So people locked indoors who can't see the sun have a vitamin D deficiency? Shocking...
It says in the title that the study is talking about adults admitted to... that suggest they already had the deficiency
Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital
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Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital
#32so you’d expect to see fewer cases the further south go. I wonder how that holds up?
I'd say there are too many factors to guess.
People sitting inside all day in offices and when people get home. Driving everywhere so barely outside at all only briefly. Various levels of skin pigmentation each would block various amounts of sun especially in northern latitudes. Clothing style covering more to block sun exposure to prevent skin damage or prevent skin cancer, or after a skin cancer diagnosis.
Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
The study you linked was based on a threshold of 50 nmol/L, while the originally posted study used two thresholds, 30 nmol/L and 50 nmol/L. At the 50 nmol/L cutoff, the study you linked indicates a deficiency rate of 41.6% for the general population, compared to a rate of 91.3% among psychiatric patients according to the posted study. I’d still take the posted study with a grain of salt. Vitamin D deficiency between…
Good points. Here is some data on vitamin D deficiency in the UK (where the original study was conducted) that also addresses seasonality: https://www.bjfm.co.uk/prevention-of-vitamin-d-deficiency "Low serum levels of vitamin D are found in significant numbers of all population groups in the UK: in winter 30-40% of all age groups in the general population are classed as vitamin D deficient. Even towards the end of su…
Thanks for the link. Seems like the posted study’s results are very similar to the deficiency rates for the overall UK population in winter. (Their data was collected between February and April.)
Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital
#34Weird question: i saw an article yesterday saying that redheads naturally produce more vitamin d. So, what is the prevalence of redheads in psychiatric hospitals?
Those with pale skin naturally produce more vitamin D. This is because the pigmentation in your skin (Melanin), which protects skin from sun damage, also reduces vitamin D production.
Pale skin is in fact an evolutionary adaptation to living in less sunny climates. That's why Vitamin D deficiency, in an un-sunny climate like Britain, is more prevalent in British Asian and Black British populations than in White British.
This "redheads" association is due to red hair often being associated with pale skin, and not specifically due to hair colour. Some of the genes associated with less skin pigmentation also result less hair pigmentation (blonde or red hair).
Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
The study you linked was based on a threshold of 50 nmol/L, while the originally posted study used two thresholds, 30 nmol/L and 50 nmol/L. At the 50 nmol/L cutoff, the study you linked indicates a deficiency rate of 41.6% for the general population, compared to a rate of 91.3% among psychiatric patients according to the posted study. I’d still take the posted study with a grain of salt. Vitamin D deficiency between…
More important difference: the base rate in the grandparent post is for the US, while the psychiatric hospital admission study is for hospitals in the UK. Serum vitamin D depends significantly on sunlight exposure and hence latitude, so the base rate is different there.
I agree, good point. See m4burns’s comment, which includes a link to broader UK data.
Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital
#36The whac-a-mole [1] tendency of psychiatry is revealed by this line from this submission's link:
> Assessment and treatment of vitamin D deficiency should be considered in in-patients to protect musculoskeletal health. Further epidemiological and intervention studies are needed to investigate the role of vitamin D in the pathophysiology of mental disorders. [emphasis added]
The full context of vitamin D synthesis and conversion is relevant, not just "protect musculoskeletal health". Vitamin D is manufactured in the skin from cholesterol, but has to be activated in the liver & kidneys through "enzymatic conversion" [0]. Cholesterol is manufactured in the liver. If a person's liver is burdened by "stress", malnourishment, etc, it won't have the capacity to produce cholesterol for the skin to turn into vitamin D.
Mental disorders are fundamentally related to stress and metabolism. Stress takes many forms; emotional stress is the most important. The whole organism's metabolic processes are relevant when figuring out the cause of "mental" problems.
Just the other day I talked with my ~50y.o. Canadian friend. Her brother is dying from complications of drug addiction (opiates and everything else). She said he never had a good relationship with their father, and was devastated when their grandfather was killed right next to him in a farm accident (brother was 16 y.o. at the time)...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whac-A-Mole :
The term "Whac-a-mole" (or "Whack-a-mole") is used
colloquially to denote a repetitious and futile task: each
time an adversary is "whacked", it only pops up again
somewhere else. In a military context, the term is used to
refer to ostensibly inferior opposing troops who keep re-
appearing. In a programming/debugging context it
refers to the fact that fixing a bug has a certain chance
of creating a new bug which itself needs to be fixed.
In a web context, it refers to the process of fending off
recurring spammers, vandals or miscreants.Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital
#37Most of these patients are likely exhibiting some spectrum of antisocial behavior, which means staying indoors or generally away from other people. I don't think it's as interesting as it seems. I'm rather certain there's a sensible explanation.
> ...antisocial behavior, which means staying indoors or generally away from other people.
That is not at all what "antisocial behavior" means. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-social_behaviour
Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
The study you linked was based on a threshold of 50 nmol/L, while the originally posted study used two thresholds, 30 nmol/L and 50 nmol/L. At the 50 nmol/L cutoff, the study you linked indicates a deficiency rate of 41.6% for the general population, compared to a rate of 91.3% among psychiatric patients according to the posted study. I’d still take the posted study with a grain of salt. Vitamin D deficiency between…
Regarding the weather: most people most often stay indoors or in cars(does the glass filter the Vitmain-D causing rays), and usually wear long pants and a shirt, so only a small body area is exposed to the sun, so it's possible that even in summer, people suffer from Vitamin-D deficiency.
Be careful with increased exposure to sunlight. UV is a known carcinogen.
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/radiation-exposu...
There are safer sources of vitamin D.
Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital
#39Is there any informed discussion of the value of reading articles like this versus just not and doing what your doctor says ?
Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital
#40No comparison to prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the general population?
They might not have the correct data for comparison -- you'd need to control for climate, so national or international rate of deficiency wouldn't be a good comparison.
Sure. But I'm not sure what the takeaway is without it. I guess just another data point for future analysis. Or yeah, another paper for someone's CV and tenure promotion.