LiveLongAgeWell

Today’s post is dedicated to the people in the Eastern United States who are now being blanketed with up to 10 inches (25 cm.) of snow, along with temperatures down to 12 degrees F (-11 C)…what a miserable way to start a week. We wish them a quick end to their long cold winter, and now, speaking of “colds”…

If you ask people what vitamin they think of to prevent or treat the common cold, most people will answer: vitamin C. But a review by the Cochrane Collaboration (an international, non-profit group of scientists who develop unbiased recommendations based on analysis of the best accumulated research), found that in most cases, vitamin C has at best a mild effect in preventing colds, and doesn’t do much to treat colds. The biggest benefit was for people exposed to very cold weather or extreme exercise situations.

For sure, the subject of the common cold and vitamin C will continue to be studied and be controversial, but a very new study from Harvard Medical School strongly suggests that people with low levels of vitamin D in their blood get colds significantly more often.  People with a low D levels were 40% more likely to suffer from colds than people with the highest vitamin D levels. And people with pre-existing respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) seemed to have an even stronger beneficial effect from higher vitamin D levels—people with asthma and low vitamin D levels were five times more likely to suffer from colds than people with high levels. Those with COPD and low D levels were two times more likely to have cold symptoms.

This study was a retrospective analysis (it looked at data from the past), and for that reason the Harvard scientists couldn’t say whether taking additional vitamin D would cut your risk of getting a cold. To know if taking extra vitamin D cut one’s risk of getting a cold, a study would have to start with a large group of people, randomly separate them into two equal groups, then give one group vitamin D pills, and the other group an identical looking/tasting placebo pill, and study over time if one group got colds less frequently. Best if this study was “blinded” to cut the risk of researcher bias, meaning the researchers themselves wouldn’t know which group an individual person was in, so each study participant would be identified only by a code or number, and the code broken only at the end of the study. Such a study has yet to be done.

Still, the lead author in the recent Harvard study, Dr. Adit Ginde, stated “I think we can say that most Americans probably do need more vitamin D for its effects on bone health, as well as for its general benefits with respect to the immune system.” So the reason that vitamin D seemed to help cut the risk of colds is that vitamin D helps strengthen the immune system.

Vitamin D is one of the more difficult vitamins to get from the average diet….stay tuned to LLAW for how to!  (If you want lots of information on how to get vitamin D now, go to the Vitamin D Council link on the LLAW right sidebar under “Nutrition”).

Last week I wrote about how a major research study showed that vitamin C and E supplements were ineffective for reducing the risk of heart disease and cancer. In general, these two vitamins, particularly vitamin E, are falling out of favor in the medical literature. But several others, particularly vitamins D and B12, are gaining more positive reviews in recent research. An interesting study from Oxford University, published in the journal Neurology, showed that individuals with a higher B12 level in their blood had significantly less brain shrinkage as they got older, than people with a lower B12 blood level. (Brain size was measured by serial MRI scans.)

B12 in the diet comes only from animal sources such as meat, including chicken; fish; milk; and eggs. (Strict vegetarians—vegans—require B12 supplements.) Many nutritional experts believe that especially as people are eating less meat, there is a growing crisis of B12 deficiency, and that middle-agers and above need to pay much more attention to B12 intake, either through diet or supplements. I will take up supplements in a later post, but the concern about B12 deficiency is another great reason to regularly eat fish! Salmon in particular is rich in B12. (For much more detail on this vitamin, go to the Nutrition section in the LLAW right sidebar, then click Linus Pauling Institute>Vitamins>Vitamin B12.)

In the next week I will discuss some other ways to help prevent brain shrinkage, at any age, and not through diet or supplements.

MEDICAL TOURISM NOW COVERED BY SOME HEALTH INSURERS People are traveling abroad for more and more care—typically surgeries—at much lower cost than here in the U.S., and some insurance plans are starting to pick up the tab. From living part-time in Brazil, I know that health care in foreign countries can be excellent…in Brazil, for example, the expertise in reconstructive and plastic surgery is often more advanced than in the U.S.

ANIMAL STUDIES SUGGEST VITAMIN C USE DURING CHEMOTHERAPY MIGHT BE HARMFUL Since chemotherapy works by disrupting cell growth (in some cases by producing cancer-cell-killing “free radicals”), and vitamin C  protects cells from free radical damage, then taking vitamin C during some chemotherapy treatments could blunt the cancer-killing effect of the drugs. This is an animal study, not a human study, so the results have to be viewed with caution, and other studies have shown vitamin C can be helpful for some cancer patients. Bottom line: if you or a loved one is undergoing chemotherapy, make sure the doctors know of ALL medications you are taking, including all vitamins, herbals, and supplements, any of which might affect chemotherapy treatment.

WHO IS FUNDING THAT DRUG STUDY? In many cases the news reports we read or hear about on the Internet don’t reveal that the study was funded by the very drug company which stands to profit from a positive report. One report showed that drug company sponsored studies are five times more likely to come out favorable for the drug they are studying. So especially when you read a favorable report about a new drug, look to see if the news report mentions who sponsored the study.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE “PERSONALIZED” MEDICINE OF THE FUTURE Microchips embedded under our skin containing out entire health history and which can be read anywhere in the world, chips we swallow that give feedback on our body’s functioning, and personalized medical testing and treatment based on own genetic sequences…it all might be part of our medical future.