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

Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

medrxiv.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 304 posts

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

#131

Post by Guest0918231 »

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…

I had mine checked because I was curious when I went for bloodwork a couple of years ago. I was expecting it would be low since I work indoors on a computer all day and my exposure to the sun in winter is limited.

I think I was tested in late fall, and it was fairly expensive to have done (roughly $100 where I was in Europe). From what I remember, you're deficient if you're less than 12 ng/mL and mine was around 6 ng/mL.

Of course I want to say I feel better, experience less winter blues, get sick less often, and have more energy since I started taking a supplement. I can't be certain of any of those things though. Maybe it makes a difference, maybe it doesn't. I feel decent these days, the numbers say I should take it, so that's why I take it.

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

#132

Post by Florin_Andrei »

lisper wrote: post #93
simonsarris wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For reference, 5,000 IU is >800% the FDA daily recommended value. Unfortunately the daily recommended value was established erroneously and should be much higher. Many research papers mention this. For example: > The Institute of Medicine recommendation for adults younger than 70 years of age is 600 IU of vitamin D daily. We are told that this would achieve a level of 50 nmol/L in greater than 97.5% of individuals.…

The next paragraph is even more interesting: > A colleague of mine and I have introduced vitamin D at doses that have achieved greater than 100 nmol/L in most of our patients for the past number of years, and we now see very few patients in our clinics with the flu or influenzalike illness. In those patients who do have influenza, we have treated them with the vitamin D hammer, as coined by my colleague. This is a 1-…

> Wow. Why isn't this more prominent on the covid radar?

How many cases have they seen? N = what value?

Also, in terms of number of studies, it's N = 1.

I'm not saying it's not a good idea. I'm saying let's get more data before we proclaim it from the roof tops.

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

#133

Post by eldenbishop »

_bxg1 wrote: post #68
dontbenebby wrote: post #7

Is there any evidence multivitamins are harmful (not just that there's no proof they help improve health?) It's because of stuff like this I take one. Maybe I'm wasting money, but absent a harm I feel it's worth it to hedge my bets.

I read up on this because I had a really bad sinus infection a couple months ago and found myself taking "Emergen-C" every morning, which advertises "1000% your daily value of Vitamin C". Immediately after my sinus infection cleared up the virus stuff started, so I kept taking it for a while. From what I read, at least with Vitamin C, you have to get into the 2000% range before there start being negative side-effects…

I take as much as 20 grams a day with no side-effects. It can take your stomach awhile to get used to that much but once it has adjusted its fine.

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

#134

Post by roenxi »

lisper wrote: post #93
simonsarris wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For reference, 5,000 IU is >800% the FDA daily recommended value. Unfortunately the daily recommended value was established erroneously and should be much higher. Many research papers mention this. For example: > The Institute of Medicine recommendation for adults younger than 70 years of age is 600 IU of vitamin D daily. We are told that this would achieve a level of 50 nmol/L in greater than 97.5% of individuals.…

The next paragraph is even more interesting: > A colleague of mine and I have introduced vitamin D at doses that have achieved greater than 100 nmol/L in most of our patients for the past number of years, and we now see very few patients in our clinics with the flu or influenzalike illness. In those patients who do have influenza, we have treated them with the vitamin D hammer, as coined by my colleague. This is a 1-…

An interesting thought experiment is would a video showcasing this paper risk being be banned on YouTube? I'm not going to bother checking if the WHO has a Vitamin D recommendation; but recommending many multiples of the FDA dose probably counts as misinformation.

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

#135

Post by alfalfasprout »

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…

So, this is only partly true. You need direct sunlight AND the amount varies wildly depending on your skin color. If you're rather pale, it may be only 15 min. But it can go up to several hours if you're dark-skinned.

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

#136

Post by Florin_Andrei »

namdnay wrote: post #51
subsubzero wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also had a vitamin D deficiency that was found after a particularly bad string of colds, my Dr told me to take a supplement(5000ius daily) of vitamin D and have not seen anything like it since. Apparently windows cars/office block sunlight's ability to create vitamin D in a person so a car ride or sitting near an office window does not provide any help. And if you are in a office job you are def. not getting enough…

> if you are in a office job you are def. not getting enough vitamin D. I think this really depends on location and lifestyle. Anyone in a Mediterranean or sunnier climate that spends more than 30mn a day outside will be fine

I spend lots of time outside and I live in California. I still had life-long vit D deficiency, probably since birth. No idea why, might be something genetic.

The only way I could figure it out was via blood tests, spaced a few years apart. First time the doctor said "hm, you're pretty low on vit D, you should supplement it". Second time, it was more like "you're really low and you should take XXX amount each day, NOW!"

Big changes in terms of mood and "energy". I'm now kicking myself for not taking it earlier.

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

#137

Post by lisper »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #132
lisper wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next paragraph is even more interesting: > A colleague of mine and I have introduced vitamin D at doses that have achieved greater than 100 nmol/L in most of our patients for the past number of years, and we now see very few patients in our clinics with the flu or influenzalike illness. In those patients who do have influenza, we have treated them with the vitamin D hammer, as coined by my colleague. This is a 1-…

> Wow. Why isn't this more prominent on the covid radar? How many cases have they seen? N = what value? Also, in terms of number of studies, it's N = 1. I'm not saying it's not a good idea. I'm saying let's get more data before we proclaim it from the roof tops.

I've seen one other paper that mentions this:

https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202003.0235/v1

There may be others, I haven't really been looking.

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

#138

Post by odysseus »

There is an app I've been using to track my Vitamin D for a few years now: http://dminder.ontometrics.com

(Not affiliated with the app, just happy with it.) It tells you the sun angle, peak hour of the day, and maximum time you should be in that day's sun based on your skin type, to avoid getting burnt while still getting enough D.

Be careful though - you might get a little OCD about Vitamin D tracking with this app. I did, and mainly use it now for checking how long it is safe to stay outdoors. (Instead of full blown tracking.)

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

#139

Post by l_davis »

lisper wrote: post #93
simonsarris wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For reference, 5,000 IU is >800% the FDA daily recommended value. Unfortunately the daily recommended value was established erroneously and should be much higher. Many research papers mention this. For example: > The Institute of Medicine recommendation for adults younger than 70 years of age is 600 IU of vitamin D daily. We are told that this would achieve a level of 50 nmol/L in greater than 97.5% of individuals.…

The next paragraph is even more interesting: > A colleague of mine and I have introduced vitamin D at doses that have achieved greater than 100 nmol/L in most of our patients for the past number of years, and we now see very few patients in our clinics with the flu or influenzalike illness. In those patients who do have influenza, we have treated them with the vitamin D hammer, as coined by my colleague. This is a 1-…

If you watch the videos by Dr John Campbell (British public health expert), he talks about Vitamin D all the time. He also expresses his frustration that this isn't given more attention.

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

#140

Post by afarviral »

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…

What if it's cloudy? We are lucky to get 3 days a week where the midday sun isn't covered by cloud. Is it still sufficient filtering through the atmosphere?
Post reply on HN