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High-dose vitamin D no better than standard dose for preventing kids’ colds: study

TORONTO — A new study has found that giving children high-dose vitamin D doesn’t appear to reduce the number of times they come down with the wintertime sniffles compared to the standard recommended dose.
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TORONTO — A new study has found that giving children high-dose vitamin D doesn’t appear to reduce the number of times they come down with the wintertime sniffles compared to the standard recommended dose.

For the last 30 years, vitamin D has been thought to play a role in preventing or reducing the number of colds and bouts of flu children experience over the fall and winter months.

But Toronto researchers found children who received the standard dose of 400 international units and those given 2,000 IUs per day each had about two viral respiratory infections on average.

Lead researcher Dr. Jonathon Maguire of St. Michael’s Hospital says the findings do not support the use of high-dose vitamin D supplements to prevent colds and flu in children.

The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association involved 700 children aged one to five.