March 3, 2019
Many entries about “not getting colds when on D3”roger.rolfe@sympatico.ca October 4, 2012 at 12:56 pm
Interesting discussion. My experience is this. I started supplementing with D3 three years ago….5000IU daily from Apr – Sept; 6000IU daily Oct – Mar. This gives me stable blood levels around 65 ng/ml. I test regularly. I haven’t had a flu since I started this regimen in 2009. The number of colds I get has reduced…from 2-3 per year before 2009, to 1 per year since. Moreover the severity of the cold I get is much, much less. Very few symptoms. Usually a few days of feeling tired and listless and…that’s it. No fever, no stuffed up nose, no headache, no chest involvement, etc. I attribute these improvements to the D3 since that’s the thing I’ve changed. My wife also reports the same. Fewer colds and when they do happen not nearly as bad as before.
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JBG October 4, 2012 at 12:57 pm
“What is your experience with daily doses of vitamin D and infections?”
For at least ten years running, my wife and I had severe respiratory infections every February. Details varied, but somewhere between a *really* bad cold and the flu.
Then we got the word about vitamin D, six or seven years ago. Since then, all happy Februaries, and only rare minor illness of any kind.
I use this as a challenge to people unwilling to believe that an ordinary (to them) supplement can be of powerful benefit. Do it for a winter, and see.
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Dan October 4, 2012 at 5:11 pm
I don’t get flu vaccine shot since 2005. As far as colds, less severe symptoms and over more quickly and probably not as many episodes. My level has been around 50 ng/mL for over two years.
Dan October 4, 2012 at 5:13 pm
I should add I used to get a moderate chronic cough in winter in the office with others coughing. Since bumping up my D level, I no longer get the chronic cough.
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Raven October 4, 2012 at 6:12 pm
My immune system isn’t as hardy as it could be due to Lyme disease (since treated with long term antibiotics and in remission). I tend to pick up viral infections. But if I feel like I have one coming on, I take 50,000 IU of D3 a day for two days plus lots of vitamin C and it never materializes.
That’s all the evidence I need.
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Rebecca Oshiro October 4, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Vitamin D takes the edge off of my symptoms. If everyone around me has a cold or the flu, I just feel fatigued or slightly nauseated, not full blown symptoms.
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jalfuhaid@juno.com October 9, 2012 at 3:47 am
Four years ago, my husband and I increased our daily vitamin D3 consumption to 5000 IU. Since then, he hasn’t had a single cold and I have only had one. That’s enough evidence for me.
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boston October 9, 2012 at 6:17 am
about seven years ago my hollistic MD tested all her patients for vitamin d deficiency. My results were very low. I’d had 4 bladder infections that year. She started me off with 5,000 units every other day…in three months my 25 hydroxy vitamin test did not budge. She increased me to 5,000 a day. a couple of months later my levels were 50 ng/ml…and has remained around that ever since….no flu shots, no colds or infections….However, because my weight has gone up substantially since those days, I increased the dosage to 8-10,000 units…..a day…
Because i started a program of Chinese herbal supplements with a Chinese herbalist MD, I was told not to take other supplements at all….so I slacked off somehwhat on my vitamin D….
wouldn’t you know it? I got the first cold in seven years….
I went right back to taking my vitamin D—about 9,000 units a day….
there is no doubt in my mind that the D saves me from getting sick….
boston
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markperosi123@aol.com October 9, 2012 at 2:09 pm
I have been taking D3 for over five years. Prior to that, there was not one year, during the winter and spring that I never got a upper respiratory infection. My children and wife take D3 faithfully. Without question none of us get sick like we use too. With all the independent studies showing how critical the seco-steroid is for maintaining good health you would think everybody would make sure there levels were good. At the local gym people and friends thank me for educating them on this benevolent hormone. I have convinced doctors who don’t have time to read the medical journals to consider the test an important part of the patients blood work. Dr Chris Cugini an endocrinologist in Naples Fla. stated ” everyone of my patients who were severely ill had extremely low D3 levels. ” He increased there D3 levels coupled with other treatments and they improved. Everyone of his partners check there patients for D3 deficiency. I prefer my levels at 40 ng/ml or higher.
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troddinon@bellsouth.net October 9, 2012 at 3:17 pm
I began taking vitamin D about 6 years ago. I started with 1,000 iu., then worked my way up to 5,000 iu. which is my usual dose now. I do not get colds or infections of any kind. I am 65 years old and all my lab tests show a positive ANA and a leaning toward auto-immune problems. Both my mother and grandmother were diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in their 50’s. I do not not have it and believe the vitamin D is keeping it at bay. I do, however, have osteoarthritis. It seems to me that the common cold (and other viruses) show up when the immune system grows weak due to low levels of vitamin D? I have a friend from Africa who tells me he never had a cold in his life until he moved here.
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fdegeus@comcast.net October 9, 2012 at 7:29
Ever since I started taking vitamin D (10,000 IU / day) 4 years ago, I haven’t had a flu and only one cold. The vitamin D does not protect from viruses, but it does give our immune system what it needs to do its job. Having said that, other factors can depress the immune system too, especially stress and sugar. In my case the 1 cold was due to being less careful with my diet. Vitamin D + a healthy diet = no colds or flus (in my case).
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John October 10, 2012 at 1:29 pm
In my teens and twenties I got tons of sun and never got so much as a headache, must less a cold or the flu. I continued that in my thirties with the same result. In my forties I began to avoid the sun. I started getting one cold a winter. I became a conscientious sun avoider and sunscreen user and began to get multiple colds per winter. Mine were worse than other people’s. They lasted a full two weeks and the first week was awful. I began to stay in bed the first day or two to shorten the cold from fourteen to ten days.
5k IU of D3 a day shortened my colds from 14 days to 3 or 4 and decreased the severity of symptoms by about 75%. I still went through all the usual stages of a cold, but in record time and I stopped feeling bad.
I went up to 10kIU/day in an effort to shorten those 3-4 days. At the same time I tried staying in bed on Day 1. When I realize I have a slightly stuffy nose and a little sore throat that most people wouldn’t even notice, I stay in bed. If I go to bed and stay awake there is no change. But if I stay in bed and also get a one hour or longer nap, the cold is over when I wake up! This has happened three times in the last three years and twice I did not nap and there was no change. I am well versed in the symptoms so I am not imagining I have a cold when I don’t. For twenty years the same little sniffle and slightly sore throat were the harbingers of two weeks of misery. These ARE colds that are getting knocked out in one day! I have not tried the 5k D3 with bed and nap to see if
I can produce the same results as with 10k.
I have not found that taking D3 or getting sun exposure PREVENTS infection with cold viruses. How could it? I still forget and rub my nose or put my fingers in my eyes, so the viruses still come in. But now I fight them off so well and the symptoms are so mild and short lived that most people would never notice them. That’s why I thought I was never sick in my 20s and 30s. I zapped them right away!
Reference the above study: Most of the studies I’ve read on this site that find Vitamin D does not work used something other than daily doses. In addition, I read on this site that we cannot process more than 50,000IU at a time, so the subjects getting these big monthly doses are not really using that much; in the above case, a quarter of that monthly dose. 50,000IU/30 days is only 1,667IU/day. Also, the sun produces many changes when it hits our skin only one of which is D3.
They are giving only D3, not sunshine, a fundamental error. But then, these studies are being conducted by the same people who told the world to stay out of the sun and to use sunscreen if they couldn’t, without ever investigating whether doing so might do something bad. That we see flawed studies should not be surprising.
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Umileritac@aol.com October 15, 2012 at 8:03 am
I agree that Vitamin D doesn’t prevent our bodies from being infected with viruses or bacterial infections.
However, from my personal experience, having adequate Vitamin D levels (for ME, around 85 ng/ml) has enhanced by body’s ability to fight off infection. On October 10th I commented here that I had a minor cold. By the afternoon of October 11th all my symptoms had faded. I was up to speed once again. I will continue with my Vitamin D supplementation. And, this winter I will experiment with NOT receiving the flu vaccination. Wish me luck!!!
May all your days be SUNNY!
Rita C. Umile
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Debbie October 15, 2012 at 11:15 am
I am a recovering smoker (5 years, yay!) diagnosed with COPD in 2007. I have been taking vitamin D for around 5 years now. I have not had a serious “exacerbation” since beginning the D and I used to get “something” every 3 or 4 months. I have had a couple of minor colds and only once did I see fit to stay home and not pass my germs around work. I am a true believer when it comes to respiratory issues and Vitamin D, whether it’s a cold or flu. As soon as I feel something coming on I load up. 50,000 iu every other day for 3 days…..keeps evil at bay.
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wraywhyte October 17, 2012 at 4:10 am
Hi there I normally take 5000iu’s per day. But if I get run down, and there’s the slightest hint of a cold, sore throat etc, I use 100,000 iu’s per day for 3-6 days , it’s gone within a day or two. As a consequence I haven’t had a cold etc for years. Take care Wray
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SusanLinke October 5, 2013 at 7:08 pm
My son got the West Nile Virus and was severely sick. I gave him 50,000 IU of vitamin D and got it knocked out in 3 days. If any of us gets the slightest hint of a cold, we take at least 20,000 IU of vitamin D, plus magnesium and K2. My daughter took 5,000 IU while pregnant and 6,000 IU while breastfeeding, and my grandson now takes 300 IU since he is no longer breastfeeding. He is 2 years old and has never been on antibiotics. I am a dietitian and ask all of my clients what their vitamin D levels are. I’ve seen it help with chronic pain, improved immune function and so much more. Thanks Dr. Cannell, you have made such an impact in my life as well as the life of my patients.
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Magic October 6, 2014 at 2:22 pm
It is sad that such reports two years ago haven’t”busted wide open” the findings to the general public. The money saving personally and by our government would be BILLIONS. And our insurance rates would go down.
I have said many times what it has done for my wife and me. We just do not get sick. And we are 80 and 78 years of age.
There are about 60,000 hits on http://www.vitamindservice.com in Germany in a month..
GREAT IDEA, JOHN!!!! Let’s all help…….
Magic
Great idea, John….
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tessa_79982963100 January 13, 2017 at 11:23 am
Anytime we discover that something works for us, the medical community does these random studies – to prove otherwise, obviously Vitamin D3 is an imperative part of our diet. Not only does it help with mood balancing, moods balanced keep us healthy. these studies are probably done on people who are told not to take anything else. no one can stay entirely healthy on Vit D3 only. its stupid to think otherwise. Vit D3 is one of the best things that could happen to you relative to supplements – don’t let the medical community make you think anything else. they will keep you sick. they love being skeptics. you have to ask for test on what you lack or need rather than the doctors suggesting you take these blood test. im sure 90% of the population lacks Vitamin D – D3 in their bodies. but nobody is going to share that information with you. lets look at autism (mothers/children) – depression – and other compromised immune diseases and lets look at those Vitamin D levels in those individuals. ugh.