Vitamin D is not just important for the absorption of Calcium, it’s extremely important for the strength of your immune system. Vitamin D for the flu is very effective at not only helping your immune system protect you from colds and flu but also a wide range of many illnesses and diseases. The active form of vitamin D that your body uses is Vitamin D3. When vitamin D enters the body both the liver and then the kidneys have to break down vitamin D into vitamin D3 before the body can reap its benefits.

Without high enough levels of vitamin D3 in your blood you will be an easy target for so many illnesses such as viruses, cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, osteomalacia, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, hypertension, mood disorders, psoriasis, and auto immune disorders. If you or someone you know has any of these, I highly recommend that you/they have your doctor perform a simple blood test called 25-hydroxy vitamin D or 25(OH)D test. My doctor performed this test on me 10 years ago and as I expected I was vitamin D deficient just like most Americans. Since then I have raised my vitamin D3 levels and in these past 10 years I have not once gotten the flu.

Why did I expect to be vitamin D deficient? Two reasons, first I live north of 35 degrees north latitude and secondly I have darker skin color. A double whammy for being deficient but anyone with any of the disorders mentioned above will have a higher chance of being deficient too.

So you may be asking yourself, do I live north of 35 degrees north latitude? If you live in the top half section of the United States you do. Take a map of the U.S. and draw a line straight across the country starting from Philadelphia. You are in the danger zone anywhere from that line on north. By living in this area of the country you do not get any vitamin D from sun exposure during the fall and winter months. Since you can only get adequate amounts of vitamin D from the sun during the spring and summer months, is the reason why colds and the flu happen during the colder months.

Now you may be now asking yourself, what does skin color have to do with being deficient? If you are Latino, African American or any other race with darker skin than Caucasians, your skin cannot absorb and utilize vitamin D as efficiently. Where a person who is Caucasian will get enough vitamin D from the UVB rays of the sun in 15-30 minutes of sun exposure without sunscreen, anyone with darker skin color will need 30-45 minutes of sun exposure. If you have been scared away from being out in the sun without sunscreen and you are still worried about low vitamin D levels then your only course of action to raise your defenses is to take a vitamin D3 supplement of no less than 2,000 IU (International Units).

Don’t worry 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 is extremely safe. I have been taking 5,000 IU every day during the fall and winter months for years without any problems. My doctor says that some people take even more without any problems. Think about it! Your body makes 20,000-30,000 IU from sun exposure alone, but I would not recommend you taking this much in pill form unless directed to by your doctor. Vitamin D or D3 has only been shown to be toxic if you take 50,000 IU every day.

With most Americans being vitamin D deficient and with the overwhelming evidence and extreme benefits to your overall health from taking vitamin D3, it is no wonder that some in Western Medicine are claiming that it is bad for you. If people found out that this vitamin is extremely safe and effective for a broad range of disorders, the pharmaceutical companies would lose billions of dollars if people were able to cure their disorders by just bringing up their blood levels of vitamin D3.

So if you want to prevent the flu naturally just increase your intake of vitamin D3. Taking 2,000 IU is a safe amount until you have a 25(OH)D blood test to determine how much more you will need to take to raise your blood levels into the optimum range of 50-70 ng/mL. If you have any of the disorders listed at the beginning of this article, if you live in the top half of the country, if you have darker skin, if you smoke, and are on many prescription drugs, you are definitely deficient in vitamin D3.