Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]
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Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]
#2Although this is a notable finding it's important to remember that it doesn't lead to the conclusion that supplementing vitamin D will be very beneficial here. When vitamin D is produced in the body naturally via exposure to sunlight there's a huge amount of other things that occur as well, and we don't have a ton of good science to back up if curing a vitamin D deficiency via supplementation of pure vitamin D is really nearly the same as getting it naturally, which is a common problem for supplementing things and nutritional science and epidemiology in general.
The extent that covid harms those that are metabolically unfit in many different ways much more than those that are perfectly healthy is still pretty under-discussed imo though, and this is yet another good data point in favor of it, even if Vitamin D is much more of a different proxy than some of the other large correlations we see with covid mortality.
Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]
#3This conclusion (10x higher mortality if deficient in Vitamin D) is rather significant. How trustworthy is this source?
Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]
#4Interesting but a there's a decent chance of correlation not causation. Unhealthy people and people over 65 (i.e. those most susceptible to serious COVID complications) are the same group that are most likely to be Vitamin D deficient. The primary source of Vitamin D is sunlight. People over 65 tend to stay indoors, etc. People with darker skin are also more prone to D deficiency due to increased melanin, but also have higher rates of obesity, more likely to suffer from diabetes, are more likely to live in cramped conditions, etc.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3447083/ https://www.cantonmercy.org/healthchat/42-percent-of-america... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6075634/
Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]
#5Vitamin D has been endlessly promoted as a treatment for many diseases due to evidence from observational studies, but hundreds of millions of dollars in randomized controlled trials have never demonstrated it to be effective for any disease except rickets.
There was just a large trial published in JAMA [1] examining its effectiveness for depression given solid observational data. It was not at all effective.
The reason that Vitamin D is associated with many diseases but is not causative for anything is that Vitamin D level is highly correlated with other metrics of health such as socioeconomic status, active lifestyle, nutritional sufficiency, etc.
We are wasting our time and money looking at Vitamin D again and again and again.
1. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/27689...
Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]
#6Supplementing with vitamin D should be easy enough to test. Given that most people get their necessary vitamin D by going outside, couldn’t the presence/lack of this vitamin be an indicator of other lifestyle choices that may affect the person’s ability to fight off the disease?
Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]
#7Everyone should try a Vitamin D cycle if only to see if makes a big difference in daily life, especially if you live in area with sad winters. It's one of the few supplements that dramatically improves mood for those deficient or sensitive to large doses.
Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]
#8This conclusion (10x higher mortality if deficient in Vitamin D) is rather significant. How trustworthy is this source?
Borsche and Glauner don't seem very trustworthy, but it is no secret that a vitamin D deficiency is correlated with higher mortality. The comorbidities that are associated with Covid-19 mortality are, pretty much, all correlated with vitamin D deficiency. The real question is, if someone is obese, or has diabetes, or has CKD, or is old, what is it that is making them more likely to die of Covid-19? Is it a vitamin D deficiency or some other related issue? and can supplemental vitamin D help?
My guess is that it helps more than hurts to supplement vitamin D if you are deficient or insufficient. I'd also guess that it is no miracle cure like Borsche and Glauner seem to want people to think.
Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]
#9Although this is a notable finding it's important to remember that it doesn't lead to the conclusion that supplementing vitamin D will be very beneficial here. When vitamin D is produced in the body naturally via exposure to sunlight there's a huge amount of other things that occur as well, and we don't have a ton of good science to back up if curing a vitamin D deficiency via supplementation of pure vitamin D is rea…
What about this section of the pdf? From a 2016 study on patients with other respiratory diseases.
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High dose vitamin D administration in ventilated intensive care unit patients: A pilot double blind randomized controlled trial In the study, patients with vitamin D deficiency (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221462371...
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Ah, the pdf has a second such study. Mortality almost half less
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Intervention was carried out intramuscularly with 300,000 IU of vitamin D. Instead of 28 days only 18 days mechanical ventilation, instead of 29 only 19 on ICU, instead of 61% deaths only 36%.
Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]
#10Everyone should try a Vitamin D cycle if only to see if makes a big difference in daily life, especially if you live in area with sad winters. It's one of the few supplements that dramatically improves mood for those deficient or sensitive to large doses.
Vitamin D tests aren't usually too expensive (as far as medical tests go), so it might be worth just getting tested rather than trying to see what difference it is making (which can be tricky if you are someone sensitive to the placebo effect or if the effect of vitamin D supplementation isn't immediate or what not).