Effect of Vitamin D supplementation to reduce respiratory infections in children and adolescents in Vietnam: a randomized controlled trial.
Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2018 Oct 16. doi: 10.1111/irv.12615. [Epub ahead of print]
Loeb M1 loebm at mcmaster.ca , Dang AD2, Thiem VD3, Thanabalan V4, Wang B4, Nguyen NB5, Tran HTM2, Luong TM2, Singh P4, Smieja M4, Maguire J6, Pullenayegum E7.
Comments on the study by VitaminDWiki
- They appeared to start counting the infections immediately after starting the vitamin D, rather than waiting 4-6 months for the blood levels to plateau
- Virtually all of the children had a high level of vitamin D to start with, so raising it even more should not be expected to result in a large benefit
- They used the amount of Vitamin D independent of age/weight
Suspect that at least 2800 IU Vitamin D would be needed for the older/heavier children
- Suspect > 50% reduction if
had used more Vitamin D (to get most about 40 ng),
had started before flu season,
had used dose size was proportional to weight,
children did not have such a high level to start with
- Half the risk of Influenza -A in infants taking 1200 IU of vitamin D for 4 months – RCT Jan 2018
- Overview Influenza and vitamin D
- Respiratory infections reduced by 63 percent with 4000 IU vitamin D daily - RCT Dec 2012
- 7X less risk of influenza if Vitamin D levels higher than 30 ng – Oct 2017
- Influenza prevented by 40 ng levels or treated with vitamin D hammer (50,000 IU) – June 2015
- Reduced viral respiratory track infections by half by having more than 38 ng of vitamin D – June 2010
Group with >38 ng of vitamin D was 2X less likely to get viral infection
Breathing category starts with the following
Breathing-related Overviews at VitaminDWiki:
Allergy Lung Cancer TB Asthma Influenza Colds and flu
Pneumonia Respiratory infections COPD Air Polution Smoking Cystic Fibrosis
All of the studies in Breathing and Virus are listed here:
- Newly diagnosed Asthma increased 13% if COVID vaccination (200,000 US children) – Sept 2024
- France has injected 200,000 infants with RSV vaccine, based on no long-term data - Here we go again - Dec 2023
- Vitamin D energizes the innate and adaptive immune systems to fight lung inflammation – Sept 2022
- Calcifediol (semi-activated Vitamin D) might treat Respiratory Diseases such as COVID - July 2022
- Croup (due to viruses) has surged with Omicron - March 2022
- Compare symptoms of Omicron, Flu and Colds
- Small amounts of Vitamin D reduce Influenza risk by 22 percent (loading dose is far better) – meta-analysis Jan 2022
- Italians entering hospital for breathing problems had low vitamin D (with and without COVID), Vitamin D should help – Nov 2021
- Superspreaders appear to have viscous lung fluids or be obese
- COVID-19 lung death 4X more likely in Iran if less than 25 ng of vitamin D – Oct 30, 2020
- Acute viral respiratory infections (RTI) reduced by Vitamin D - 20 reviews - Aug 2020
- COVID ARDS deaths 2X more likely if less than 10 ng of Vitamin D – Aug 8, 2020
- Respiratory viral infection (RSV) and low vitamin D - many studies
- Zinc, respiratory tract infections and COVID-19 – July 2020
- Vitamin D reduces viral respiratory infections – editorial April 18, 2020
- Viral infection wheezing 24X more likely if less than 15 ng of Vitamin D – Dec 2019
- Ultraviolet light kills cold and flu viruses, and generates Vitamin D in the skin
- Respiratory Virus risk reduced 35 percent by Vitamin D (14,000 IU weekly) – RCT Oct 2018
- Common cold prevented and treated by Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Zinc, and Echinacea – review April 2018
- Half the risk of Influenza -A in infants taking 1200 IU of vitamin D for 4 months – RCT Jan 2018
- Loss of smell may be related to low Zinc or perhaps low vitamin D
- Severe Pertussis is 1.5 times more likely if poor vitamin D receptor – Feb 2016
- Immune response to respiratory viruses – vitamin D connection – review May 2015
- Overview Colds and flu and Vitamin D
- Influenza reduced by 1.7 with 1200 IU D3, also reduced related asthma by 6X – RCT May 2010
Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki
BACKGROUND: It is uncertain whether Vitamin D can reduce respiratory infection.
OBJECTIVE: To determine if vitamin D supplementation reduces influenza and other upper viral respiratory tract infections.
METHODS:
1,300 healthy children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 17 years were randomized to vitamin D (14,000U weekly) or placebo for eight months in Vietnam. The primary outcome was reverse transcriptase (RT) -PCR confirmed influenza infection and the co-primary outcome was multiplex PCR confirmed non-influenza respiratory viruses. Participants, care givers, and those assessing outcomes were blinded to group assignment.
RESULTS:
650 children and adolescents were randomly assigned to vitamin D and 650 to placebo. The mean baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were 65.7 nmol/L and 65.2 nmol/L in the intervention and placebo groups respectively, with an increase to 91.8 nmol/L in the vitamin D group and no increase, 64.5 nmol/L, in the placebo group. All 1,300 participants randomized contributed to the analysis.
We observed RT-PCR confirmed influenza A or B occurred in 50 children (7.7%) in the vitamin D group and in 43 (6.6%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio [HR] 1.18, 95%CI 0.79 to 1.78). RT-PCR confirmed non-influenza respiratory virus infection occurred in 146 (22.5%) in the vitamin D group and in 185 (28.5%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio [HR] 0.76, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.94). When considering all respiratory viruses, including influenza, the effect of vitamin D in reducing infection was significant, HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.99.
CONCLUSION: Vitamin D supplementation did not reduce the incidence of influenza but moderately reduced non-influenza respiratory viral infection.
Snips from PDF
- “One possible limitation was the use of oropharyngeal specimens instead of nasopharyneal specimens. This was based on adherence to testing and we reasoned that an increase in the number of swabs would make up for any reduction in sensitivity.”
- “Only 17% of participants in our study had vitamin D levels < 50 nmol/L, in contrast to a previous study from Vietnam where > 50% children had insufficiency or deficiency (23). The relatively high vitamin D levels in our study may have reduced the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation in preventing influenza. “
Non-influenza virus infection
| Vitamin D | Placebo | Reduction in risk | |
| Year 1 | 27.0% | 37.50% | 0.65 |
| Year 2 | 20.4% | 24.4% | 0.82 |
| Virus | Vitamin D | Placebo | |
| ≥ 1 virus | 27.2% | 32.2% | |
| Influenza A | 6.2% | 4.5% | |
| Influenza B | 1.7% | 2.3% | |
| Adenovirus | 1.5% | 1.7% | |
| MPV | 1.8% | 3.8% | |
| RSV | 1.1% | 1.5% | |
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