Colds are the most common contagious illness among Canadian children.

Colds are the most common contagious illness among Canadian children.
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High-dose vitamin D does not seem to prevent kids’ colds

Colds and other viruses that settle in the nose and throat are the most common infectious illness among Canadian children. Parents wish they had a way to prevent them, but new research suggests high doses of vitamin D are not the answer.

Sorry, but science has found lots of vitamin D is not the answer.
Sorry, but science has found lots of vitamin D is not the answer.

Busting a myth

“We may have just busted a myth,” said pediatrician Jonathan Maguire in a news release from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. For the past 30 years it was thought that vitamin D might play a role in reducing or preventing these infections.

But Maguire and other researchers took two groups of 350 toddlers, gave the first group the standard dose of the vitamin and the second a high dose of 2,000 IU/day over the winter months.

Number of colds were statistically the same

All the children got about the same number of colds—1.91 in the low-dose group, 1.97 in the high-dose group. Maguire concludes the findings do not support the routine use of high dose vitamin D to prevent wintertime upper respiratory tract infections for healthy children.

Parents may well sigh.

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