Hello All
Someone I know posted this on her Twitter account today and although I had heard of the importance of Vit D here and elsewhere I did not know about its apparent role in reducing possible viral and bacterial respiratory tract infections. Many of you will no doubt know this UK doctor who has posted recently on coronavirus as well.
Anyway for those who are interested:
Thanks for posting. Very interesting. Think I’ll give it a try .
Is this the review it is based on?
His videos don't run well for me - though I suspect the problem to day is all the school children being bored now they are off school ...
I found these but.. Mobile issues again
medicalxpress.com/news/2018...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...
This one suggest vit not important and there is... "[An] absence of a beneficial role for Vitamin D in both asthma and COPD."
The last one is one of those I need a dictionary for! 😂🤣😂
The meta analysis was for the infections associated with both though - the asthma may not have been improved but the secondary infections were. And that is the problem in this family!
Thanks. It's the multiple levels that confuse me😳
In my case it is possible that Vit D has prevented colds and flu. This is the first year in my whole life that I wasn’t ill from some respiratory bug from October to January. My D level was 24 mg/dL 4 years ago and my last one February, 2020 was 90mg/dL. It is the only thing that is different except occasional CBD oil.
Thanks for this. It was easy for me to understand not being scientifically inclined.
I get my vit D level checked annually since being on pred, and when it was checked last August my level was only 95 (lower end of scale, but still within ok range). I was surprised given I had just spent 3 months in the sun daily, and I was taking a supplement daily (1400 iu as recommended by rheumy at the time). So I started taking an additional 1000 iu last Sept totalling 2400 iu of vit D3 daily (along with 120mcg of K2). We will see what my level is at this coming August.
I’m curious to know what others who have PMR/GCA take for a daily dose. There has been some discussion in past posts about doses, levels, etc. Of interest, my rheumy at the time also recommended calcium daily via diet (only), no supplements. That being said I take 650mg of calcium in addition to the calcium I get in my diet (yoghurt, cheese and a vitality mix of nuts, seeds, etc). So far my dexa scans have been good.
I have been taking 2000 IU daily (which includes half the dose from my Calcium D & K). As I was borderline with my D recently I think I will up my dose for a while anyway.
My VitD and K2 spray gives me 3000IU , my daily multi vitamin supplement takes that up to 4000IU which is what I was told to take even after my VitaminD level reaches a normal range whilst taking steroid medication by the first Specialist I saw.
I'm still Vitamin D insufficient even after nearly a year on prescribed supplements on top of this recommended daily dose , I also get two doses of 20000 IU a week on top!
And I try and get out in the recommended 20 mins of daylight every day , when it's possible .
I take 1,000 iu also a Canadian and don't remember my blood level being checked although nearly everything else was/is
I find this website very interesting. vitamindsociety.org/benefit...
world.wng.org/2020/03/the_v...
Thanks Heron interesting also - I noticed preeclampsia which I had in both my pregnancies in the 1970's - no talk then of vitamins and hardly any of general diet !
I seem to remember I was never given any advice about diet except to "drink lots of milk"! Which we now know isn't the best advice for adult humans anyway. Thankfully I can read. 
Is being given folic acid , iron and a vitamin supplement in pregnancy just a UK thing then ?
I was even given vouchers for orange juice and milk as my first pregnancy happened whilst I was a full time Uni student and on a low income.
As an aside , the voucher system for orange juice and milk and vitamin supplementation during pregnancy began as a standard system because of what was given out to pregnant women during WW2 in Britain and the drastic health improvements they then saw by making these changes to help pregnant women cope with rationing.
Pregnancy is one of the only times I have had alot of nutritious advice and information especially about the vitamins and minerals required , the Midwives Service was amazing.
I was only thinking about food advice. Now that I think about it maybe I did get the folic acid, that's to prevent spina bifida isn't it? I certainly remember taking vitamins, but whether that was altogether because of medical advice or my own initiative or a combination I no longer recall. Not something I needed to remember I guess. I was also told to give the babies vitamin drops but I disobeyed and got them out in the sun. They were all spring lambs so I could. (I think they all came along before the ozone hole was discovered so no fears that way either.) Would have been a different story with an autumn or winter baby. Figured they were getting everything else from me. 
I probably wouldn't have remembered it myself if I hadn't had the vouchers first time around as well.
The folic acid etc I just got thrown at me by the GP and the Midwife kept giving me more when she asked if I had run out.
The book we got for free at the beginning was full of nutrition tips and food advice.
And of course advice on being in the Sun and exercise.
If only they had the same recommended comprehensive systems of self care advice for illnesses of all sorts as they do for Pregnancy and Diabetes then Life with a Chronic Illness would be so much simpler for us all , including our Doctors !!
There is no effective midwife system here. I went to my gp once a month for tests. Because I'm rh-neg I got gamma globulin or something at some point, probably when the baby was born. I think when I had the second two children the system for monitoring rh had changed, but child #1 was also rh neg so there was no problem there anyway and #2 and 3 were pos. Funny how little I actually remember of all that time.... I do recall at a medical appointment years later he was talking with me and at the same time pulling papers out of my file to be discarded. He explained they were all the blood tests from when I'd been pregnant.
I completely agree about having simple booklets for all the common chronic conditions, and also booklets or leaflets to explain how to avoid some of the conditions. If we were told as much about how to care for our bones, for example, as we are concerning behaviours which affect other conditions, like smoking, diabetes, signs of stroke or heart attack, we'd have a lower incidence of osteporosis.
In Germany nearly 40 years ago I was given none of the stuff I had with the first pregnancy in the UK. My Hb was checked regularly though and one month I was told I might need some iron soon - by the next month it had gone up and I didn;t any more. All I had done was change white to red wine - no-one suggested a glass of wine was a problem in those days. I hadn't drunk at all in early pregnancy, this was at about 28 weeks.
Some types seem to be unavailable online now so maybe best to get some quite soon.
Thank you for posting. This is interesting to me, by coincidence a friend recommended vitamin d to me as they found after taking it they had their best blood pressure readings, previously very high. They had triple heart surgery a few years ago and been on lots of meds but BP remained high. Now text book. I know this isn’t related to this new info but I have found my BP has greatly improved since taking Vitamin d & I will continue with it. I’m a firm believer in Vit d now. xxx
Thank you Rimmy. This is really interesting. The video made a lot of sense. I take Adcal but may take Vit D supplement too.
Interesting video and discussion. I currently take 2000 iu daily while in sunny Panama. While living in the Northwest Territories even before PMR I was taking 3000 - 5000 iu based on my own research of recommended supplements.
In the past 6 years of PMR I have had one or two minor colds. I used to get colds far more often and they always became chest infections that carried on for some time. Haven't had that happen in many years. This may explain why!
Thanks for this, he really explains things well.
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