According to a new study conducted at the Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital, respiratory tract infections can be prevented and relieved by treating infection prone patients with high dosage of Vitamin D over a period of 12 month, reports Medical Xpress.
"Our research can have important implications for patients with recurrent infections or a compromised immune defence, such as a lack of antibodies, and can also help to prevent the emerging resistance to antibiotics that come from overuse," says Peter Bergman, researcher at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Laboratory Medicine and doctor at Karolinska University Hospital's Immunodeficiency Unit, according to Medical Xpress. "On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be anything to support the idea that vitamin D would help otherwise healthy people with normal, temporary respiratory tract infections."
Respiratory tract infections can be of different types. They are communicable diseases, for example if a person has cold and sneeze, which releases tiny droplets of fluid containing virus in the air and another person inhales that can be infected.
According to the study, Vitamin D can be effectively used among infection-prone patients. Lack of Vitamin D increases the risk of infection and Vitamin can activate the immune system which can fight infections.
The study including 140 patients from Immunodeficiency Unit were infection-prone for at least 42 days prior to the study. Patients were divided in two groups; one group was treated by Vitamin D and the other through placebo effect. A record of their health state was maintained on a daily basis for 12 month study period. As a result the symptoms of respiratory tract infection were "declined by almost a quarter and the use of antibiotics by almost half," according to Medical Xpress.
While this study shows a significant impact in treatment of respiratory tract infections, another major study from New Zeeland published recently in the scientific journal JAMA said otherwise. They JAMA study examined a group of healthy people and used high dose of Vitamin D which did not show any significantly similar results.
"However, the most important difference is probably due to the fact that our participants had much lower initial levels of vitamin D than those in the New Zealand study," said Dr Anna-Carin Norlin, doctoral student and co-lead author of the study along with Dr Bergman, according to Medical Xpress. "There is evidence from previous studies that vitamin D supplements are only effective in patients who fall well below the recommended level, which also suggests that it would be wise to check the vitamin D levels of patients with recurrent infections."
These findings are published in the online scientific journal BMJ Open.
