Common Cold | Preventing Head Colds

Medical disclaimer: This article is the opinion of the author. You should seek guidance from your healthcare professional. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

• What are the symptoms?

• Should you be worried?

• How long will it last?

• How can I prevent it?

• How can I get better faster?

• Can Vitamin D help?

The common cold has become too common. Cold and flu season used to be generally confined to the fall and winter months, but these days it has become common for people to have colds at any time of the year. Do you know anyone who has had a "summer cold"?

The common cold and a head cold are often used interchangeably, and are essentially the same thing. The common cold falls under a broader category of illness called Respiratory Tract Infections (RTIs).

Some of the most common symptoms that people experience with the common cold are a sore throat, lethargy, congestion, a runny nose, sneezing, fever, chills, malaise, and body aches. Some less common symptoms can include loss of smell, itchy and watery eyes, swollen lymph nodes, and headaches.

The Common Cold and Vitamin D | Dr. Brandan LeeImmuneStrong Families

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Although getting sick with a cold can feel miserable, it's generally not something to be worried about. As with most RTIs, healthy people generally recover from a cold within a week, two weeks at most. This is an essential concept for most RTIs: In general, the people who struggle the most are those who are unhealthy, so your best strategy is to become healthy. This may sound insensitive, and you may think: "Easier said than done." One of the most overlooked aspects of getting healthy is attaining optimal Vitamin D levels. More on that in a bit.

Vitamin D protects against cold and flu.

The best way to recover from a cold is to have a strong, resilient immune system, which reduces your chances of getting sick in the first place. Most people are aware of the importance of avoiding immune system-damaging sugar, getting extra sleep, and managing stress, but they often overlook the significance of Vitamin D.

Can Vitamin D help?

Yes! There is abundant evidence that Vitamin D plays a crucial role in both preventing and recovering from respiratory tract infections. You can check out other posts on this site to see more information about this. For this article, I'd like to focus on a very recent study that was just published in 2024 in the journal Nutrients.

This study followed nearly 200 students ranging in age from 1 to 18 for two years. They compared Vitamin D supplementation and blood levels in children to the frequency of colds they experienced.

Some students took 400 IU per day, while others took 800 IU of Vitamin D per day. The researchers found that the students taking the larger dose of Vitamin D got sick 75% less. The researchers also paid attention to Vitamin D levels. They compared students with Vitamin D levels below 20 ng/ml to students with Vitamin D levels above 30 ng/ml. The students with the higher blood levels of Vitamin D were 78% less likely to catch a cold!

Final thoughts: You can't be healthy without healthy Vitamin D levels. When you hear stories about "healthy" people having a terrible experience with a cold or the flu, or being hospitalized with an RTI, it's likely that they had low Vitamin D levels. It is the author's opinion that this is one of the most overlooked aspects of building a healthy and resilient immune system. We recommend testing your Vitamin D levels twice a year to ensure that you are in the optimal range.

To learn more about Vitamin D testing, see this article.

To shop for Vitamin D Home Tests, click here.