By Jon Bardin (October 2, 2012) LA Times
If you’re trying to ward off the sniffles, you can take vitamin D supplements out of your shopping cart: A new study reports that dosing with the vitamin does nothing to prevent colds or other forms of upper respiratory tract infections (URTI).
The effect of vitamin D on the immune system has been debated for a long time. Controlled laboratory research has shown that vitamin D has several beneficial effects on the immune system, and some studies conducted in the past have suggested that people with low levels of the vitamin are at higher risk for URTIs. But the authors of the new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., point out that the previous studies were poorly controlled and results have been mixed, calling into question whether the vitamin does anything at all for URTIs.
…In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Jeffrey Linder of Harvard Medical School says the study is well-conducted and its results should be trusted. “The VIDARIS trial, which assessed upper respiratory tract infections as they actually occur in the real world, demonstrated that vitamin D supplementation does not reduce the incidence of respiratory tract infections in adults,” he wrote.
That means you can probably stash away your vitamin D pills wherever you put your Airborne