Study looks at vitamin D, upper respiratory infections - Fox 2 News Headlines

Study: More vitamin D doesn't equal fewer upper respiratory infections

Source: Journal of the American Medical Association

We're told there is no cure for the common cold, but based on past research involving vitamin D, doctors wanted to know if taking the sunshine vitamin might help keep the sniffles at bay.

"We thought for many years that if we could push up that level of vitamin D in the body that it would help prevent upper respiratory infections or make them less severe," said Dr. Carlos Camargo with Massachusetts General Hospital.

An 18 month study looked at around 300 adults. Half were given over five times the recommended amount of vitamin D while the others got a placebo. What did the researchers find?

"If you take a group of people, healthy adults, with normal levels of vitamin D in their blood and you boost them up significantly with a supplement given every month, that it has no apparent effect on the frequency or severity of their upper respiratory infections," Camargo said.

You can find the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Study have linked low levels of vitamin D with everything from bad bone health to heart disease. So how much vitamin D is recommended for most of us? There has been some debate, but for now it is 600 international units a day.

To know if you are deficient, doctors can do a simple blood test.