NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[flipper44]

If you live in North America above the southern most states, you have low vitamin D levels from January through May unless you supplement.

A colleague of mine and I have introduced vitamin D at doses that have achieved greater than 100 nmol/L in most of our patients for the past number of years, and we now see very few patients in our clinics with the flu or influenzalike illness. In those patients who do have influenza, we have treated them with the vitamin D hammer, as coined by my colleague. This is a 1-time 50 000 IU dose of vitamin D3 or 10 000 IU 3 times daily for 2 to 3 days. The results are dramatic, with complete resolution of symptoms in 48 to 72 hours. One-time doses of vitamin D at this level have been used safely and have never been shown to be toxic.8 We urgently need a study of this intervention. The cost of vitamin D is about a penny for 1000 IU, so this treatment costs less than a dollar. -- Can Fam Physician. 2015 Jun; 61(6): 507.
PMCID: PMC4463890
PMID: 26071153
Vitamin D for influenza
Gerry Schwalfenberg, MD CCFP FCFP

The researchers, from Queen Mary University of London, looked at data from 25 clinical trials involving some 11,000 patients from 14 countries and found a significant but modest benefit. The best results occurred among those who had very low levels of vitamin D to begin with. No benefit was seen in people who received one big dose of the vitamin instead of regular supplementation.

Overall, the analysis found that people who had the lowest vitamin D levels and then took a regular supplement had half the incidence of colds, the flu and other respiratory infections as those with low vitamin D levels who took no supplement. Among those with higher initial levels of D, supplementation reduced these infections by 10 percent. -- Adrian R. Martineau et al, “Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data.” BMJ, February 15, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i6583