Got sick? Kick the bug!
Lately a lot of people I know are getting the seasonal bugs. Most do all the typical wrong things like drink orange juice & 7-Up. Their illnesses drag on and on sometimes for weeks. Conventional wisdom (and their Dr.) continue to tell them to dose Vitamin-C… and they continue to be sick! Many of these same folks go out and blow gobs of money on expensive products like Airborne, Emergen-C and other near worthless cold/flu remedies.
For a while now I’ve been recommending high doses of Vitamin-D for short periods to my friends and family. I’m not a “doctor” (and there is one in the family) so they usually just pretend to listen to me. In one ear and out the other. Most of them still feel my adivce is “internet” stuff, “pseudoscience” or I’m a weirdo because I eat “weird stuff” like whole foods and/or paleo.
But the main reason I’m writing this, is because don’t like prescribing treatments of clinical doses to people for obvious reasons. I just wanted a place to point them so they can read it themselves and keep the “well he told me to” out of it.
Believe it or not, it’s not that easy to Find Vitamin-D super-dosing online. You have to search terms like “Stoss protocol” or “influenza dose” to turn up anything. Since it took a while to dig it up, I decided to put up this page so my primal friends can have an quick resource to forward to their friends and family showing that Vitamin-D super-dosing is safe and credible.
The Dosing Protocol
Between 500-900IU per pound for 3 days.
Note: Make sure you take D with fat. Coconut oil, olive oil, butter, etc..
“Antibiotic dose (‘Stoss’ protocol): ~25,000 to 50,000 IU daily in the AM (or split) for 3 days (Precise dose: 1000-2000 IU per kg (or 500 IU per ~pound)
Side Effects:
Wake up without sniffles, scratchy throat, green phlegm, chest tightness or asthma”
~Source Article
“Short term dosing of vitamin D at onset of respiratory infections can be very helpful. At first sign of exposure, take 2,000 IU’s of vitamin D per kg of body weight for 3 days. For a 70 kg or 150 pound person this is 140,000 IU’s of vitamin D for 3 days. For a 10 pound infant this dosage is 9,000 to 10,000 IU’s daily for 3 days.”
~Source Article
“Although our paper discusses the possibility that physiological doses of vitamin D (5,000 units a day) may prevent colds and the flu, and that physicians might find pharmacological doses of vitamin D (2,000 units per kilogram of body weight per day for three days) useful in treating some of the one million people who die in the world every year from influenza, we remind readers that it is only a theory. Like all theories, our theory must withstand attempts to be disproved with dispassionately conducted and well-controlled scientific experiments.”
~Source Article
With my recent cold I did 400IU per pound for three days. The morning after the first dose I was almost cured! I bought my D3 at the grocery store late at night while I was sick, so I paid through the nose for the bottle. Otherwise I would have dosed higher. The NOW brand (orange bottles) is cheap and what I have now (Amazon.com / Bodybuilding.com). In a pinch, you can probably get D3 or at least Cod Liver oil just about anywhere.
If you know anyone sick… do them a favor and forward them this page
Blessed with a full blown head cold today at 3am. So it’s testing time once again
I’d spiked my blood sugar during New Years Day gluttony and was exposed to sick people. I noticed the cold coming from increased sniffles on Jan 2nd and have been holding it at bay despite working out in the cold rain for a few days.
In the past, I would have been down immediately from a cold! I hate to admit it, but I have a crappy immune system. I’m confident my now healthy gut & increased Vitamin D (about 6,250iu per day) dose is what’s helped me hold it back as long as I have.
I will be dosing about 800iu per pound, per day, and will report my condition & total downtime here.
Day 1:
Woke up in the middle of the night with bad drainage & choking on phlegm. Energy low. 5:45am first dose of Vitamin D. Got up at 9am. Great energy the rest of the day considering being sick
Dosage:
Three 40,000iu doses spaced evenly throughout the day. Taken with butter or coconut oil.
Total = 120,000iu
Day 2:
Slept well. Still congested with a mild headache, but drainage issue is mostly gone.
Dosage:
9:30am 50,000iu – 3:00pm 30,000iu – 9:30pm 50,000iu
Total = 130,000iu
Day 3:
Mild headache & dry sinuses/congestion during the night. Basically felt fine the rest of the day. Energy still good & has been. Tomorrow could be good to go!
Dosage:
10:30am 50,000iu – Cold pretty much gone – 10:00pm 50,000iu
Total = 100,000iu
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5/20 – sick. Bag stomach cramping & loose.
5/21 – Worse stomach cramping. Late evening weak & chills.
5/21 8:30pm: 50,000iu vitamin D
…12Hrs sleep…
5/22 8:30am: Feel fine, but 50,000iu more
…4Hrs more sleep…
5/22 1:00pm: Feel great
Cured!
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Good resources for vitamin D via sunlight:
Mercola
Calculated Ultraviolet Exposure
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Having read about this on animal pharm blog a few months ago, at the first sign of a cold on Tuesday morning, I took 24000iu (10 caps), then another 12000iu a couple of hours later. Wednesday I felt slightly worse, took 24000iu and got some lunchtime sunlight. Thursday, felt a bit worse, took same as Tuesday – 36000iu. It is now Friday morning, and I feel no better.
My girlfriend also took 24000iu a day for three days the week before. The following three days she had full-blown cold symptoms, particularly runny nose.
So, it didn’t work for us. Perhaps because we are at the low end of the dose? Yet on two days I took 36000iu, in the middle of the 25 – 50000iu recommended. Oh, and by the way, have you noticed that that dose range doesn’t even come close to the “precise” dose in the protocol – which for me, at 75kg, would be 75 – 150000iu. Wonder if I should take that today..?
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@Dave
Are you taking that D with any fats?
Are you jamming a bunch of carbs in there like orange juice?
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I eat to roughly Optimal Diet ratios, so 70-80% fat – animal fat on the meat itself, plus liberal amounts of butter, cream and virgin coconut oil. I eat very little wheat and practically no seed oils. I also take 300 – 450mg of magnesium citrate a day, synergistic with D. I’d be very surprised to find many people who’d followed the stoss protocol and were “jamming a bunch of carbs in there”. If you’re going to take this much D, under your own research, it’s likely you read more than one paleo blog.
It just didn’t work for me, this time. I am not short of D – I have spent many many hours in midday sun this summer, after a winter averaging about 4000iu oral dose daily. I am prepared to give it another go – I would be very interested to know how other people have got on who have tried it, and at what dose.
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@Dave, I wasn’t suggesting “you jamming a bunch of carbs in there” I was asking. Hence the question mark
I’ve been around a while, I’ve read a few more than one paleo blog.
“Optimal Diet ratios” for doing what and according to who? Ratios are like excuses, everyones got em, and they’re all different.
Eat a carb. It’ll make you less grouchy and your breath will smell better to boot.
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And I was answering your question.
It’s the name of a diet, specifying fat and carb ratios according to protein by body weight. It’s not a paleo diet per se, google Jan Kwasnieski to find out more.
The post may have appeared grouchy because your questions (and I’m aware of the function of question marks thanks) did seem to presuppose ignorance on my part.
I do “eat a carb”. Somewhere in the region of 50g a day, sometimes more. Again, a presuppostion on your part.
By the way, when I said “it’s likely you’ve read more than one blog” I wasn’t referrng to you personally but “you” as in people in general.
Whatever, the point is certain bloggers are recommending brief, mega-doses previously administered by hospital doctors. I didn’t get much relief from the dose I took, I wanted to share and and would still be interested to know how others have done.
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No harm no fowl
I know others on twitter who have posted their success after seeing this page. Unfortunately I can’t force them to post comment here.
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I came down with a cold 3 days ago. I have been doing 50,000 per day, still have a cold and am disappointed. I realize now I am low on the dose. I just took 50,000 and plan two more doses today. I am curious to know if it will work.
Just don’t do it long term.
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Apparently if it’s a rhinovirus, you’re out of luck. Otherwise, it might help!
As above, NOT for long-term.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/news-archive/2010/self-inflicted-vitamin-d-toxicity/
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