High-dose vitamin D 'doesn't prevent colds and flu in kids'

Conclusion This study found giving a high dose of vitamin D to healthy children in the winter doesn't reduce their overall risk of upper airway infections compared with the standard recommended dose. This well-designed study used several measures to ensure the results were robust. For example, researchers: used randomisation to split the children into groups blinded parents as to which treatment the child was receiving to make sure this knowledge couldn't affect their perception of their child's health used laboratory tests to confirm that the child did have a viral infection There was a reduction in flu with high-dose vitamin D, but the number of cases was very small, so this finding needs to be treated cautiously. The researchers have called for this to be looked at in further studies to see if this finding can be confirmed. But there are some other important points to bear in mind. The study only included healthy children – it can't rule out possible benefits for children with chronic conditions or in specific subgroups, such as children who have asthma or particularly low vitamin D levels. And researchers only looked at upper airway infections, so the study doesn't tell us about other outcomes that may be affected by vitamin D. On balance, this study suggests that if your child is generally healthy, they aren't likely to get much extra cold and flu protection from taking more than the recommended dose of vitamin D in winter. Flu is normally more serious than ...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pregnancy/child Source Type: news