Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bmj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 178 posts

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

#61

Post by hannob »

mherdeg wrote: post #38

As a layperson it feels to me like research in the "megadose on vitamins to prevent illness" area is kind of tainted by the legacy of Linus Pauling, who was no doubt a genius in his fields and whose published literature advocated the position that vitamin C megadose would reduce cancer deaths by 75% ( https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/07/the-vitam... ). I guess we know how to avoid the trouble -- make h…

> The trouble there is that the placebo effect is not a bad thing -- if you're doing things which you think will improve your wellness and it works, who cares whether there's a chemical mechanism? It works!

That's an exceptionally oversimplified view on the placebo effect.

There's a very obvious issue: If you take something that helps you due to placebo it may still also harm you due to its side effects. Some vitamins have been shown to increase overall mortality.

But there's another issue, and that is that often what people observe isn't the placebo effect, but something called "regression to the mean". Which is basically the effect that you may take something and you get better, though you would've gotten better anyway, because that's the natural progression of the disease you have. This is very likely a bigger reason for all the "I took it myself and got better, so I know it works!"-stories out there than the placebo effect. And the "who cares why it works?" argument doesn't count for regression to the mean.

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

#62

Post by speakeron »

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?

It should be taken with vitamin K2. The theory is that it aids calcium absorption into bones rather than dumping into arteries.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4566462/

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

#63

Post by alaaf »

netheril96 wrote: post #56
TacoToni wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

getting my blood panel ran and finding out i was deficient in Vitamin D changed my life for the better once i start daily supplementation of Vitamin D3 (5000 IU). I even live in Florida, but working in an office all day doesn't help. Now that my levels are good, i feel as if my memory is far better and i dont feel tired all the time.

The FDA's recommendation for Vitamin D daily value is 400 IU. 5000 IU seems extremely and poisonous.

It actually isn’t. 400 IU is based on preventing disease. To obtain optimal health though, dosages should usually be much higher. Obviously this differs from person to person, but 2000 IU should lead to optimal vitamin D levels. This is an interesting video on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeLC_b5gDUM

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

#64

Post by leto_ii »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #60
leto_ii wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No you can't. Yes I can :D While my experience is obviously not definitive scientific proof it can still bring some value. To give you a more simple example: when I broke my leg I went to the doctor's and put it in a cast. That helped me tremendously. Is that a well designed randomized controlled trial? No. Is it good advice to anybody with a broken leg? I would say so.

A cast for a broken leg is not comparable to concluding cause and effect with a vitamin supplement. Vitamin supplement quality, absorption rate, measurement accuracy, etc are all difficult to pin down.

There is science around this though. If you take a vitamin D blood test that shows low levels a doctor will prescribe a certain dose. Vitamin D is scientifically known to be important for humans, it's not just my opinion.

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

#65

Post by drgoodvibe »

I had a genetic test done (not 23andme or other retail genetic tests) and it turns out I have genes that essentially cause me to have low absorption for vitamins d, b6 and b12 and vitamin e. According to my bloodwork I also had extremely low Vit d in the blood (way below average). I started megadosing and honestly I feel like a different person, when I got a cold before it would last for 7 days, and twice it led to bronchitis and then pneumonia this year since megadosing I’ve had two colds and both lasted no more than 2 days. So I’m not superman, I still get sick but the severity of the colds have been significantly lower than before megadosing.

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

#66

Post by elric »

netheril96 wrote: post #56
TacoToni wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

getting my blood panel ran and finding out i was deficient in Vitamin D changed my life for the better once i start daily supplementation of Vitamin D3 (5000 IU). I even live in Florida, but working in an office all day doesn't help. Now that my levels are good, i feel as if my memory is far better and i dont feel tired all the time.

The FDA's recommendation for Vitamin D daily value is 400 IU. 5000 IU seems extremely and poisonous.

The body can produce up to 25000 IU/day in very sunny places on very pale skin. 10000IU/day is considered the safe upper limit. Whether or not that's a good idea long term is a different matter.

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

#67

Post by raxxorrax »

hannob wrote: post #61
mherdeg wrote: post #38

As a layperson it feels to me like research in the "megadose on vitamins to prevent illness" area is kind of tainted by the legacy of Linus Pauling, who was no doubt a genius in his fields and whose published literature advocated the position that vitamin C megadose would reduce cancer deaths by 75% ( https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/07/the-vitam... ). I guess we know how to avoid the trouble -- make h…

> The trouble there is that the placebo effect is not a bad thing -- if you're doing things which you think will improve your wellness and it works, who cares whether there's a chemical mechanism? It works! That's an exceptionally oversimplified view on the placebo effect. There's a very obvious issue: If you take something that helps you due to placebo it may still also harm you due to its side effects. Some vitamin…

From the parent comment:

> who cares whether there's a chemical mechanism? It works!

There probably even is a chemical mechanism that improves your health. Mental conditions like fear increase your heartbeat, respiration and muscle tonus, being relaxed does the opposite. Stress is a factor we know is contraproductive for the immune system and general health.

The effects have severe limitations of course and I don't think you can take anything to "trigger" the placebo effect. You need the healthy self deception part for it to work.

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

#68

Post by jmnicolas »

drgoodvibe wrote: post #65

I had a genetic test done (not 23andme or other retail genetic tests) and it turns out I have genes that essentially cause me to have low absorption for vitamins d, b6 and b12 and vitamin e. According to my bloodwork I also had extremely low Vit d in the blood (way below average). I started megadosing and honestly I feel like a different person, when I got a cold before it would last for 7 days, and twice it led to b…

As someone that mega dose vitamin C in summer because it helps with my allergies, I'd be wary to mega dose vitamin D (more than 3k UI a day).

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

#69

Post by neuronic »

May I mention the following research on NCBI:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28768407

I will simply quote from the abstract:

> This could lead to a recommendation of 1000 IU for children 1 year of age, and around 8000 IU for young adults and thereafter. Actions are urgently needed to protect the global population from vitamin D deficiency.

Essentially, the recommended intake that pharmacists and labels tell you is outdated and founded in a statistical error. Adults are recommended to take >8,000IU every day and not ~1,000IU as still believed by many professionals who last updated their brainbase decades ago.

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

#70

Post by neuronic »

bad_user wrote: post #36

I suffer from allergic asthma and tend to catch colds quite frequently. This year I started supplementing with 2000 UI of vitamin D daily and it's as if my immune system started functioning normally, in the last 10 months I only caught a really light cold that I could barely notice, whereas before this the winter season alone would bring 2 severe cold or flu episodes that would knock me down for several days. I can't…

> it's as if my immune system started functioning normally

Nothing constructive to add, but I wanted to say I am glad you are feeling much better. This is great to hear!

Post reply on HN