111–120 of 178 posts
This is a personal experience. But I've been struggling with constant throat infections, tiredness and coughing every winter for years (I live in a Nordic country). Had my 25-Hydroxy-Vitamin D(D3+D2) checked in both autumn and winter 2 years ago. In October it was ~ 110 nmol/L and in February it was ~ 30 nmol/L. (Deficiency is around 50 nmol/L). Seeing the seasonal difference was a bit of an eye-opener. And I have be…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its not possible to get any vitamin D from the sun in the winter in these high latitudes even if you outside in the sun all day with short sleeves. The angle of the sun is too low. We are just beginning march now, so the sun should soon be beginning to be high enough to give some benefit.
Sweden here. My partner is a doctor, she claims with assurance that you can't make a carpet decision like this. People who come from norther latitudes are used to the lack of sun, and their bodies don't need more vitamin D than is provided. Depending on your heritage, ymvm.
I can say from my own experience that the lack of vitamin D can have a significant impact on both mind and body. I suspect that essentially all people living at relatively northern latitudes have some sort of vitamin D deficiency. From what I know you need to have your face and arms exposed to direct sunshine for at least 15 minutes/day to keep healthy vitamin D levels in the body. Good luck with that in the European…
Its not possible to get any vitamin D from the sun in the winter in these high latitudes even if you outside in the sun all day with short sleeves. The angle of the sun is too low. We are just beginning march now, so the sun should soon be beginning to be high enough to give some benefit.
I can say from my own experience that the lack of vitamin D can have a significant impact on both mind and body. I suspect that essentially all people living at relatively northern latitudes have some sort of vitamin D deficiency. From what I know you need to have your face and arms exposed to direct sunshine for at least 15 minutes/day to keep healthy vitamin D levels in the body. Good luck with that in the European…
Even that might not be enough, since in many people the body's ability to synthesize vitamin D when exposed to sunlight decreases with age. The only way to know for sure where you stand is to get your blood levels checked when you get a physical, and supplement if you need to.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is one hypothesis, though there are a lot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flu_season#Cause
Mind boggling that this kind of a thing isn't known. This says the total economic effect of seasonal influenza in the US alone is 87 billion per year. That's six NASA:s worth: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X0...
I was blown away recently when I discovered that the causes of myopia aren't really known, but don't seem to be primarily genetic.
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…
I suffer from similar issues with allergic asthma, which type of allergy and in which time of the year do you suffer more ?
When I was in my twenties I've gone through severe asthma episodes, due to exposure to such allergens and once you get inflamed it's really hard to reverse without proper treatment. So I eventually went on a treatment with corticoids and Symbicort and by avoiding the problematic allergens I've been fairly well under control ever since, haven't needed any treatment for years. Before that I was using Ventolin, which wasn't working well and gave me tachycardia episodes, thank god treatment for asthmatics got better.
But I remained fairly sensitive to colds, many colds I catch evolve into bronchitis.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is one reason arctic people eat so much (vitamin D rich) fish. The other is of course that a plant based diet is impractical when plants are only alive half the year. White skin itself is an evolutionary adaption for getting enough vitamin D outside of tropical Africa. The extreme "melanin-anemic" blond & blue eyes look of Scandinavia is thought to be because it has a uniquely warm weather for the latitude, whic…
I'm probably missing something obvious but... Should white skin not reflect sunlight more, and dark skin absorb it more? I agree that northerners have more need to absorb sunrays and hence make more vitamin D, so shouldn't they be black?
"White" and "dark" refer to the skin's effects on visible light. Visible light is different wavelengths from UV light; vitamin D production in the skin depends on UV light. "Dark" skin blocks UV light more than "white" skin does.
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.
> i feel as if my memory is far better and i dont feel tired all the time. I agree. Don't overdo it though, 5000 IU daily seems a bit much :) I live in Amsterdam and take 2000.
I think it depends on the person. If you get your blood level checked when you have a regular physical, you can adjust the dose as needed to keep the level where you want it (I shoot for the upper end of the normal range, and 5000 IU a day seems to be doing that for me).
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…
Eat more red meat (I rarely touched it in the past), and take a daily supplement was the charge. The mental clarity and well-being improvements are palpable.