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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

#121

Post by tinus_hn »

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…

If this has been suggested for some time it would be kind of odd that only one study has noticed the connection; this seems rather easy to test, right?

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

#122

Post by downerending »

kylek wrote: post #31
downerending wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a man, you can give blood to get this effect. I believe there was a study linking this to a decline in diabetes risk (or something like that).

If you're a man you'd use leeches.

Or periodic woodworking accident.

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

#123

Post by ashtonkem »

minkeymaniac wrote: post #117
ashtonkem wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vitamin D isn’t even really a vitamin, if it were we wouldn’t be able to synthesize it. It’s actually a hormone. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to take my next call out on the porch.

It's both isn't? In pill form it's a vitamin... from the sun it's a hormone

Same compound.

The definition of vitamin includes the inability of the organism to synthesize it itself, so vitamin D can’t be an actual vitamin

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

#124

Post by jimmaswell »

ashtonkem wrote: post #25
the_jeremy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A psychiatrist I saw multiple years ago told me to start taking Vitamin D. I went more or less blindly with 5,000 IU after reading some internet articles. I got my blood checked last year and decided I should probably actually know if I'm doing too much or too little. I was within 5% of the middle of the healthy range for vitamin D levels. For reference, 5,000 IU is >800% the FDA daily recommended value. People with…

Also, the absorption of it orally appears to be kind of finicky.

Some things like vitamin K and magneseum help absorbtion.

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

#125

Post by nradov »

downerending wrote: post #18
benjohnson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Men do have to worry about retaining too much iron. Women before menopause typically don't have to worry as they lose a bit of blood every month. https://www.winchesterhospital.org/health-library/article?id...

If you're a man, you can give blood to get this effect. I believe there was a study linking this to a decline in diabetes risk (or something like that).

Excess iron appears to be more of a risk factor for heart disease than diabetes. This is suspected as a reason why pre-menopausal women have a lower risk of heart attack than men and post-menopausal women. This is still an area of active research and not really proven.

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

#126

Post by [deleted] »

simonsarris wrote: post #5
cogman10 wrote: post #3

Does make me wonder how much of this is VDI and how much of this is the general population having VDI.

There are other papers that argue similar. On April 20, Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics: low population mortality from COVID‐19 in countries south of latitude 35 degrees North supports vitamin D as a factor determining severity https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/apt.15777 It also notes: > It could be argued that the virus spread later to the Southern Hemisphere and that countries there are simp…

[deleted]

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

#127

Post by Ididntdothis »

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…

How long did it take for you to notice a difference?

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

#128

Post by StavrosK »

throwaway122378 wrote: post #120

Beaches closed. Parks closed. Hikes closed. Stay inside and deprive the rest of your vitamin D.

It really is too bad that all our front doors lead directly to beaches, parks and hikes. How many people could have been saved if we had gardens, roofs and streets?

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

#129

Post by gregwebs »

This is a very weak study because it is retrospective: they just looked at existing medical records. And they only found 20 COVID patients that had vitamin D levels recorded. But the finding is compelling enough that we should demand better studies.

Actually there already is a better study where they actually tested vitamin D levels of many COVID patients [1]. It found vitamin D was strongly associated with less severe outcomes:

> Only 26% of the cases had 25(OH)D in the normal range, and virtually all of them (86%) had a mild outcome. ... Just over a third (38%) had 25(OH)D in the insufficient range, and only one of them (1.3%) had a mild outcome. ... Just over a third (36%) had 25(OH)D in the deficient range, and their distribution was pushed further toward severe and critical outcomes. Only one patient (1.4%) had a mild outcome, while 26% had an ordinary outcome, 40% had a severe outcome, and 33% had a critical outcome.

Now we should demand a controlled trial where they actually give a vitamin D intervention: this would provide causal evidence. However, avoiding vitamin D deficiency is already very well studied and has so many benefits that I think it is worth everyone's time and effort to do so.

Many people are advising high levels of vitamin D supplementation. However, there is reason to not overdo it on vitamin D supplementation and take just 1700 IU/day (or to just get sunshine) [2]. Of course, getting your vitamin D levels tested (with the help of by a doctor) is the safe way to go about this.

[1] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3571484

[2] https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/covid-19/update-on-vitamin-d-...

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

#130

Post by Ididntdothis »

sneak wrote: post #96
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair: It isn't just folks with indoor jobs and hobbies. I've discussed this with my doctor after being severely low on vitamin D. It caused physical pain. I'm far enough north that it is impossible to get the sunlight needed during the winter. I still have days, but they are short without strong sun - not to mention that it is too cold to go without a jacket. So, supplements at least during the winter. During t…

Sunlight exposure is also bad for you; taking it orally is the way to go for most people. As pointed out upthread, most supplements are hilariously low-dose. I take 20k IU, 3 times per week. (most supplements are like 1000IU per pill, but 3000IU pills can be found)

Isn’t some sunlight exposure good in general? I think it’s going too far to declare sunlight as genealogy dangerous. It definitely helps me with my mood.
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