Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Vitamin D re-visited

Vitamin D re-visited

Well, in case you haven't been following my blog over the past months, I'll start by referring back to
my article from last July about Vitamin D.

It would be lovely to report that all the good reports about Vitamin D had turned out to be true, but of course life is never quite that simple and science, especially health science, is rarely that definitive.   Anyhow, I haven't seen much reading along the lines of "Debunking the myths about Vitamin D", which means the news on Vitamin D so far is about as good and consistent as health news gets.

On 02/01/2010, the N Y Times ran an article The Miracle of Vitamin D: Sound Science, or Hype? by Tara Parker-Pope that you might find to be of interest.    Unlike my lonely blog, her article has already drawn 311 comments from the reading public as of this moment.   She seems to have a high quality crowd as followers of her columns.   That is to say, she gets pretty decent sounding comments with actual references to source material and so forth.

As for me, I continue taking a Vitamin D (1000 IU) each day, as well as fish oil capsules (following my doctor's advice to up my Omega-3 in-take).   I didn't get flu shots this year (neither seasonal nor H1N1) at Barbara's insistence.   I've never had problems myself from flu shots, but she's gotten ill every time she gets a flu shot.   I think she worries that if I get similarly ill from a flu shot that she'll be at risk of contracting the flu from me.   She promises to publically apologize in the unlikely event that I contract a fatal case of the flu for lack of appropriate immunization.   Anyhow, I've gotten through this winter without any serious cold or flu so far.   Barbara takes fish oil, but not Vitamin D.   She had a fairly severe cold/bronchititis in December and on into January as a terrible way to finish off the Fall semester.   I'm not claiming any conclusive cause/effect, but am offering the data point for what it is worth.

Drew