Sunshine Key to Beating Swine Flu

Dozens of studies have shown vitamin D - which our bodies make from sunshine - protects against a number of inflammatory conditions.

SUNSHINE and weight loss could be the key to avoiding a severe bout of swine flu - and it all comes down to inflammation.

Researchers at Wisconsin University have found the H1N1 swine flu virus is nasty because it causes more inflammation than seasonal flu.

Swine flu also works its way deeper into the lungs, making it more likely to trigger complications such as pneumonia.

Dozens of studies have shown vitamin D - which our bodies make from sunshine - protects against a number of inflammatory conditions including heart disease, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School found children with asthma are "significantly" more likely to be hospitalised if they also have low levels of the vitamin.

Dr John Cannell, from the University of Washington, believes it is no accident colds and flu peak in winter - that's when lack of sunlight means we're likely to be low in vitamin D.

And he is convinced the sunshine vitamin will prove to be a "major weapon" against swine flu.

Professor John Oxford, a flu expert at Barts and The London School of Medicine, says flab could prove to be even more important.

Latest US figures show almost half of the Americans who have died of swine flu were seriously overweight.

Obesity seems to double the risk of death.

It's known that obesity increases the output of inflammatory body chemicals, and animal studies reported in the Journal Of Nutrition found fat mice were seven times more likely to die of ordinary flu than slimline rodents.

Prof Oxford says: "It's looking as though obesity itself is a risk factor."

So until there's a vaccine, go and get active - but wash your hands as soon as you get home.

WHERE was Madeline Hanshaw when her 13-year-old son started drinking?

"He didn't know it would come to this," she said shortly before Gary Reinbach died of liver failure, aged just 22.

Doctors have long warned that Britain's booze culture was a health time-bomb, but perhaps those haunting images of Gary's bloated yellowing face will make us listen.

Research shows the earlier kids start drinking, the greater the risk. Behavioural problems increase the risk, but a strong relationship with parents and supervision during secondary school years reduce them.

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