Triathlon Training, Sweating and Vitamin D Levels

Let me start by saying that vitamin D does a lot to help the body reduce inflammation.

I was working for a hospital in 2014, and taking a flu shot was expected of me. I received the flu vaccine in five of the last six years. For at least three years, I remember getting sick. I became unusually one of those years.

One year I stopped lifting weights before and after the flu shot, but I still got sick. The next year I skipped the flu vaccine. The following year, I asked my doctor for advice because I am usually ill after receiving the flu shot. The response: "Well, you got sick, but it wasn't from the flu because your body is immune to the flu (paraphrased)." I asked if I should stop my cardio or resistance training. I usually exercise twice per day. One high-intensity cardio session for six minutes in the morning and one 20 minute resistance training later the same day. My doctor suggested that I not do any cardio for a while after the injection. I followed his direction, and I did not get sick.

I deduced that cardio makes the body sweat and lowers serum vitamin D. When I used to train for triathlons (in Lafayette). I would run between 20-30 miles per week and do from 200-300 miles on the bike every week. Whenever I drank carbonated water (Coca Cola, Mountain Dew, etc.), I would often go into an asthmatic fit after laughing or coughing. I had never been diagnosed with asthma. Even when abstaining from carbonated drinks, I would often catch a cold in the winter and have respiratory problems until summer.

When you look at most of the information about vitamin D and sweating, you will find suggestions that sweating causes vitamin D deficiency. I understand it as the body uses vitamin D during exercise that causes us to sweat. Most--if not all--types of activities we do for exercise will initiate an inflammatory response, by the way. This year, I got the flu vaccine. I did not stop my high-intensity cardio, but I increased my vitamin D supplementation. I did not experience any of the adverse side effects I would normally expect. I don't even remember my arm being sore afterward. 

Vaccines also trigger an immune response. Doctors generally say that vaccines are "weakened viruses." Well, when we are vitamin D deficient (or vitamin D insufficient for that matter), how can our body respond well to a "weakened virus"?

For example, many people may already be suffering from vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency. Some effects of vitamin D deficiency: asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, some cancers, infections, and immune system disorders. So you can imagine what a "weakened virus" might do to someone that is already vitamin D insufficient or vitamin D deficient.

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