Vitamin D & H1N1 - Revisionist thinking

In the past I've admitted to family and close friends to having moved from analyst to advocate in my enthusiasm over Vitamin D. But, as with all believers, I was blinded by the (sun) light! My guru was a California psychiatrist -- John Cannell, head of the Vitamin D Council, an unabashed champion of Vitamin D. His articles reviewing the evidence linking Vitamin D to protection from colds and flu, as well as the recent evidence in the medical literature, have stoked my enthusiasm.

Today, though, I received the May Newletter of the Vitamin D Council, and there's been a lot of learning and backtracking on Dr. Cannell's part regarding the interaction between Vitamin D and influenza, especially pandemic influenza. So, as the queen of retractions, I must say that my enthusiasm was premature. New evidence from Russia, he says, shows that high blood levels of vitamin D (say 50 ng or higher) may reduce the efficacy of influenza vaccines. He seems to suggest that a CDC researcher has known about this for 5 years but neglected to tell him. Well, my good Doctor, you should share in the embarrassment that I feel in telling all my friends via this blog to slather up in D. CDC has no obligation to contact either you or me just because we blog.

I'm now somewhat suspicious of Dr. Cannell's revisionist recommendations regarding the use of Vitamin D in a pandemic. He's still a proponent -- only now he says you must bathe yourself in it to the tune of 5000 IU per day in order to get the preventive benefits, and taking a mere 2000 IU might actually make things worse! And, then he says if you get the flu, immediately take 50,000 IU for a few days running. Read for yourself, and judge.

Still, it's important for you to know your Vitamin D status, and Vitamin D is important for bone health (as I found out much to my permanent dismay) as well as for other diseases.

I'm still on a regimen of high vitamin D and will continue. That's because I have such low levels naturally that I must bathe myself in it anyway. But, for now I'm through pretending that I've seen the enemy and it's Vitamin D deficiency. Mea culpa (as usual).