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The First Randomized Controlled Trial on Vitamin D and Covid-19

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Re: The First Randomized Controlled Trial on Vitamin D and Covid-19

#231

Post by exhilaration »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #229
icelancer wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using online labs it's super cheap to get it done yourself for less than $50/test. Not worth dealing with insurance BS and your doctor's likely nonsensical ravings about it, just do it and reimburse using your HSA if you have one.

Since it’s dirt cheap and basically impossible to take too much of, just skip the tests and take supplements preemptively.

This submission from a few weeks back argued that it is very possible to take too much: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24261948

Re: The First Randomized Controlled Trial on Vitamin D and Covid-19

#232

Post by jonplackett »

jhawk28 wrote: post #126
jonplackett wrote: post #114

Surly now it's time to just start giving everyone some free vitamin D. Best case scenario: Less dead people. Worst case scenario: We all have healthier bones.

Worst case is actually vitamin d toxicity. You can take too much.

Drinking too much water will kill you too.

The point I’m making is there is basically no drawback to giving people a normal, healthy, vitamin D supplement. Plus possible upsides.

Re: The First Randomized Controlled Trial on Vitamin D and Covid-19

#233

Post by learc83 »

burfog wrote: post #163
jogundas wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wiki says that "Hydroxychloroquine is being studied to prevent and treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19), but all clinical trials conducted during 2020 found it is ineffective and may cause dangerous side effects." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxychloroquine

Wikipedia is pretty reliable for math, old computer hardware, and other dry technical subjects. This is not one. This is a political subject. Wikipedia is a complete disaster for anything that even remotely touches upon modern politics. There are teams of people paid to impose an opinion on Wikipedia, relentlessly wearing down any neutral editor with 24x7 edits and every kind of bureaucratic fight. The people who edi…

>"ineffective and may cause dangerous side effects"

Dangerous on an individual level, not really. But at a population level if hundreds of millions of people start taking it, you're going to have high absolute numbers of bad side effects.

> is a purely political attack on the US president.

As for ineffective, there isn't one single national health agency that recommends taking it for covid. Surely the entire globe isn't killing scores of their citizens by preventing the use of an effective treatment just to make the US President look bad.

Since it's ineffective in this case, there's no benefit to outweigh the downsides of "dangerous side effects" like their is with aspirin or Tylenol.

Re: The First Randomized Controlled Trial on Vitamin D and Covid-19

#234

Post by scrollaway »

burfog wrote: post #163
jogundas wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wiki says that "Hydroxychloroquine is being studied to prevent and treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19), but all clinical trials conducted during 2020 found it is ineffective and may cause dangerous side effects." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxychloroquine

Wikipedia is pretty reliable for math, old computer hardware, and other dry technical subjects. This is not one. This is a political subject. Wikipedia is a complete disaster for anything that even remotely touches upon modern politics. There are teams of people paid to impose an opinion on Wikipedia, relentlessly wearing down any neutral editor with 24x7 edits and every kind of bureaucratic fight. The people who edi…

Sometimes I feel like I have to remind americans that other countries exist.

How incredibly self centered must it be to think that everything relates to you, your country, your awful president.

Please.

Re: The First Randomized Controlled Trial on Vitamin D and Covid-19

#236

Post by graeme »

mucinoab wrote: post #177

Anyone knows what rol sunscreen plays in vitamin D intake/generation by sunlight?

This is not a direct answer, but:

1. Uva is the cause of most skin cancer

2. Uvb generates vitamin d and sunburns

3. When uvb is present, you can make sufficient vitamin d quite quickly

This would suggest you would want sunscreen for longer exposures, or with much uva exposure. And could get vitamin d from a briefer exposure pre sunscreen.

I can’t say how completely sunscreen blocks vitamin d however.

Re: The First Randomized Controlled Trial on Vitamin D and Covid-19

#238

Post by jonplackett »

blithedale wrote: post #138
jonplackett wrote: post #114

Surly now it's time to just start giving everyone some free vitamin D. Best case scenario: Less dead people. Worst case scenario: We all have healthier bones.

The worst case scenario isn't 'healthier bones'. It's kidney failure - https://www.cmaj.ca/content/191/14/E390 Or fatal hypercalcemia - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12098-016-2109-z And so on. I frankly think its irresponsible and facile for anyone to suggest there are no downsides to high doses of Vitamin D. This stuff is available OTC and a lot of folks are just gonna dose themselves ad libitum here.

Who said to give people overdoses of vitamin D?

Honestly. I’m making a simple point that giving people a free, normal dose would be beneficial to them either way. So why not.

It’s pretty hard to OD on vitamins unless you can’t read the label.

Re: The First Randomized Controlled Trial on Vitamin D and Covid-19

#239

Post by gameswithgo »

graeme wrote: post #218
altvali wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is BMI a good indicator of obesity, though?

It’s actually pretty decent. It can make errors in the case of people with extreme muscle mass, or very low muscle mass for their size, or the very short, or the very tall. But for most people, if you’re over 25 bmi you probably could lose some weight. And at a population levels the errors above average out, even in a smaller group. People make a big deal over the exceptions to it while ignoring that it is broadly ac…

and high muscle mass causes some of the same heart stress that high fat does. its fun and useful but not "healthy" to be huge, fat or muscular.

Re: The First Randomized Controlled Trial on Vitamin D and Covid-19

#240

Post by exhilaration »

kmonsen wrote: post #227
icelancer wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using online labs it's super cheap to get it done yourself for less than $50/test. Not worth dealing with insurance BS and your doctor's likely nonsensical ravings about it, just do it and reimburse using your HSA if you have one.

Do you have some online labs you can recommend?

I paid $47 for this: https://www.lifeextension.com/lab-testing/itemlc081950/vitam...

You get a doctor's prescription (from a Florida doctor, good for anywhere in the country) and instructions to go to your nearest Labcorp for a blood draw. So make sure you have a Labcorp near you.

Here are a few alternatives you can look into, mentioned in this discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15868143

[0]: https://www.privatemdlabs.com

[1]: http://www.directlabs.com/

[2]: https://www.walkinlab.com/

[3]: https://www.health-tests-direct.com/

[4]: https://www.personalabs.com/

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