Chicago's vitamin D problem

Could Chicagoans be more vulnerable to swine flu and similar illness because of where our city is situated?

Our northern locale and dreary winters means less sunlight hits our skin, resulting in a lack of the immune system-boosting vitamin D. And some experts say the key to warding off illnesses like swine flu, is a strong immune system.

"You live at a higher latitude, so you're at a higher risk," says Boston University professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics Michael Holick.

Holick co-authored an article in the medical journal Epidemiology and Infection that concluded that low vitamin D levels during the winter, where there is less sunlight, had a direct connection to rising flu cases.

He says Chicagoans, who suffer through long, gloomy winters, are naturally likely to produce less vitamin D than people in sunnier, more temperate parts of the country.

Read more at the Chi-Town Daily News.