A couple months back, amidst news reports of record high incidence of the flu, I found myself wondering… why is there a “season” for the flu?
What I’ve learned since then:
• Your white blood cells need calcium to work efficiently. (White blood cells are cells of the immune system involved in defending the body against both infectious disease and foreign materials.)
• You need Vitamin D to absorb calcium for use by the body.
• You need Vitamin F (essential fatty acids, omega 3 and omega 6) to get calcium to the tissues.
In places like Utah, where it’s cold (and often overcast or at least smoggy enough to avoid being outside for the sake of air quality) and the days are shorter in the Winter, people get a lot less Vitamin D, because the body needs exposure to sunlight to produce Vitamin D. (I noticed that places like California don’t really seem to have that spike in flu occurrence during the winter months.)
So, winter time vitamin D deficiency leads to calcium deficiency which leads to increased susceptibility to infection.
Notes:
1. The form of calcium the body needs, through diet, is calcium lactate and/or calcium citrate. These are soluble forms of calcium. The type found in milk and other dairy products is the insoluble calcium phosphate.
Calcium citrate and calcium lactate are quickly converted by the body into calcium bicarbonate, which the heart needs when it’s been weakened. You need this soluble form of calcium to prevent viral diseases, especially those that include a fever. Fever is an indicator of a calcium deficiency. (Of course, there are other nutrients the body needs to recover from injury and disease, but calcium is a big one).
Calcium lactate is the calcium present mostly in vegetables– good sources are kale, bok-choy, collard greens, turnip greens, broccoli, etc. Spinach has a lot of calcium, but also has a high amount of oxalates, which prevent absorption of most of that calcium.
2. The role Vitamin D plays in calcium absorption explains why they add synthetic Vitamin D to milk… perhaps it aids in the absorption of calcium phosphate as well. In any case, I’d suggest avoiding synthetic Vitamin D and get it naturally instead. Get sunshine daily if you can (in moderation, of course), or get it from whole food sources. Salmon, mackerel, sardines, beef/chicken liver, eggs, and cod liver oil are good sources. I doubt many people intake enough synthetic vitamin D for it to be toxic, but I’d rather not find out what the effect of prolonged synthetic vitamin D intake is myself.