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Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe Covid-19

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

#241

Post by zamfi »

sgustard wrote: post #202
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…

Hmm, my doctor specifically said a few weeks ago: "During active COVID-19 infection symptoms (fever, cough), please AVOID these common supplements: Echinacea, Elderberry, Polysaccharide extracts from Medicinal Mushrooms and Vitamin D as these MAY theoretically exacerbate the cytokine inflammatory storm. It's OK to take them preventively (if you are already doing so) but please stop at the first sign of COVID-19 sympt…

> "During active COVID-19 infection symptoms [...], please AVOID[...]"

> Hence I've been avoiding adding Vitamin D

Do you have active symptoms?

The concern is about a studied connection between Vitamin D supplementation and an increase in concentration of the IL-1b inflammation marker (see, e.g., [1]), which has been implicated in cytokine storms. The other supplements mentioned have similar effects.

This correlation suggests that you might not want to be taking Vitamin D if you're as risk of a cytokine storm hurting you.

That said, however, vitamin D is also associated with strong anti-inflammatory properties of other markers, so really -- it's super hard to predict what will happen. As far as I know, no one has observed a connection between Vitamin D and cytokine storms directly, so the whole thing is kind of hypothetical.

[1]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4631349/

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

#242

Post by Figs »

tlrobinson wrote: post #211
roenxi wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Because the WHO and FDA never got anything wrong...?

No; rather YouTube has taken it upon themselves to decide what the truth is and censor views they believe are wrong. e.g. see this news article: https://www.androidheadlines.com/2020/04/youtube-ceo-coronav...

--- (Snippet from the article) ---

YouTube's response is now to simply remove videos containing misinformation while previous policies have seen most related content demonetized. Examples provided by the executive include videos claiming that people can be cured by taking vitamin C or turmeric. Neither has been proven to act as a cure according to the wider health community.

Another example of prominent videos that are being removed, she continues, are those related to 5G as an underlying cause. The policy changes, like the rise of those conspiracy theories, have had to be rapid. As a result, for the time being, Videos that contain claims in direct opposition to information provided by WHO will be removed as well.

YouTube hopes that by removing conspiracy theories and misinformation, it can help keep users better informed.

----

While it may squash some of the stupider and more dangerous ideas floating around right now, it tosses the baby out with the bathwater and harms important discussion about whether those in charge right now do actually have their information right.

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

#243

Post by PopePompus »

piadodjanho wrote: post #225
swader999 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not for vitamin D production. Vitamin D is produced on UVB spectrum [1 Fig. 1] that decreases with the solar azimuth degree [2]. [1] https://www.direct-ms.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Vit-D-s... [2] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285056396_Vitamin_D...

Zenith angle, not azimuth.

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

#244

Post by ip26 »

virologist wrote: post #91
simonsarris wrote: post #2

I find this compelling: > Strikingly, 100% of ICU patients less than 75 years old had VDI [Vitamin D Insufficiency] Since mid-March I've been trying to keep track of Vitamin D/Sunlight suggestions and papers here: https://simonsarris.com/sunlight

But if someone is already in ICU doesn't it imply they have been on bed for a while and not able to generate vitamin D?

Breaking: 100% of ICU patients haven't seen the sun in days

It just doesn't have the same ring to it.

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

#245

Post by timmytokyo »

sabujp wrote: post #78

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.

Dietary supplements are totally unregulated in the US, so who knows what you were putting in your body?

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

#246

Post by ashtonkem »

msclrhd wrote: post #180
ashtonkem wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Then it’s probably not a vitamin if we can synthesize enough of it to function fine.

The definition of vitamin is that it’s gotta be organic, necessary for healthy functioning, and we must be incapable of synthesizing enough of it to survive, even if it’s also available in our food. This is why cholesterol isn’t a vitamin; it’s necessary for us to live, but we’re fully capable of synthesizing enough of it on our own.

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

#247

Post by rmetzler »

sgustard wrote: post #202
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…

Hmm, my doctor specifically said a few weeks ago: "During active COVID-19 infection symptoms (fever, cough), please AVOID these common supplements: Echinacea, Elderberry, Polysaccharide extracts from Medicinal Mushrooms and Vitamin D as these MAY theoretically exacerbate the cytokine inflammatory storm. It's OK to take them preventively (if you are already doing so) but please stop at the first sign of COVID-19 sympt…

I don't know if I had COVID-19 since I couldn't get a test. I had dry cough for 4 weeks since early May. It didn't go away.

I increased Vitamine D supply by taking a supplement and eating more fish (salmon, herring). The cough became better but became much better only when I also added Echinacea.

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

#248

Post by Melting_Harps »

ashtonkem wrote: post #171
beagle3 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> I believe the capability of humans to synthesize sufficient amounts of D3 under many circumstances makes it a hormone

Its molecular structure precursor is cholesterol, a steroid hormone which by convention is a molecule with 3 hexanes attached to pentane and an R group, it under goes a series of cleaves in the presence of UV light to yield D3.

D3 and its known analogue's behavioiur and bioactivety also behaves like a steroid/hormone in that it can passively diffuse across a membrane. and helps down-regulate other metabolic reactions. Its effects on reducing inflammation in IG patients is well documented and worth checking out.

Here is a good review on Corticosteroids, specifically on there effects on inflammation treatment.

https://www.medicinenet.com/corticosteroids_vs_nsaids/articl...

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

#249

Post by 8ytecoder »

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 went to my doctor complaining about the general lack of energy. Turned out to be Vitamin D. I grew up in the tropics and the lack of sun had put me under a severe deficiency. Had to take prescription strength to get to normal. Since then that’s one supplement I never miss.

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

#250

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

mkolodny wrote: post #53
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?

It depends on your skin color [0]. For people with light skin, 13 minutes of direct midday sunlight three times a week may be enough. But for people with dark skin, you may need 30 minutes to 3 hours of direct sunlight (the article doesn't make it clear whether that is three times a week or once a day) to get enough vitamin D. [0] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-d-from-sun#skin...

> 13 minutes of direct midday sunlight three times a week may be enough.

There's a metric left out of this equation.

How much of the body must be exposed?

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