The Secret Weapon Against Cold & Flu? (NO Drugs Required)
We’re smack dab in the middle of cold and flu season.
And if you were expecting any help from this year’s flu shot, guess again.
It’s a total dud, poorly matched for the strains circulating across America.
And it typically works even worse in seniors anyway.
But don’t throw in the towel. Especially if you’re in your golden years, you’re at MUCH higher risk for hospitalization from colds and flu.
Luckily, researchers have found a dead-simple way to protect yourself from respiratory infections and ending up in a hospital.
It’s easy… you can start today… and there are no drugs or shots required.
British researchers just looked at health data from more than 36,000 people – and the results were crystal clear.
The lower you are in vitamin D, the more likely you are to end up in the hospital with a respiratory infection.
In fact, people with the lowest vitamin D levels — below 15 nnmol/L – were 33% more likely to be hospitalized.
And, trust me, spending days in a hospital — under all of those artificial lights — isn’t going to do anything good for your vitamin D levels, either.
Lots of us think of vitamin D as essential for our bones and muscles – and it is. But it does a whole lot more than that.
Vitamin D is critical for the proper functioning of our immune systems. It actually stimulates the production of proteins known as “antimicrobial peptides” that directly fight bacteria and viruses.
It also helps other elements of our immune system – such as T-cells and B-cells – function more effectively.
Now, your body produces vitamin D naturally from sun exposure – and that’s always my first choice for increasing D levels. Get plenty of sun.
But I know that’s a tall order in many parts of the country this time of year – especially when the meteorologist is calling for a foot and a half of snow.
So work with your doctor to get your vitamin D levels checked and supplement as necessary.
Medicare is a bit wishy-washy about covering D tests as part of routine screening – but even if you have to pay out of pocket, you can usually get tested for less than $100.
If it keeps you out of the hospital, that sounds like a pretty good investment to me.
View Sources
Bournot, A. R., et al. (2025). Association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D status and respiratory tract infections requiring hospital admission: unmatched case-control analysis of ethnic groups from the United Kingdom Biobank cohort. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2025.101179. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002916525007713?via%3Dihub
