Should you always eat your brekkie in the sun?
Mushrooms are among the best go-to foods to reach for when we need some vitamin D; as is sunshine! So a cooked Sunday breakfast on a sublime sunny Queensland morning seems D-lightful. The supplementation of vitamin D supplements doe appear to be on the rise, particularly with deficiencies among our population. Deepak Chitnis from Frontline Medical news recently released an article explaining the work from Dr Adrian R. Martineau. Dr Martineau reviewed the link between taking vitamin D supplements and reduced respiratory tract infection rates.
The review was a systematic review and meta-analysis, which is a reasonably reliable review, but may not necessarily a clinical game changer for Doctors worldwide. They reviewed data from 25 different trials or studies which when combined, contained data from over 11000 people. Their research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research, which is good in that these researchers had no relevant financial disclosures, which in turn means they had no obvious vested interests or biases.
What they found was taking vitamin D supplements is an effective way to stave off or prevent acute respiratory infections. Acute respiratory infections are infections that occur somewhat quickly and often are treated and later resolve, whereas chronic infections are ongoing type of infections that continue to be a part of a patient’s life over a long period of time. The study didn’t find that vitamin D would stop infections if they had already begun, but rather would prevent them from occurring in the first place. Supplemental vitamins D2 and D3 were included in the study.
While the work was commendable, the results should not change clinical practice for respiratory physicians in any significant way. However for the rest of us, it could be worth considering if we are worried about getting sick with respiratory infections. Some of take a handful of vitamins every day anyway, and if this is you; perhaps you should have a look at what vitamins are actually in those pills and consider some vitamin D.
Original article: http://www.mdedge.com/chestphysician/article/131607/pulmonology/vitamin-d-reduces-respiratory-infection-risk
