Live data from Hacker News

Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

berthub.eu

101–110 of 156 posts

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#101
post #55
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re #2: the figure gets thrown around a lot. But who is outside, naked, at noon for fifteen minutes? It's really hard to translate that to anything meaningful or actionable. Here's a tool that can help calculate useful exposure depending on your location/time of year. Doesn't take clothing into account however.. https://fastrt.nilu.no/VitD-ez_quartMEDandMED_v2.html

Skin shade, location, time of year, and atmospheric conditions are other huge variables. My pale skin in the midday desert sun for fifteen minutes in July? I'd have a pretty serious burn.

You must be really pale. I'm super pale and it takes at least twice as long to start a light burn.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#102

Did my masters on Vitamin D - It is very difficult to extract CLINICALLY RELEVANT information from retrospective epidemiological studies. However, there a a few things that are clear: 1. Calcium absorption from the intestine increases with vitamin D supplementation dose up to around 8-10,000 IU D3 daily. 2. 15 minutes of full body exposure in noon sun is equivalent to a dose of ~20,000 IU D3 3. There are few cases of…

This is really dangerous advice to be peddling on internet forums. Statements 1 & 2 are both misleading. It is certainly true that a few high dosages of vitamin D are not harmful. The issue is the negative effects of having too high of a vitamin D status. Anyone taking more than 2k IU/day should do so after consulting their doctor or at least testing of their vitamin D levels.

And your statement is wiser because?

I've been taking vitamin d3 10K IU/day for 10 years and it has allowed my blood V-D3 levels to go from 12 ng/mL to ~50 which is within normal range. The NIH recommended dose has been going up over the last 2 decades starting at 400 IU and now 4,000 IU as we learn more and more about it's effectiveness.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#103
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These units seem _incredibly_ low to me. Your skin can generate almost 3000 IU in just 15 minutes on the right day. Many doctors even recommend treatments of 150,000 IU or more, in one go to correct deficiencies (do not do attempt without a doctor's recommendation and supervision). I do not doubt your experience, but it seems incredible to me that just a 5000 IU supplement gave you heart palpitations. Then again, I'v…

I appreciate your respectful skepticism. It is entirely possible that the supplements contained significantly more than on the label. However, I'd like to point out that the generally recommended dose for supplements is only 800IU in adults, with up to 4000IU only in the case of Vitamin D deficiency. The "tolerable upper intake level" is 4000IU [1]. I am unable to track through Wikipedia's sources here at the moment,…

The original RDA of 800 was designed to combat Rickets and has recently been thought to be significantly too low for folks in higher latitudes. Given the high number of variables perhaps simple RDA guidelines are not practical.

I take roughly 5k per day in the winter and it has helped a lot. See my other post for details.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#104

Did my masters on Vitamin D - It is very difficult to extract CLINICALLY RELEVANT information from retrospective epidemiological studies. However, there a a few things that are clear: 1. Calcium absorption from the intestine increases with vitamin D supplementation dose up to around 8-10,000 IU D3 daily. 2. 15 minutes of full body exposure in noon sun is equivalent to a dose of ~20,000 IU D3 3. There are few cases of…

Ditto re 10K. I've been taking Vitamin D3 10K IU/day for 10 years and it has allowed my blood V-D3 levels to go from 12 ng/mL to ~50 which is within normal range. The NIH recommended dose has been going up over the last 2 decades starting at 400 IU and now 4,000 IU as we learn more and more about it's effectiveness.

Re lux with full body exposure. I was under the impression it's an hour per day to get 15-20 IU? Either way it means exposing legs, hands and face to the sun which most people rarely do on a daily basis.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#105

I'm surprised the article barely mentions Vitamin K, which is needed along with Vitamin D - D to mobilize the calcium and K2 to put it into the right place. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5613455/

It's not really concerned about bone-health aspect, rather immune system support.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#106
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re #2: the figure gets thrown around a lot. But who is outside, naked, at noon for fifteen minutes? It's really hard to translate that to anything meaningful or actionable. Here's a tool that can help calculate useful exposure depending on your location/time of year. Doesn't take clothing into account however.. https://fastrt.nilu.no/VitD-ez_quartMEDandMED_v2.html

The point is that being outside naked at noon every day for 15 minutes wouldn't hurt you. Therefore, a daily dose of 20,000 IU / day won't hurt you. Therefore, a 5000 IU supplement every day won't hurt you either.

is this just an extrapolation or does my body actually constantly produce the same amount of vitamin D if i sit in the sun even if I don't have a deficit?

Because usually phisiological processes are in some kind of equilibrium and regulated, so it's not straightforward to compare it to supplements.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#107
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skin shade, location, time of year, and atmospheric conditions are other huge variables. My pale skin in the midday desert sun for fifteen minutes in July? I'd have a pretty serious burn.

You must be really pale. I'm super pale and it takes at least twice as long to start a light burn.

I'm not that pale but it's shocking how fast you can burn in some places. Denver, for example, has a mile less atmosphere protecting you and little UV-blocking humidity. While New Zealand famously has the ozone hole. I don't burn nearly as fast in San Francisco.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#108
post #79

Since I was a child I’ve been a walking respiratory illness machine. Bronchitis, sinusitis, flu, pneumonia, common cold, etc. During “flu” season I was usually sick for the entire season with a rotating assortment of viral respiratory issues, this lasted until about 7 years ago. 8 years ago in September I started taking 10,000 IU of vitamin D3 and 180mg of K2 daily. I haven’t had a deputies illness since. My children…

Why K2? is there any relation between D3 and K2, or is that just something that you're taking? Also, what dosage of D3 and K2 are you using for your kids?

I believe K2 is taken along with D3 in order to prevent the calcium from hardening in your veins.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really dangerous advice to be peddling on internet forums. Statements 1 & 2 are both misleading. It is certainly true that a few high dosages of vitamin D are not harmful. The issue is the negative effects of having too high of a vitamin D status. Anyone taking more than 2k IU/day should do so after consulting their doctor or at least testing of their vitamin D levels.

And your statement is wiser because? I've been taking vitamin d3 10K IU/day for 10 years and it has allowed my blood V-D3 levels to go from 12 ng/mL to ~50 which is within normal range. The NIH recommended dose has been going up over the last 2 decades starting at 400 IU and now 4,000 IU as we learn more and more about it's effectiveness.

The NIH states that 4000 IU is the tolerable upper intake: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessiona...

If you are rounding down your vitamin D status then it is currently at what the NIH say should be avoided. Have you consulted with a medical professional about your vitamin d status?

10k IU/day can be great when someone's level is 12, but it's not a maintenance dosage once at healthy levels.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#110

All these articles about different individual nutrients start to feel like heath whack-a-mole. How about this: to be in the best possible position to beat any serious infection, you need to be in generally good health. That means having adequate levels of all essential nutrients - i.e., all the vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes etc that you get from maintaining a good diet and healthy lifestyle over the long t…

And, try to get those things from foods. It can't be said enough: Fruits and Vegetables have extremely high densities of all your minerals and vitamins. I've calculated all their densities here based on USDA nutritional info: https://kale.world/c All the results are normalized to 200 calories for easy comparison. When you get your vitamins/minerals from a pill, you run the risk of your body not absorbing it because t…

> Fruits and Vegetables have extremely high densities of all your minerals and vitamins.

I don't think they have B12, you need to get that from animal sources or a pill.

Post reply on HN