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Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

medrxiv.org

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Re: Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

#71

Post by bedosh »

danenania wrote: post #28
mindcrime wrote: post #8

Interesting thing... Vitamin D is one of those things that, when vitamins come up on HN, you will often hear the refrain that "it's the one vitamin that large numbers of people are actually deficient in and ought to supplement." I've heard that many times over the years and I have taken a Vitamin D supplement on and off (more off than on) over the years. When this COVID-19 thing first hit, I had a physical scheduled…

Does anyone know of a rule of thumb for how much time spent in direct sunlight is equivalent to a Vitamin D supplement? Is an hour per day (on average) sufficient?

To add to the other replies, it depends on various factors (sun elevation being the most important). This is the best calculator I am aware of: https://fastrt.nilu.no/VitD_quartMEDandMED_v2.html

There are other related calculators linked also.

Re: Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

#73

Post by enitihas »

mikedilger wrote: post #40
danenania wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone know of a rule of thumb for how much time spent in direct sunlight is equivalent to a Vitamin D supplement? Is an hour per day (on average) sufficient?

I read Michael Holick's book (can't find it at the moment) he was the guy who discovered the circulating form of vitamin D.. IIRC you get vitamin D from the sun in rather large quantities. Just 15 minutes per day with only your face and hands exposed with the sun up at 45 degrees or more will be enough. I'm sure my data is not accurate, but it's in the ballpark. He has tables that depend on how dark your skin is and…

Does one need exposure to direct sunlight, or sunlight coming via glass windows works?

Re: Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

#74

Post by hollander »

davidw wrote: post #66

So what's the ideal amount of sun exposure to produce enough for a white guy at 45 north? Is there anywhere reputable that calculates this kind of thing?

You can read up on it in the book by Dr Holick. He recommends 4000IU daily, but if you're afraid that's too much, go with 2000IU/day. I take 4000IU daily since several years. Get a test before you start, so you have a base value. Test again after a month or two maybe three, and see what the change is.

With sun exposure, the book recommends the following. Go sit in the sun on a sunny day, until you get a mild rose burn. How long does that take? Divide that time over a week, and you're safe. This rose-burn time depends on the time of year, how high is the sun in the skye? How clear is the skye? What is the time of the day? So this value changes a lot for people in norther Europe, compared to people living in Africa.

Re: Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

#76

Post by wcarss »

kryogen1c wrote: post #38

this doesnt pass the correlation vs causation smell test for me. i suspect VID correlates well with COVID comorbidities, like a sedentary lifestyle, hypertension, and weight problems. the opposite is also probably true, that people with good vit D levels correlate with healthier lifestyles and fewer comorbidities.

This systematic meta-analysis paper[1] may be more convincing. The popular youtube COVID-commentating Dr. John Campbell did a review of it about a month ago[2] and has some good comments on the meaningful statistical power and experiment design.

The overall takeaway is this: in people with Vitamin D deficiency (which is very, very common), continuous daily supplementation can lead to up to a 70% reduction in contracted viral respiratory infections. It has a smaller effect the less deficient you are, and is not associated with any adverse effects.

1 - https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6583 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5yVGmfivAk

Re: Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

#77

Post by robocat »

teilo wrote: post #12
lidHanteyk wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, vitamin D is well-known to be harmful in excess [0] and to be fat-soluble, meaning that it can build up gradually over time. You might not hear of such conditions very often, though, since getting excess vitamin D usually takes effort. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D#Excess

It takes a LOT of effort. Like in excess of 50K UI a day for months. And then it needs co-factors to do harm, like excess calcium intake along with a K2-MK7 deficiency and/or a potassium deficiency (both of which are, unfortunately, very common). All in all, it's a very complex system that interacts with the body's buffering mechanisms.

From Wikipedia: “according to some research, the tolerable upper intake level (UL) is 4,000 IU/day for ages 9–71 (100 µg/day). Other research concludes that, in healthy adults, sustained intake of more than 1250 μg/day (50,000 IU) can produce overt toxicity after several months”

Re: Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

#78

Post by sabujp »

i loaded up on a bottle of costco vitamins and d3 supplement before we went on lockdown. There seems to be something in the multivitamins that i'm allergic to in high quantities, i.e. after taking them for 3-4 days straight I'll start getting hives. I reduced consumption to 1 mv tablet every 3 days and no problems so far. I'll probably increase d3 intake to 1 2000iu tablet per day and see how it goes.

Re: Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

#79

Post by gridlockd »

matsemann wrote: post #56
nosefrog wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing happened to me. I was in the single digits for Vitamin D, and my doc had me taking 10000 a day (or week) I think. Within a month, I started to feel way more energy in the afternoon (I used to feel dead by 1pm). I also mysteriously kept getting sick with small colds that winter before supplementing, and those also went away.

How is it taken in the rest of the world? In Norway, it's traditionally done by drinking cod liver oil daily during the winter months. At least that's what I do.

Cod liver oil, as well as the low-dose supplements, can prevent severe deficiency.

No food source has enough Vitamin D to get to a healthy level however.

If you cannot get sun, get a daily 4000 IU supplement.

Re: Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

#80

Post by innomatics »

So VDI is prevalent in the severe disease, but it's also prevalant in the general population.

Numbers in the study are very low and no significant correlation was found.

Lots of interesting postulation in the discussion. Could be worth looking at in a larger study.

Now cue the press stories, and panic buying...

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