenza. The authors present epidemiological evidence suggesting that the seasonality of vitamin D deficiency may explain the seasonality of influenza epidemics and that the epidemiology of vitamin D deficiency may help explain the confusing epidemiology of influenza. However, the seasonality of influenza may also be explicable by other factors. For example, it has been shown that low absolute humidity favours the survival of the influenza virus.[3]
A study published in the February 2009 Archives of Internal Medicine involving 1900 adults and children done by the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Children's Hospital Boston, found that people with the lowest blood vitamin D levels reported having significantly more recent colds or cases of the flu. The risks were even higher for those with chronic respiratory disorders, such as asthma and emphysema. They reported that asthma patients with the lowest vitamin D levels were five times more likely to have had a recent respiratory infection; while among COPD patients, respiratory infections were twice as common among those with vitamin D deficiency. However, the authors stress that the study's results need to be confirmed in clinical trials before vitamin D can be recommended to prevent colds and flu.[4][5]
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in the March 2010 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that those in the group of 167 children taking 1,200 international units of vitamin D3 supplements daily in winter were 42% less likely to get infected with seasonal flu than those who were given a placebo.[6][7]
In 2012, a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study found that 300 IU of vitamin D in fortified milk for three months during winter reduced the incidence of acute respiratory infections in Mongolian school children compared to non-fortified milk[8]. Children that received vitamin D reported having 50% less acute respiratory infections during the winter-time compared to children that did not receive vitamin D. The researchers did not attempt to distinguish between the causes of the acute respiratory infections, whether they were caused by influenza or the common cold.
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