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Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections (2017)

bmj.com

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Re: Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections (2017)

#11

Post by KaiserPro »

Table 4:

> When all studies were analysed together, no statistically significant effect of vitamin D was seen on the proportion of participants with at least one upper respiratory tract infection, lower respiratory tract infection, hospital admission or emergency department attendance for acute respiratory tract infection, course of antimicrobials for acute respiratory tract infection, or absence from work or school due to acute respiratory tract infection. However, when this analysis was stratified by dosing frequency, a borderline statistically significant protective effect of daily or weekly vitamin D supplementation against upper respiratory tract infection was seen (adjusted odds ratio 0.88, 0.78 to 1.00; 4483 participants in 11 studies, P=0.05; table 5⇓).

Which to me makes it sound like it makes almost no difference.

Edit: The above could be for pre-exsisting patients.

Re: Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections (2017)

#12

Post by darkerside »

I've been wondering why it is that virus infections are supposed to "disappear" in the summer. Obviously the viruses don't actually go anywhere, so I would expect people to get sick year round. Maybe immunity boosting from Vitamin D could be part of the answer.

Re: Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections (2017)

#13

Post by coldcode »

ehnto wrote: post #6

Interesting! Anecdotally I used to get very, very bad respiratory infections once a year when working in an office full time, getting at best an hour in the sun a day. Now I remote work and get anywhere from 2-6 hours sun most days, and I haven't had a serious infection for more than a year and a half. Could still be coming, but I feel 200% better overall so regardless, highly recommend getting outside more. Edit: ma…

In your case avoiding the office is more likely to reduce your infections than the sun.

Re: Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections (2017)

#14

Post by leto_ii »

eyeball wrote: post #9

What’s the connection between calcium and D? I recall someone telling me you had to be careful of supplementing D or you could promote calcification in arteries. You had to take with a calcium shop or something. Is that true?

Vitamin D has a significant role in calcium homeostasis and metabolism. Its discovery was due to effort to find the dietary substance lacking in children with rickets (the childhood form of osteomalacia).[12] Vitamin D supplements are given to treat or to prevent osteomalacia and rickets.

taken from the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D

Re: Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections (2017)

#15

Post by tartoran »

ehnto wrote: post #6

Interesting! Anecdotally I used to get very, very bad respiratory infections once a year when working in an office full time, getting at best an hour in the sun a day. Now I remote work and get anywhere from 2-6 hours sun most days, and I haven't had a serious infection for more than a year and a half. Could still be coming, but I feel 200% better overall so regardless, highly recommend getting outside more. Edit: ma…

Some offices have mold in the carpet. Not saying that sun doesn’t have an effect but mold and exposure to other people could also be factors

Re: Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections (2017)

#16

Post by dtjohnnyb »

darkerside wrote: post #12

I've been wondering why it is that virus infections are supposed to "disappear" in the summer. Obviously the viruses don't actually go anywhere, so I would expect people to get sick year round. Maybe immunity boosting from Vitamin D could be part of the answer.

That is one hypothesis, though there are a lot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flu_season#Cause

Re: Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections (2017)

#17

Post by marcosdumay »

KaiserPro wrote: post #11

Table 4: > When all studies were analysed together, no statistically significant effect of vitamin D was seen on the proportion of participants with at least one upper respiratory tract infection, lower respiratory tract infection, hospital admission or emergency department attendance for acute respiratory tract infection, course of antimicrobials for acute respiratory tract infection, or absence from work or school…

That one significant result looks like this:

https://www.xkcd.com/882/

Re: Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections (2017)

#18

Post by IAmEveryone »

darkerside wrote: post #12

I've been wondering why it is that virus infections are supposed to "disappear" in the summer. Obviously the viruses don't actually go anywhere, so I would expect people to get sick year round. Maybe immunity boosting from Vitamin D could be part of the answer.

People spend more time indoors, often with the windows closed. Humidity might also be higher, and temperatures lower, two variables which have an effect on virus viability outside the body.

Re: Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections (2017)

#19

Post by arkitaip »

jgrahamc wrote: post #10
ehnto wrote: post #6

Interesting! Anecdotally I used to get very, very bad respiratory infections once a year when working in an office full time, getting at best an hour in the sun a day. Now I remote work and get anywhere from 2-6 hours sun most days, and I haven't had a serious infection for more than a year and a half. Could still be coming, but I feel 200% better overall so regardless, highly recommend getting outside more. Edit: ma…

Sounds like your exposure to other people might have changed dramatically: working in an office full time -> remote work.

Probably. Or maybe a less stressful commute to work, no crazy office politics, a change in diet/exercise (because you now have time to do those things properly)... It's really difficult to accurately establish correlation let alone causality when it comes to changes in one's health.

Re: Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections (2017)

#20

Post by VBprogrammer »

ehnto wrote: post #6

Interesting! Anecdotally I used to get very, very bad respiratory infections once a year when working in an office full time, getting at best an hour in the sun a day. Now I remote work and get anywhere from 2-6 hours sun most days, and I haven't had a serious infection for more than a year and a half. Could still be coming, but I feel 200% better overall so regardless, highly recommend getting outside more. Edit: ma…

I've been taking Vitamin D supplements for a few months. It started after reading a few articles on HN about how the RDA for Vitamin D was too low. Then I came across the NHS guidance which say in effect that everyone should consider taking a Vitamin D supplement, especially those who don't get out in the sunshine much (like most developers). Since there is basically no downside I started taking them.

Anecdotally I feel less lethargic when I remember to take them than when I slip out of the habit. I'm not sure whether that is just the placebo effect but the cost is low enough that it's worth it in either case.

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