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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

#61

HN health posts tend to get posted without context and you'll get a pile of people [inadvertantly, I'm sure] pushing their supplement regime as a way to stave off clinical depression et al. This paper is NOT saying that low VitD causes psychiatric admission, just that patients may require supplements to bring them back to healthy levels. You get most of your vitamin D from skin exposure to sunlight so it's reasonable…

> HN health posts tend to get posted without context and you'll get a pile of people [inadvertantly, I'm sure] pushing their supplement regime as a way to stave off clinical depression et al.

I wouldn't say people are necessarily "pushing" their personal regimes, more often than not people are merely exchanging their personal experiences with certain issues.

Personally, I've had actual relief from a really annoying issue (nightly teeth gnashing) thanks to a helpful HN comment pointing me in the direction of Magnesium. I'm still thankful and glad that happened!

Btw: The headline is spot on with what the study found. I don't get what you are suggesting there with "reasonable to suggest that these people with psychiatric issues and low VitD are likely to be shut-ins".

Only 8.7% of all patients were vitamin D sufficient at admission. They didn't get their insufficiency from being admitted, they already usually have it when getting there.

Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital

#62

As these kind of stories are so popular on HN, I recently started curating a list at https://github.com/Jimnotgym/Hacking_Depression I hope it helps someone one day.

Thanks for doing this. You already have a lot of the links I have saved, but here's another one I found from an HN comment: http://cbtsanfrancisco.com/cbt-is-for-hackers/

Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital

#63
post #51

And abundance of vitamin D through sun exposure is a reason why it's great to live in Mediterranean Basin, Australia or California instead of Norway, Sweden or Canada. Sun is a huge factor in both health and happiness although the northern societies seem to underplay it.

"It has been suggested by some vitamin D researchers, for example, that approximately 5–30 minutes of sun exposure between 10 AM and 3 PM at least twice a week to the face, arms, legs, or back without sunscreen usually lead to sufficient vitamin D synthesis..." as per [1]. Maybe the quality of exposure is different? Atleast from reading articles like this, it seems like normally people at any latitude should not have trouble getting sufficient Vitamin D.

1. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessiona...

Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital

#64

HN health posts tend to get posted without context and you'll get a pile of people [inadvertantly, I'm sure] pushing their supplement regime as a way to stave off clinical depression et al. This paper is NOT saying that low VitD causes psychiatric admission, just that patients may require supplements to bring them back to healthy levels. You get most of your vitamin D from skin exposure to sunlight so it's reasonable…

> HN health posts tend to get posted without context and you'll get a pile of people [inadvertantly, I'm sure] pushing their supplement regime as a way to stave off clinical depression et al. I wouldn't say people are necessarily "pushing" their personal regimes, more often than not people are merely exchanging their personal experiences with certain issues. Personally, I've had actual relief from a really annoying i…

A "shut-in" is someone who spends a lot of time at home alone, not getting any sunlight. Then when their symptoms of mental illness are manifested enough to require hospital admission, they are tested for vitamin D at that point and it's unsurprisingly low.

Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital

#65
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

To this end, I strongly suggest checking your local UV index before heading outdoors for any extended period of time. I use an iOS app called UVLens (no affiliation), which displays your local UV index throughout the day and can give you an estimate of how long before you’ll burn (based on skin color, eye color, etc.)

Provided you’re taking reasonable precautions, limited exposure to broad-spectrum UV is quite safe.

Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital

#66

As these kind of stories are so popular on HN, I recently started curating a list at https://github.com/Jimnotgym/Hacking_Depression I hope it helps someone one day.

No one suggested 5-HTP when you were compiling your list? It's an extremely potent precursor to serotonin (typically the thing you are trying to raise when you are hacking your way out of depression). NB do not take this supplement if you are already on an SSRI.

Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> HN health posts tend to get posted without context and you'll get a pile of people [inadvertantly, I'm sure] pushing their supplement regime as a way to stave off clinical depression et al. I wouldn't say people are necessarily "pushing" their personal regimes, more often than not people are merely exchanging their personal experiences with certain issues. Personally, I've had actual relief from a really annoying i…

A "shut-in" is someone who spends a lot of time at home alone, not getting any sunlight. Then when their symptoms of mental illness are manifested enough to require hospital admission, they are tested for vitamin D at that point and it's unsurprisingly low.

I guess that that is a thing that could happen in the temperate and frigid zones of the Earth. It would be interesting, though, to attempt to replicate the study in a tropical region, where it's nearly impossible to not get enough sun, even indoors.

Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital

#68

HN health posts tend to get posted without context and you'll get a pile of people [inadvertantly, I'm sure] pushing their supplement regime as a way to stave off clinical depression et al. This paper is NOT saying that low VitD causes psychiatric admission, just that patients may require supplements to bring them back to healthy levels. You get most of your vitamin D from skin exposure to sunlight so it's reasonable…

Another persective, which you just provided, is very healthy. I really need to see what you saw.

One way to see what he sees more often is, whenever you see something that sounds like causation, ask yourself whether it really is correlation - reverse the direction of implication, or consider if there might be a third reason that explains both.

Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital

#69

As these kind of stories are so popular on HN, I recently started curating a list at https://github.com/Jimnotgym/Hacking_Depression I hope it helps someone one day.

No one suggested 5-HTP when you were compiling your list? It's an extremely potent precursor to serotonin (typically the thing you are trying to raise when you are hacking your way out of depression). NB do not take this supplement if you are already on an SSRI.

Nope, do you have any links?

Re: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in adults admitted to psychiatric hospital

#70

As these kind of stories are so popular on HN, I recently started curating a list at https://github.com/Jimnotgym/Hacking_Depression I hope it helps someone one day.

Thanks for doing this. You already have a lot of the links I have saved, but here's another one I found from an HN comment: http://cbtsanfrancisco.com/cbt-is-for-hackers/

Thanks. Added
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