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Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

medrxiv.org

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181–190 of 304 posts

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

#181

Post by 6nf »

subsubzero wrote: post #26
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 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…

Pretty much all glass used in cars or buildings block the UV light you need. Only direct sunlight helps Vitamin D levels.

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

#182

Post by Turing_Machine »

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

Perhaps not, if you're slathering on SPF 5 million sunscreen every time you go outdoors, as many people seem to do nowadays.

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

#184

Post by joshgel »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #156

> In an Institutional Review Board approved study performed at a single, tertiary care academic medical center, the medical records of COVID-19 patients were retrospectively reviewed. Subjects were included for whom serum 25-hydroxycholecalcifoerol (25OHD) levels were determined. COVID-19-relevant data were compiled and analyzed. We determined the frequency of VDI among COVID-19 patients to evaluate the likelihood of…

But they didn't even check the Vitamin D levels. They only checked patients that had Vitamin D levels checked by physicians. So presumably this was a different population that was more sick by definition, because their physicans were checking them for Vitamin D deficiency. There aren't many good inpatient indications for checking Vitamin D. It's check for not good reasons sometimes, but most likely these patients were being followed by an outpatient doctor who was looking for something to explain some symptom, test result or problem that they were having.

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

#185

Post by orwin »

btrettel wrote: post #159
strken wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zinc's neurotoxic, which is why it permanently damages your sense of smell and also why people are hesitant to take it to cure the common cold.

Interesting. The Zinc supplement that I started taking a couple times of week due to COVID-19 exceeds all upper limits listed on Wikipedia when taken at the recommended daily dose (50 mg). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc#Dietary_recommendations > In the case of zinc the adult UL is 40 mg/day (lower for children). > The EFSA reviewed the same safety question and set its UL at 25 mg/day, which is much lower than the…

Please be carefull with trace element as supplements, only take it if your doctor agree and don't self-medicate. When i was younger a kid in my school almost killed himself with iron poisoning (well, rather his parents almost killed him).

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

#186

Post by WWLink »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #170
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…

> People with indoor jobs and hobbies are probably not getting enough. I argue that if you go outside and wear the appropriate sun protection—long pants,long sleeves, neck covered, broad rim hat, and wear sunscreen on the exposed parts—you can't get enough sun exposure to produce enough Vitamin D.

If you do get enough sun exposure without the protective clothing you'll probably damage the shit out of your skin.

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

#187

Post by Melting_Harps »

MattGaiser wrote: post #168
Melting_Harps wrote: post #166

> 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." Well, let me add to the narrative, as this was the concentration of my Undergrad studies. Vitamin D, and its analogues are not actually vitamins, they're steroid-hormones and behave as such…

So for all of us biochemistry muggles, what should we be taking and how much? I just want to pip install vitamin-d and be on my way.

What's a muggle?

Honestly, if you live in CA like most here just sun bathe for 15-20 mins daily on exposed skin, your body actually has a 'built-in' start-stop system that will actually stop producing vitamin D innately due to a feedback loop. You need to stop before your skin becomes irritated and begins to burn, obviously, to avoid damage. 17 mins for me is the sweet spot for ideal blood serum levels.

> what should we be taking and how much?

If taken as a dietary supplement that is way beyond me, as I'm not a physician and its irresponsible to give medical advice as its specifically related to you and your health.

But someone even mentioned the 10000 IU doses that can be administered in severe cases with little to no harm and that's worth noting in terms of toxicity risk.

Personally, I moved to CO from the coastal part of CA partly because of the elevation difference and intensity of Sun in the Fall and Winter months to mitigate my Vitamin D level decreasing and how it affects my health; so my personal optimized blood serum wouldn't be compatible to your own, so even that wouldn't work.

> I just want to pip install vitamin-d and be on my way.

Biohacker hat on: Get some Vitmain D pills and start with taking 1000 IU (as a baseline) and increase the dosage incrementally on a weekly basis while documenting your mood, and overall health and decide for yourself. You get several types of endorphins from it, so when I started to find my effective doses I noticed it alleviated my irritability and frequent headaches.

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

#188

Post by pdx » 

    20 Patients in Study with COV19
      * 65% of them went to ICU (13 patients)
      * 35% of them did not (7 patients)

    Of the 13 Patients in the ICU 84.6% (11 patients) had VDI
    Of the 7 Patients not in ICU 57.4% (4 Patients) had VDI
Thin gruel indeed. But all they are saying is that it's perhaps worth doing a real study. That's fair.

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

#190

Post by hnick »

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 think a lot of other replies are missing the nuance.

It depends on a lot of things. Time of year, time of day, skin colour, where you live, if you're under an Ozone hole, UV index, personal sensitivity/medications, etc.

This is a good summary[0] for the situation in Australia, possibly the worst in the world when it comes to the sun being deadly. Their strongest statement about avoiding sun:

"During summer in Australia, all states experience long periods during the day when the UV Index is 3 or above (see Table 1). During these periods, a combination of sun protection measures (broad brimmed hat, covering clothing, sunscreen, sunglasses and shade) is recommended when outdoors for more than a few minutes. In summer, most Australian adults will maintain adequate vitamin D levels from sun exposure during typical day to day outdoor activities."

So a few minutes in the sun without protection is enough to raise your cancer risk during the worse times on the worst days and you shouldn't be seeking any sun intentionally for vitamin D during these times. Growing up it was easy to get sunburned in 10-15 minutes on some days, and the advice was that if you burn you definitely raised your cancer risk.

[0]: https://wiki.cancer.org.au/policy/Position_statement_-_Risks...

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