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Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]

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Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]

#11

Post by xutopia »

ve55 wrote: post #2

Although 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…

The study showed that supplementing (though it was injection) to between "45 and 55 ng/ml" is "useful not only in prevention but also in acute cases".

So yes... sunlight does probably way more benefits for us but supplementation if you are deficient is still showing significant effects.

Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]

#12

Post by russfink »

emdowling wrote: post #3

This conclusion (10x higher mortality if deficient in Vitamin D) is rather significant. How trustworthy is this source?

From a technical writing style perspective, the thing going against this paper is the folksy way of writing. It also includes things called weasel words, such as saying very young doctor, versus young doctor, or even just doctor.

The results are compelling, and I suppose it would not hurt to take a prophylaxis of vitamin D (5,000 units per the article?) as compared to a prophylaxis of something else, such as hydroxychloroquine (or Lysol!)

Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]

#13

Post by BurningFrog »

ve55 wrote: post #2

Although 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…

Technically true, but you should still eat vitamin D supplements.

It's very cheap and safe, so worst case it has less effect than you hope. You can overdose, but you have to really crazy with the dosage.

Also 1: Vitamin D supplements do cure rickets.

Also 2: All of us who eat supplements should show up in the stats as high in vitamin D, so the data does partially cover that case.

Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]

#14

Post by James_Henry »

MontagFTB wrote: post #6

Supplementing 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?

Sure, but a bigger confounder is probably that vitamin D deficiency is associated with metabolic syndrome, CKD, obesity, diabetes, etc. These may be, for some people, indicative of lifestyle choices as well, but those choices are, I'd guess, not the direct cause of a person's inability to survive the disease.

Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]

#15

Post by tekgnos »

et2o wrote: post #5

Vitamin 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 rea…

This study used a tiny amount of Vitamin D (2,00IU/day) which is absolutely not enough Vitamin D to have any affect on someone who is deficient. Going outside in a swimsuit produces 10,000+IU equivalent. We evolved nude, outdoors.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3356951/

Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]

#16

Post by ericb »

et2o wrote: post #5

Vitamin 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 rea…

Just because it doesn't cure one thing, we shouldn't consider it for others? Should we toss our antidepressants because they don't cure respiratory infections?

I believe there's a plausible mechanism in this case, and related studies on respiratory infections where an effect was found. Also, in terms of studies, often the no effect data is from bolus doses, which don't seem to do a good job moving the needle.

Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]

#18

Post by sharpneli »

ve55 wrote: post #2

Although 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…

In Finland we put Vitamin D in milk that’s sold on normal shops. And taking a supplement is heavily recommended.

Though this is mostly because for 6 months of a year one simply cannot get it the natural way (too cold and sun is too low). And thanks to this we don’t have much deficiency, long time ago we used to have.

Not saying it means it would help with covid. But the supplements definitely help with deficiency in a way that does cure/prevent rickets.

Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]

#19

Post by black6 »

russfink wrote: post #12
emdowling wrote: post #3

This conclusion (10x higher mortality if deficient in Vitamin D) is rather significant. How trustworthy is this source?

From a technical writing style perspective, the thing going against this paper is the folksy way of writing. It also includes things called weasel words, such as saying very young doctor, versus young doctor, or even just doctor. The results are compelling, and I suppose it would not hurt to take a prophylaxis of vitamin D (5,000 units per the article?) as compared to a prophylaxis of something else, such as hydroxyc…

https://hcqtrial.com/

"...an extensive discussion of the differences between the death rates of New York City and Lagos, Nigeria, which both received infected travelers around the same time. NYC's high rate has been linked to population density, poverty, overcrowding, and ethnicity. Lagos is a crowded urban center of about 22 million people with 30 families often in a single building sharing the same bathroom, and none of the factors mentioned favor reduced death rates in Lagos. Lagos further has lower quality of medical care. Yet NYC had a death rate 600 times higher. The younger population can only account for a small part of this difference. Mitchell concludes that there is a crossover prophylactic effect of antimalarial agents against COVID-19."

Re: Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf]

#20

Post by zzz61831 »

BurningFrog wrote: post #13
ve55 wrote: post #2

Although 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…

Technically true, but you should still eat vitamin D supplements. It's very cheap and safe, so worst case it has less effect than you hope. You can overdose, but you have to really crazy with the dosage. Also 1: Vitamin D supplements do cure rickets. Also 2: All of us who eat supplements should show up in the stats as high in vitamin D, so the data does partially cover that case.

It's not that safe, not like vitamin C safe. Especially not in doses sold in pills in pharmacies around the world.
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