Vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 mortality [pdf] • Hacker News Board

shock wrote: post #80

hrasyid wrote: post #66

Is this a peer-reviewed finding? As someone without expertise in the area how do I evaluate its credibility?

How do you evaluate the credibility of anything in life? I'm not being facetious, it's a question I've been asking myself a lot lately after making decisions based on the information from a medical doctor, who, turns out, was not competent to make certain affirmations.

I have been asking that too.

What steps should I take to verify information without becoming an expert in the field?

What about more nuanced political topics?

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

#93

Post by deckar01 » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 5:46 PM UTC

hrasyid wrote: post #66

Is this a peer-reviewed finding? As someone without expertise in the area how do I evaluate its credibility?

It does not appear to have been peer reviewed. It is being hosted by a diet book author, which should be a red flag. The most reputable source they cite for correlating Vitamin D level with Covid-19 cases and deaths called the correlation "crude" [0]. It is a weak correlation. Their suggestion that there have been controlled studies on infected patients seems to be misleading. As far as I can tell from the sources they cited, none of them administered Vitamin D to Covid-19 patients. I think the trials they are citing were performed years ago on pneumonia patients, not on Covid-19 patients [1].

[0]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7202265/pdf/405...

[1]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4939707/pdf/mai...

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

#94

Post by cwhiz » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 5:47 PM UTC

tekgnos wrote: post #22

It is not surprising at all that Covid-19 matches what we already know about Vitamin D and Influenza. There are consequences for radically altering the environment in which humans evolved. We were nude outdoors and now we are clothed and indoors. When we do briefly go outside, we are all conditioned to slather on sunscreen, which blocks all Vitamin D generation. Why do people tend to get sick in the wintertime and no…

>Why do people tend to get sick in the wintertime and not the summer?

There are lots of reasons for that. Vitamin-D is just one of those theories. There are also behavioral changes, such as people spending more time indoors and in sealed spaces. There is also the fact that certain viruses may survive better in colder, drier climates. There are also some theories that particles evaporate more quickly in the heat.

Not to mention... humans started wearing closes about 100,000 years ago.

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

#95

Post by mtgx » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 5:47 PM UTC

ve55 wrote: post #26

graeme wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about this section of the pdf? From a 2016 study on patients with other respiratory diseases. —————- 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... —————— Ah, the pdf has a second such study. Mortality almost half less…

I haven't seen that one, that looks pretty impressive, especially for administering it in a single dose that is that large. That's definitely a good data point in favor that some of it is direct causation though.

More studies referenced here, also showing ~55 ng/ml being optimum for maximum health benefits. The current recommendations are way below that. Well worth to watch the whole video:

https://youtu.be/v3pK0dccQ38?t=4105

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

#96

Post by wpasc » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 5:49 PM UTC

conorh wrote: post #89

I've mentioned this before, but my wife is a parathyroid surgeon (parathyroids are the glands that regulate the calcium in your neck) and would beg you to PLEASE monitor your calcium levels if you are supplementing with Vitamin D. She often sees patients on high doses of Vitamin D from well intentioned doctors, but with out of whack calcium levels because of it, and the patients can be very sick without understanding…

Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by "wacky" levels? I can't tell from your comment if that means high or low. Asking as a Vitamin D supplement user who uses 2-3k IU a day

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

#97

Post by nicoburns » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 5:51 PM UTC

pkaye wrote: post #63

BurningCycles wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In Finland we put Vitamin D in milk that’s sold on normal shops. I'd wager it's the same in all the Nordic countries, at least it's the same here in Sweden. A couple a months ago when I spoke to my dad, he told me he had a checkup because he had been unusually tired, turned out that the only thing the testing showed was that he had d-vitamin deficiency. What surprised me is that he was given prescription d-vitamins,…

You can get larger doses of vitamin D in one pill as a prescription. Like 20000 IU once every week or two instead of daily. Also there is vitamin D2 and D3. The normal stuff you take is called D2. The D3 is made by the kidneys from converting D2. But those with certain diseases, the kidneys don't do the conversion so they provide vitamin D3 in the form called calcitriol. Its something I need to take due to my kidney…

At least in the UK, it's pretty easy to get D3 over the counter too. I've been buying D3 drops off of Amazon.

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

#98

Post by ColanR » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 5:51 PM UTC

y0ssar1an wrote: post #86

blurbleblurble wrote: post #78

I've been very frustrated in my attempts to raise this issue with the local health department where I live. I was brushed aside, and was told "correlation does not imply causation". I doubt that the person on the phone wanted to get into a conversation about dynamical systems or nonlinear data analysis, so I didn't even go there. Instead I sent a letter full of references to published research, and citing other lette…

In this case, the doctors really do know better. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to just about every disease. That's because it's a marker of frailty, not a direct cause for most of these diseases. In other words, correlation does not imply causation. It sounds like you have too much confidence in published research and not enough confidence in your local health officials.

> too much confidence in published research and not enough confidence in your local health officials

I can't figure out if you're being sarcastic, or if you really do think that a local politician knows more about medicine than is contained in actual medical research.

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

#99

Post by keldaris » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 5:52 PM UTC

conorh wrote: post #89

I've mentioned this before, but my wife is a parathyroid surgeon (parathyroids are the glands that regulate the calcium in your neck) and would beg you to PLEASE monitor your calcium levels if you are supplementing with Vitamin D. She often sees patients on high doses of Vitamin D from well intentioned doctors, but with out of whack calcium levels because of it, and the patients can be very sick without understanding…

Could you elaborate in more detail? Given your wife's background, I'd guess you were referring to people with pre-existing hyperparathyroidism who are therefore prone to quickly develop hypercalcaemia from even modest Vitamin D supplementation, but perhaps there's more to it?

If your wife wants to write a blog post on the subject, I'm sure there'd be a lot of interest.

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

#100

Post by ruffrey » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 5:52 PM UTC

conorh wrote: post #89

I've mentioned this before, but my wife is a parathyroid surgeon (parathyroids are the glands that regulate the calcium in your neck) and would beg you to PLEASE monitor your calcium levels if you are supplementing with Vitamin D. She often sees patients on high doses of Vitamin D from well intentioned doctors, but with out of whack calcium levels because of it, and the patients can be very sick without understanding…

What level of supplementation? I see huge ranges of vitamin D, by mouth or intramuscular, mentioned in this thread. As someone taking vitamin D (1k IU) with K2 I wonder what levels affect calcium.