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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

#171

Post by ashtonkem »

beagle3 wrote: post #167
ashtonkem wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“A vitamin is an organic molecule (or related set of molecules) that is an essential micronutrient which an organism needs in small quantities for the proper functioning of its metabolism. Essential nutrients cannot be synthesized in the organism, either at all or not in sufficient quantities, and therefore must be obtained through the diet. ” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin

By this definition you might argue that it's a vitamin north of some geographic line and a hormone south of that line .... Also, nicotinamide (one form of Vitamin B3) is a metabolite of niacin (nicotinic acid, another form of Vitamin B3). Humans can produce the former from the latter, but require at least one of them from the diet. Does that make niacin a vitamin, but nicotinamide a hormone? They are not equivalent,…

I believe the capability of humans to synthesize sufficient amounts of D3 under many circumstances makes it a hormone, not whether or not I’m synthesizing it right now. It doesn’t suddenly go from being a hormone to a vitamin once I took up an office job, I just stopped doing the activities required to self-synthesize it.

I think things get very tricky to define when you need at least one compound that can complete some biological process, but there are several different potential compounds that could do the job, some of which have to come from diet and others can by synthesized by the human body.

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

#172

Post by gre »

l_davis wrote: post #139
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-…

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.

Hackernews supports linking to videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCSXNGc7pfs

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

#173

Post by gerdesj »

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)

I certainly do not recommend taking sunlight orally (lol etc)

Over exposure to sunshine is a bad idea. Depending on latitude, time of year, skin colour and a few other very well understood factors determines what is a safe exposure to the sun. We all know this already. Getting outside generally involves fresh, moving air. There is also the risk of gentle, through moderate to vigorous exercise.

Wear a hat and sunscreen if required but a good thing you can do to fight this nasty (all other things being equal) is take moderate exercise outside daily. Don't overdo it and keep away from other people.

I won't recommend a dose of Vit D because I am not a doctor but this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D#Recommended_levels is probably a good start.

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

#174

Post by hoorayimhelping »

afarviral wrote: post #140
mikedilger wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

UV rays penetrate clouds, but the clouds do filter some of it, so you'll likely need to increase the amount of time you spend outside depending on how cloudy it is.

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

#175

Post by windex »

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-…

A lot of us actually know of the connection from previous experiences with the Flu. What it seems to really do is to clear out the cough that comes after the Flu when the cough/sorethroat tends to enter your lungs. With VitaminD, that phase of the flu is gone. I dont supplement regularly, and I start taking it the day I feel I am going down with the flu. No point recommending it because you will be seen as someone who constantly talks of the benefits of VitaminD.

The other thing to make sure of while taking Vitamin D is to take adequate Vitamin K2(menaquinone), else you land up with kidney stones. For continued benefits, I also take some amount of sodium borate and magnesium. Anyway, this is my irregular regimen and you will need to talk to your doc before you do this.

Get tested, meet a doc, get the right dose, and understand how it works.

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

#176

Post by swader999 »

jlarocco wrote: post #161
sneak wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Sunlight is bad for you in high doses without sunscreen. Moderate exposure is healthy, and may decrease the risk of many other cancers and heart disease. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/260247#3 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/07/dose-sunshine-ex... https://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-some-sun-exposure-will-p... Another way to look at it is that we evolved with the sun over millions of years, and t…

Early morning and sunset have wavelengths that are more beneficial and it's a great time to be outdoors.

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

#177

Post by DantesKite »

axegon_ wrote: post #42
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…

Well yes, Vitamin D is pretty hard to come around in the northern hemisphere so no surprise there. Mind you, it's far not the only thing - magnesium, zinc, selenium are just a few which most people are missing. I mean unless your diet consists entirely of tuna and salmon probably. Over the last few years, I've stressed significantly on my physical health(after being very overweight for the most of my adult life and n…

Interestingly enough, a few years ago some scientists hypothesized the lack of selenium in certain parts of China may have contributed to the spread of the SARS 2003 epidemic, since viruses that infect organisms deficient in selenium mutate at much faster rate (although some scientists dispute that).

https://www.nature.com/articles/424121a

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

#178

Post by windex »

beagle3 wrote: post #164
xxpor wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, there's downsides with too much Vitamin D, like hypercalcuria and the risk of kidney stones from that: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872784/

I've read a few references that mention taking vitamin K2 together with the Vitamin D makes this a non issue. I don't have a link handy, though.

menaquinone (k2 7)

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

#179

Post by trott »

It seems that the authors misunderstood the Boston study they are citing:

> In a Boston homeless shelter, 100% of 147 COVID-19 positive subjects were asymptomatic [3].

That study actually excluded N=15 symptomatic people:

> The original cases (N=15) were identified sequentially over a 5-day period, and each was expeditiously removed from the shelter population at the time of symptom recognition. These individuals predated the implementation of universal testing procedures and are excluded from this study.

So, it's rather unsurprising that 100% of the remaining people were asymptomatic.

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

#180

Post by msclrhd »

ashtonkem wrote: post #123
minkeymaniac wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Then what about vitamin A? Our body can synthesize it from beta-carotene.
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