Don't believe the hype: vitamin D supplements unlikely to prevent chest infections: By Regan Saldana

Summary:

A new study claiming vitamin D may prevent colds and more serious chest infections generated many news stories about the sunshine vitamin while mostly ignoring the study's weaknesses. Researchers at Queen Mary University of London analyzed 25 earlier studies looking at the effectiveness of vitamin D in preventing respiratory tract infections. In all, these studies included 11,321 people from a few months old to 95. Many news stories reported that the number of people who got a chest infection was 12 percent lower in the group taking a vitamin D supplement. What they didn’t include was the overall absolute risk reduction which was only 2 to 3 percent. If looking only at people who had very low levels of vitamin D in their body to begin with, four people would need to take the supplement to prevent one chest infection. Therefore the long time excepted myth that vitamin D can prevent these infections has been proven to improve only a very small percentage of people and is not an effective method to prevent these sicknesses.

Analysis:

This article was written by an experienced doctor who has knowledge of the infections described in the story. The article is potentially helpful to many people who don't take effective measures to prevent these infections and who still believe that using vitamin D is a sure way to prevent sicknesses and infections. This article also shows how many companies that sell vitamin D products many have misleading labels promising infection prevention. This can also help consumers in general who spend money on non-effective products.

Source: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/debunked/2017/02/21/believe-hype-vitamin-d-supplements-unlikely-preventchest-infections