In their forthcoming paper in Epidemiology and Infection, Cannell and colleagues from Harvard University, the National Institutes of Health and Boston University propose that Hope-Simpson’s seasonal stimulus could be vitamin D.
This is definitely not established fact, nor have we read the paper yet - it is due out in December. Interesting nevertheless. I noted that Dr. Cannell says he takes 5,000 IU of vitamin D during the winter months
…For more than a century, physicians have recognized that influenza sweeps the Northern Hemisphere during the winter months, typically peaking here between late December and March.
Over the years they’ve floated numerous theories to explain the seasonal flu spike - blaming everything from the flood of frigid air to the wintertime tendency of people to huddle indoors.
Yet these explanations “remain astonishingly superficial and full of inconsistencies,” says Dr. Scott Dowell, director of the Global Disease Protection Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Now Dowell and other researchers are focusing on a provocative new hypothesis that blames annual flu epidemics on something most people don’t get enough of this time of year: sunshine.
In a paper scheduled for publication next month in the journal Epidemiology and Infection, a Harvard University-led team proposes that a vitamin D deficiency caused by inadequate winter sun exposure may predispose people to infection.
If this theory proves correct, it would not only solve a long-standing mystery, but could also have major public health consequences.
Technorati Tags: Flu
0 Responses to “Does a shortage of vitamin D trigger winter flu?”