By Amanda Ross
Nutrition & Healing

I’m beginning to wonder if there’s anything vitamin D can’t do. Research abounds about its positive effects on many health concerns such as heart attacks, Parkinson’s and cancer. The most recent and largest study to date shows that this essential nutrient is a natural fight-all.

The researchers from Harvard Medical School examined data from about 19,000 people over six years. The subjects had their vitamin D levels measured and underwent extensive physical exams.

It was found that participants with low levels of the vitamin (less than 10 nanograms per ml of blood) were almost 40% more likely to catch a cold or other respiratory infections than the people with vitamin D levels of 30 nanograms/ml or more.

Of course vitamin D isn’t the only natural option for a healthy immune system but this study is one more important reason to make sure you get plenty of it.

The key to vitamin D’s cold and flu fighting powers is to get plenty of it before the sniffle season. Building up your reserves could be the difference between a sick-free winter and sniffles through to spring.

Dr Wright recommends 4,000IU daily for adults and teenagers and 1,000 for infants and small children.

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The trouble with antacids

By Dr Wright
Editor of Nutrition and Healing

Q: I saw an ad the other day for antacids that stated they can help prevent osteoporosis. Is this true, or are they trying to pull one over us?

Dr. Wright: Antacids are mostly calcium carbonate, the least absorbable form of calcium. It's especially poorly absorbed by people with hypochlorhydria, or weak stomach acid production, which is an extremely common condition in people with osteoporosis.

As far as I'm aware, there haven't been any studies showing that calcium carbonate, found in common antacids, actually does help prevent osteoporosis. But one thing I AM sure of is that if antacids were all-natural, the drug associations certainly wouldn't allow the manufacturers to make a claim like that.