Interesting that being an ex-smoker increases the risk, but being a current smoker decreases it. Seems like there is some short term benefit to smoking that outweighs its long term negative health effects.
Factors associated with Covid-19 deaths in records of 17M adult NHS patients
111–120 of 204 posts
Re: Factors associated with Covid-19 deaths in records of 17M adult NHS patients
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Unsurprisingly there's no direct clinical evidence. "We searched for trials and didn't find any" Unsurprisingly, there haven't been any (completed) trials on this particular combination of novel disease and possible prevention/treatment yet. I'm concerned that people conflate "no evidence for efficacy" with "it doesn't work" instead of "we don't know if it works". You always start out with "no evidence". There are…
You would see tons of research going on if there was more money to be made with Vitamin D.
Not so sure. Vitamin D is cheap to make.
Re: Factors associated with Covid-19 deaths in records of 17M adult NHS patients
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Unsurprisingly there's no direct clinical evidence. "We searched for trials and didn't find any" Unsurprisingly, there haven't been any (completed) trials on this particular combination of novel disease and possible prevention/treatment yet. I'm concerned that people conflate "no evidence for efficacy" with "it doesn't work" instead of "we don't know if it works". You always start out with "no evidence". There are…
You would see tons of research going on if there was more money to be made with Vitamin D.
I don't see why, since vitamin D is not patentable. If you spend the money on research others can make money from it making you lose out. Same reason why herbs are not researched even though they've been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years: you can't patent a plant.
Re: Factors associated with Covid-19 deaths in records of 17M adult NHS patients
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford did a rapid review of the literature on Vitamin D: https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/vitamin-d-a-rapid-review-of-th... Unsurprisingly there's no direct clinical evidence.
> Unsurprisingly there's no direct clinical evidence. "We searched for trials and didn't find any" Unsurprisingly, there haven't been any (completed) trials on this particular combination of novel disease and possible prevention/treatment yet. I'm concerned that people conflate "no evidence for efficacy" with "it doesn't work" instead of "we don't know if it works". You always start out with "no evidence". There are…
> There are studies that put serum Vitamin D levels against COVID-19 outcomes and they show a highly significant correlation
Until they correct for socio-economic factors it's a potentially misleading bit of data.
Re: Factors associated with Covid-19 deaths in records of 17M adult NHS patients
#115Interesting that being an ex-smoker increases the risk, but being a current smoker decreases it. Seems like there is some short term benefit to smoking that outweighs its long term negative health effects.
Maybe people who are ex-smokers have had serious lung issues, quit smoking, and are more susceptible. While people smoking have not yet progressed to that stage.
Re: Factors associated with Covid-19 deaths in records of 17M adult NHS patients
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I agree, we need better evidence on all the vitamin D claims. Not really. We should be blasting "get your Vitamin D supplements" from the rooftops, because maybe that's a significant factor in COVID-19 and it's safe and people should get them anyway. There's no downside. If in a few years it then turns out that Vitamin D had nothing to do with it, it doesn't matter . If it turns out that Vitamin D really was a big…
You are right that vitamin D is relatively safe compared to other potential treatments that were bandied about like hydroxychloroquine. But while there are fewer health risks from taking it, there are still the same behavioral issues that were present with hydroxychloroquine. The first is causing a run on vitamin D that prevents other people from acquiring if for their proven treatments. However the main issue that I…
> The first is causing a run on vitamin D that prevents other people from acquiring if for their proven treatments.
Vitamin D is an easily manufactured supplement, it's not medicine that some people absolutely have to take every day.
Also, we're heading into summer and the sun is still rising every day.
> However the main issue that I think we want to prevent is luring people into a false sense of security that causes them to decrease the proven preventive measures.
We've had the same discussion about masks, so I think that one's settled.
> We don't need large groups of people gathering on beaches because they think the sun will be a miracle cure and they don't have to worry about getting sick.
If you don't want people gathering on the beaches, prohibit it. Having said that, the risk of infection outdoors is generally considered to be quite low.
> So if you want to personally start taking it without changing your behavior, be my guest. But any advice to take it needs to be clear that the evidence it helps is still very suspect at this point.
The evidence that Vitamin D supplementation works is there and it has already been recommended for everyone with low serum levels, well before COVID-19.
The problem is that people often aren't even aware that their serum levels are low, so that is highly prevalent - especially in the elderly and people with darker skin.
Re: Factors associated with Covid-19 deaths in records of 17M adult NHS patients
#117Here's a link to the paper: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.06.20092999v... This is interesting data. I want to see Vitamin D status included in a large population study like this because I've been following two smaller studies covering about a thousand cases total that shows Vitamin D deficiency has a risk ratio of 10 to 20 (more even than being age 80+ in the above study). The studies: [1] https://p…
> I want to see Vitamin D status included in a large population study like this
Although vitamin D is not mentioned in this study, it does show that black people have a hazard ratio of about 2 compared to whites. In the UK black people would be more vitamin D deficient than white people.
Now that I think about it, isn't the potential for vitamin D deficiency the reason there are white people in the first place?
Re: Factors associated with Covid-19 deaths in records of 17M adult NHS patients
#118Interesting that being an ex-smoker increases the risk, but being a current smoker decreases it. Seems like there is some short term benefit to smoking that outweighs its long term negative health effects.
Maybe being forced to go outside in the sunshine for a cigarette break!
Re: Factors associated with Covid-19 deaths in records of 17M adult NHS patients
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford did a rapid review of the literature on Vitamin D: https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/vitamin-d-a-rapid-review-of-th... Unsurprisingly there's no direct clinical evidence.
The old adage applies here: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
However, evidence of absence is unlikely to be found as the vast majority of researchers tend not to bother publishing papers with negative results. So if an idea seems like it should have been researched already, but no research papers are to be found, it may very well be because the evidence of absence simply hasn't been shared.
Re: Factors associated with Covid-19 deaths in records of 17M adult NHS patients
#120Interesting that being an ex-smoker increases the risk, but being a current smoker decreases it. Seems like there is some short term benefit to smoking that outweighs its long term negative health effects.
Could it be a measurement error or that smokers who would’ve died because of covid already did die of something else or get a different condition before, essentially making it survivor bias?