By: Andreas Moritz (2012)
If your child suffers from respiratory infections, particularly during the winter months when their exposure to natural sunlight is more limited, you might want to consider supplementing with vitamin D3.
Dr. Camargo and his team found that after just seven weeks of treatment with a mere 300 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily, infection rates among the supplemented children dropped by half compared to non-supplemented children. At the study’s onset, all the children had blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) averaging a measly seven nanograms per milliliter (7 ng/mL). But by the end of the study, the vitamin D group’s 25OHD levels had more than doubled to 19 ng/mL.
“Our randomized controlled trial shows that vitamin D has important effects on infection risk,” says Dr. Camargo. “In almost 250 children with low blood levels of vitamin D during winter, we found that taking a daily vitamin D supplement cut in half the risk of a respiratory infection.”
“Our study design provides strong evidence that the association between low vitamin D and respiratory infections is causal and that treating low vitamin D levels in children with an inexpensive and safe supplement will prevent some respiratory infections.”…More at Vitamin D supplementation can cut risk of respiratory infections in children by half
Interestingly, the low dose of 300(IU) per day did not raise the vitamin D levels in these children enough to bring them out of the deficient range. For that, a dose at least 10 times higher would be required. But, even with this small amount taken daily, the incidence of respiratory infections was drastically reduced.
A balanced diet of sunlight, which varies according to body type and race, includes all the various frequency bands of ultraviolet light reaching the earth. Along with nutritious food and a balanced lifestyle, sunlight still offers the best protection against all types of diseases. Solar research from all over the world has shown that exposure to ultraviolet light is probably the most comprehensive and impressive healing method there is.