New benefit of Vitamin D-Reduces respiratory Tract Infection Risk

New benefit of Vitamin D-Reduces respiratory Tract Infection Risk

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a steroid vitamin, a group of fat-soluble prohormones, which encourages the absorption and metabolism of calcium and phosphorous. People who are exposed to normal quantities of sunlight do not need vitamin D supplements because sunlight promotes sufficient vitamin D synthesis in the skin.

Five forms of vitamin D has been discovered, vitamin D1, D2, D3, D4, D5. The two forms that seem to matter to humans the most are vitamins D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol).

How Much Vitamin D Do I Need?

Age in years	Daily Vitamin D Needs (IU/day)	Do Not Exceed* (IU/day)
Men and Women 19-50	600	4000
Men and Women 51-70	600	4000
Men and Women 71 and older	800	4000
Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women 19 and older	600	4000

 

Many Sources of Vitamin D

 

Vitamin D is not found naturally in many commonly consumed foods. In Canada, foods such as milk and margarine and some soy or rice beverages and yogurts have vitamin D added to them. Good food sources of vitamin D include certain kinds of fish, egg yolks and milk. The following table will show you foods that are a source of vitamin D.

Food	Serving Size	Vitamin D (IU)
Vegetables and Fruit	This food group contain very little of this nutrient.
Juice
Orange juice, fortified with vitamin D	125 mL (½ cup)	50
Grain Products	This food group contain very little of this nutrient.
Milk and Alternatives
Soy beverage, fortified with vitamin D and omega-3	250 mL (1 cup)	123
Milk 3.3% homo, 2%, 1%, skim, chocolate milk	250 mL (1 cup)	103-105
Skim milk powdered	24 g (will make 250 mL of milk)	103
Goat's milk, fortified with vitamin D	250 mL (1 cup)	100
Soy, rice or almond, fortified with vitamin D	250 mL (1 cup)	88-90
Yogurt (plain, fruit bottom), fortified with vitamin D	175 g (¾ cup)	58-71
Meat and Alternatives
Egg, yolk, cooked	2 large	57-88
Fish and Seafood
Eel, raw or cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	699
Salmon, sockeye/red, canned, cooked or raw	75 g (2 ½ oz)	530-699
Salmon, humpback/pink, canned, cooked or raw	75 g (2 ½ oz)	351-497
Salmon, coho, wild, raw or cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	326-421
Snapper, cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	392
Salmon, chinook, raw or cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	319-387
Whitefish, lake, cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	369
Mackerel, Pacific, cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	342
Salmon, Atlantic, raw or cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	181-246
Salmon, chumn/keta, raw or cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	203-221
Mackerel, canned	75 g (2 ½ oz)	219
Herring, Atlantic, pickled	75 g (2 ½ oz)	210
Trout, cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	150-210
Herring, Atlantic, cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	161
Roe, raw	75 g (2 ½ oz)	145
Sardines, Pacific, canned	75 g (2 ½ oz)	144
Halibut, cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	144
Tuna, albacore, raw or cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	82-105
Mackerel, Atlantic, cooked	75 g (2 ½ oz)	78
Tuna, white, canned with water	75 g (2 ½ oz)	60
Fats and Oils
Cod liver oil	5 mL (1 tsp)	427
Margarine	5 mL (1 tsp)	27

Many Health Benefits of Vitamin D

1. It is crucial for the absorption and metabolism of calcium and phosphorous, which have various functions, especially the maintenance of healthy bones.
2. It is an immune system regulator.
3. It may be an important way to arm the immune system against disorders like the common cold, say scientists from the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Children's Hospital Boston.
4. It may reduce the risk of developing multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is much less common the nearer you get to the tropics, where there is much more sunlight, according to Dennis Bourdette, chairman of the Department of Neurology and director of the Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology Center at Oregon Health and Science University, USA.
5. Vitamin D may have a key role in helping the brain to keep working well in later life, according to a study of 3000 European men between the ages of 40 and 79.
6. Vitamin D is probably linked to maintaining a healthy body weight, according to research carried out at the Medical College of Georgia, USA.
7. It can reduce the severity and frequency of asthma symptoms, and also the likelihood of hospitalizations due to asthma, researchers from Harvard Medical School found after monitoring 616 children in Costa Rica.
8. It has been shown to reduce the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis in women.
9. A form of vitamin D could be one of our body's main protections against damage from low levels of radiation, say radiological experts from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
10. Various studies have shown that people with adequate levels of vitamin D have a significantly lower risk of developing cancer, compared to people with lower levels. Vitamin D deficiency was found to be prevalent in cancer patients regardless of nutritional status, in a study carried out by Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
11. High vitamin D doses can help people recover from tuberculosis more rapidly, researchers reported in September 2012 in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
12. An additional study published in September 2012 suggested that low levels of vitamin D may increase the risk of heart attack and early death.

What is respiratory Tract Infection?

 

The respiratory tract infection is any infection of the sinuses, throat, airways or lungs. It is usually caused by a virus.

Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are believed to be one of the main reasons why people visit their GP or pharmacist. The most widespread respiratory tract infection is the common cold.

 

Health professionals generally make a distinction between:

•infections of the upper respiratory tract, which affect the nose, sinuses and throat

•infections of the lower respiratory tract, which affect the airways and lungs

Children tend to get more upper RTIs than adults, because they have not yet built up immunity (resistance) to the many viruses that can cause colds.

•explains how RTIs spread

•links to detailed information on the common upper and lower RTIs

•provides advice on caring for your symptoms at home and when you should see your GP

How respiratory infections spread

RTIs can spread in several ways. If you have an infection such as a cold, tiny droplets of fluid containing the cold virus are launched into the air whenever you sneeze, cough or speak. If these are breathed in by someone else, they may also become infected.

Infections can also be spread through direct and indirect contact. For example, if you have a cold and you touch your nose or eyes before touching someone else, you may pass the virus on to them?

New Research-High Vitamin D Doses Reduce Respiratory Tract Infection Risk

Patients who are prone to infections and are given high vitamin D doses for one year have a significantly lower risk of developing respiratory tract infection, compared to their counterparts who do not receive the extra daily vitamin, researchers from the Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital reported this month in BMJ Open. The researchers added that fewer respiratory tract infections mean lower antibiotic requirements for these patients.

Dr. Peter Bergman said, “Our research can have important implications for patients with recurrent infections or a compromised immune defense, such as a lack of antibodies, and can also help to prevent the emerging resistance to antibiotics that come from overuse. 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.

  

Vitamin D is a steroid vitamin which facilitates the metabolism and absorption of phosphorous and calcium. It is synthesized in the skin through sunlight exposure, and is also obtained through some foods. People who are exposed to "normal" quantities of sunlight do not require vitamin D supplements, because their skin will synthesize enough for their needs. Sweden, being very far from the equator, has abundant sunlight during the summer months and very little during the winter - there is a sharp seasonal variation of vitamin D in Swedish people's blood. Vitamin D deficiency is a serious problem in Scandinavia during the darker half of the year. Prior studies had demonstrated that low blood levels of the vitamin are linked to a higher risk of infection. Experts say that vitamin D can activate a human's immune system. Vitamin D has been shown to help tuberculosis patients recover more quickly. In this study, Bergman and team set out to determine whether treating patients with vitamin D might prevent and relieve respiratory tract infections - they were particularly interested in what the effects might be on patients who are prone to infections. They also wanted to find out whether the participants' use of antibiotics might be less. Their study - a double-blind randomized controlled trial - involved 140 volunteers who had symptoms of disease in their respiratory tracts for at least 6 weeks before the study began. They were randomly selected into one of two groups, the high-dose vitamin D group - they were given Vitamin D3 (4000 IU) daily.

The placebo group

Throughout the 12-month study period, they were asked to keep a diary and record their state of health each day, At the end of the study they found that:

Those in the vitamin D group had a 25% drop in respiratory tract infection symptoms

The people in the vitamin D group reduced their use of antibiotics by nearly half

The authors quoted a New Zealand study which was recently published in JAMA in which scientists showed that vitamin D did not reduce the severity or incidence of respiratory tract infections. This study is different, the researchers explained. While the New Zealand study worked with healthy volunteers whose blood vitamin D levels at the start of the study were normal, those in this study were not "healthy" volunteers. In the New Zealand study participants were given a larger dose less often, which is known to be less effective than taking the vitamin every day.

Dr Anna-Carin Norlin, who was involved in this study, said, 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. 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." They concluded that patients with frequent respiratory tract infections who were given vitamin D3 supplements experienced reduced disease burdens. A study published in Pediatrics (August 2012 issue) showed that the incidence of respiratory tract infections among Mongolian children dropped when they were given vitamin D supplements.

(Source-BMJ Open)

Why Antibiotic No Better For Coughs, Uncomplicated Chest Infections

Why Antibiotic No Better For Coughs, Uncomplicated Chest Infections

So this is very intrusting study which shows that Why Antibiotic No Better for Coughs. This means when we are using them we did not get any benefits. Before we see this news research let us see what are Antibiotic.

 What are Antibiotics?

Antibiotics are powerful medicines that are mostly used to treat infections caused by bacteria. These are known as anti-bacterial drugs. These drugs cannot fight viruses; there is a special class of medicines called antivirals that specifically fight infections caused by viruses. There are many classes of antibiotics, each designed to be effective against specific types of bacteria. When an antibiotic is needed to fight a bacterial infection, the correct antibiotic is needed to kill the disease-producing bacteria.

How can I tell if an illness is caused by a virus or bacteria?

The symptoms of viral infections are often the same as those caused by bacterial infections.

But it is important that your doctor or health care provider decide if a virus or bacteria is causing the infection.

Sometimes diagnostic tests are needed.

If an infection is caused by a virus, what can be done to relieve the symptoms?

An antibiotic will not work.

You need lots of extra rest.

Drink plenty of fluids (especially water) and eat healthy foods.

Some over-the-counter medications may help while your body is fighting the virus:

Acetaminophen* may help for muscle aches or fever.

Decongestants* may help if you have a stuffy nose.

Cough syrup* may relieve cough symptoms.

Throat lozenges (for older children and adults only) can ease a sore throat.

Ask your doctor about topical analgesic eardrops for ear pain.

 Follow package directions for age & dose or your health care providers’ instructions.

A cool mist vaporizer may help too.

Keep your home smoke-free

New Research-Antibiotic No Better For Coughs, Uncomplicated Chest Infections

 

Amoxicillin, the antibiotic doctors often prescribe for persistent coughs caused by uncomplicated chest infections such as bronchitis, is no more effective at easing symptoms than no medication at all, even in older patients. This was the finding of the largest randomised placebo controlled trial of antibiotics for lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) done to date. The study, which was led by the University of Southampton in the UK, is from the GRACE (Genomics to Combat Resistance against Antibiotics in Community-acquired LRTI in Europe) consortium and was funded by the European Community's Sixth Framework Programme. A paper on the findings appears in the 19 December online issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases. First author Paul Little, Professor of Primary Care Research at Southampton, says in a statement:

"Patients given amoxicillin don't recover much quicker or have significantly fewer symptoms. “In fact, he adds, using amoxicillin to treat patients with respiratory infections who don't have pneumonia could not only be ineffective, but might actually harm them. "Overuse of antibiotics, which is dominated by primary care prescribing, particularly when they are ineffective, can lead to side effects such as diarrhea, rash, vomiting and the development of resistance," he explains. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recently put out a statement saying that antibiotic resistance remains a major threat to public health around the world, and for the large part, the cause is misuse of antibiotics. Chest infections, also known as lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), are one of the most common acute illnesses treated in primary care settings in developed countries. There is a lot of controversy about whether LRTI, especially in older people, should be treated with antibiotics, especially since viruses are thought to cause most of them, and previous studies have shown inconsistent results.

A recent study presented at CHEST 2012, the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, also suggests antibiotics are not successful in treating cough due to the common cold in children. For this latest GRACE study, the researchers recruited 2,061 adults attending primary care practices with straightforward mild chest infections. The practices were located in 12 European countries: England, Wales, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia.

The participants were randomly assigned to be prescribed either amoxicillin or a placebo, to be taken three times a day for seven days.

 The prescribing general practitioners (GPs) assessed their patients' symptoms at the start of the study period, and the patients also filled in diaries of their daily symptoms. When they analyzed this data, the researchers found there was little difference in how severe the symptoms were or how long they lasted for, between the amoxicillin and placebo groups. Even in those aged 60 and over with no other illnesses, antibiotics seemed to offer little benefit over placebo. Patients in the antibiotic group reported significantly more side effects, including rash, nausea and diarrhea. The researchers did conclude, however, that while most people seem to get better on their own, there is a small number of patients who do benefit from antibiotics, and "the challenge remains to identify these individuals," says Little. In an accompanying commentary, Philipp Schuetz, from the University of Basel in Switzerland, notes:, Little and colleagues have generated convincing data that should encourage physicians in primary care to refrain from antibiotic treatment in low-risk patients in whom pneumonia is not suspected."

However, the question remains, he says, of whether this "one-size-fits-all approach can be further improved". He suggests perhaps one way to avoid the "toxic effects and costs" of antibiotics and "the development of resistance in the other patients", is to test for "specific blood biomarkers of bacterial infection", so as to "identify the few individuals who will benefit from antibiotics despite the apparent absence of pneumonia".

(Source- CHEST 2012)

No Excuse you can lose weight in Christmas time

No Excuse you can lose weight in Christmas time

This is my 7th blog on this year’s Christmas. In the last blog we see How to Avert Heartburning in Christmas season. In this blog you will see some cool ideas to for losing weight in holidays. If you know any other cool ideas please share in this blog so that we can also get healthy.

We all have overcome temptations and slip-ups before. Every day poses new challenge, yet we all remain strong and continue to make progress toward our goals. Why should the Christmas holidays time be any different? If you want to lose weight this month, you can. You just have to choose to stay in control, one day at a time. Here are some easy tips that will help you keep holiday weight gain at bay and lose a few pounds by New Year.

Schedule your Gym like a Dr. Appointment

As you wouldn't miss work, a doctor's appointment or an important meeting, to bake cookies or do some holiday shopping, would you? Add your workouts to your calendar so that other obligations don't get in the way of your gym time

Re-gift your treats and food

Whenever you get treat and food as gift from your love one, this does not mean you have to eat that. There are plenty of opportunities to re-gift food gifts over the holidays: bring them to parties, potlucks, and other get-togethers. Or, donate store-bought foods to a local food pantry or hospital to spread the holiday spirit to others. Take home-baked goods to a homeless shelter.

Plan your holiday meals everyday

Plan your holiday meals and snacks in advance so you can enjoy your favorites and still stay on track. Before you head to another party or sit down for a holiday dinner, pre-track your food for the day. Find places to cut back on calories in order to splurge a little more on your holiday meal.

How to Avert Heartburning in Christmas season

Look up calories before you jump to eat.

You can use online tracker to calculate the nutrition information in your favorite holiday foods. If you really want to eat a chocolate from a store, open your Nutrition Tracker first and decide whether it fits in with your plan.

Daily Track your food intake

That means all of it, from the spoonful of cookie batter you ate while baking to the free sample of ham at the grocery store. These "hidden" calories are easy to gloss over but can really add up. Plus you know from experience how it helps you to lose weight and eat better. If you do nothing else during the holidays, track your food diligently every day.

Don't make mountains out of molehills

It's easy to go over your calories one day and feel like a failure. But remember that it takes much more than one day of overeating to thwart your progress. Accept your slip-ups, learn from them and move on.

 

Make fitness your priority

 I like to remind everyone that food is only one part of the equation that determines whether you'll lose or gain weight. Fitness is just as important. Don't let your workouts go by the wayside. If anything, you should be trying to work out more than before to curb weight gain and extra eating

Bring your own food for some holiday party

This is a great tip if you're heading to a party and don't know what's in the food (or how it was prepared). Pick a healthy, low-Cal recipe that you can bring. And no matter what kind of food is there, you'll have at least one dish you can eat with confidence.

Add 15 extra minutes of cardio to your days

Some experts say that adding just 10 minutes of vigorous exercise to your usual workout routine can counter the effects of a little extra holiday eating. You can spare an extra 10 minutes, right? Even if you can't fit it in all at once, try to do small amounts throughout the day. High-intensity moves like jumping jacks, high-knee running in place, or jumping rope all work. Or you can try our 10-mintue cardio videos to torch those extra calories in one shot.

Limit alcohol./beer/wine use

It lowers inhibitions, making it more likely that you'll forget about your nutrition plan and overindulge. Plus, alcohol alone is pretty high in calories. If you can party hop without drinking at all, you'll be better off. If you must drink, nurse your glass slowly, choose diet-friendly drinks, and limit the number of servings. Oh and yes, alcohol does contain calories, so add every drink to your Nutrition Tracker.