Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths
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Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths
#2Related study was published in October:
"Vitamin D Status in Hospitalized Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infection"
https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article/doi/10.1210/cl...
Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths
#3I must admit I was completely ignorant of the effects of Vitamin D deficiency on common illnesses such as the flu as well as how unbelievably common that deficiency is for people living in much of the northern hemisphere. Will it cure COVID19? No. But do I think there's a decent chance it will improve my outcome while simultaneously improving my ability to fight off other viruses.
I am honestly completely shocked that we haven't seen governments and the media increasing people's awareness of this issue.
Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths
#4I must admit I was completely ignorant of the effects of Vitamin D deficiency on common illnesses such as the flu as well as how unbelievably common that deficiency is for people living in much of the northern hemisphere. Will it cure COVID19? No. But do I think there's a decent chance it will improve my outcome while simultaneously improving my ability to fight off other viruses. I am honestly completely shocked tha…
> I am honestly completely shocked that we haven't seen governments and the media increasing people's awareness of this issue.
Same, and in the UK at least we got this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55108613
I remember this back from April and lots of evidence back then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCSXNGc7pfs
Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths
#5Before the vitamin D link was so widely reported, I remember seeing a bunch of comments online (including HN) from people saying things along the lines of "We've been self-isolating at home since January, only bought things online, and STILL got sick!"
I'm not a professional and this is just me spouting ideas, but I wonder if this is one reason why America is so hard hit compared to Asia. Americans generally commute by car, stay in a massive building complex all day for work, and go home and stay inside. In Asia, a huge proportion of people commute by foot, train (which involves walking to the station), or scooter. Then they walk to a grocery store or restaurant to get some food. I wonder if those minutes of continuous sun exposure add up and lighten the severity of it.
Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths
#6I must admit I was completely ignorant of the effects of Vitamin D deficiency on common illnesses such as the flu as well as how unbelievably common that deficiency is for people living in much of the northern hemisphere. Will it cure COVID19? No. But do I think there's a decent chance it will improve my outcome while simultaneously improving my ability to fight off other viruses. I am honestly completely shocked tha…
The problem is that vitamin D absorption is one of those things linked to ethnicity. It is very basic and undisputed science that lower melanin in skin = higher vitamin D absorption. No European educational institution or government wants to publicise research highlighting that ethnic groups indigenous to the northern hemisphere are more suited to the natural environment they are endemic too, and less likely to have vitamin D problems. Of course, the Vitamin D deficiency in people unsuited to non-indigenous European residents will naturally disadvantage them over time in nature.
https://www.longdom.org/open-access/the-skin-melanin-an-inhi...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4272394/
To give balance to reinforce that i'm purely speaking from a scientific-rational viewpoint, in Australia the government is trying to discourage people from being in the sun at all due to Australia (primarily european ethnic) having one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, due to also not being suited to their natural environment.
https://www.cancer.org.au/cancer-information/types-of-cancer... "the incidence of skin cancer is one of the highest in the world, two to three times the rates in Canada, the US and the UK."
The USA approach is quite different though - pills for everyone! Buy your vitamin D plastic chips and watch the stock market go up!
Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths
#7Getting sunlight in the morning, in particular, seems important. Even in winter months, I'll go outside for 30 minutes or so in nothing but shorts and do farmer walks, etc. and feel great throughout the day.
Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths
#8While I don't think Vitamin D is a covid cure - I think it's appalling that Youtube has banned anything that discusses vitamin D and covid. Especially when there is so much science behind it, and so much more that we need to do to understand it and covid better. I know there is rampant misinformation out there, but I fail to see how this censorship serves the public interest - and wonder what benefits google has to gain from this. People are dying from covid - we need to be firing on all cylinders, not trying to make a buck off a disaster.
Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths
#9I read an article a few years ago that postulated that Vitamin D itself (whatever it is) was only part of the Vitamin D story. Essentially, sunlight confers benefits that are associated with Vitamin D, but Vitamin D itself may not be the cause of those benefits. And so, supplements are not sufficient. Does anyone know enough to comment on that generally, and regarding COVID?
Edit: here is the article https://www.outsideonline.com/2380751/sunscreen-sun-exposure...
Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths
#10It's unfortunate that it is not simple to get regular tests for vitamin and mineral deficiencies. The whole process seems to be stuck behind the doctor appointment firewall. This might be one of the reasons why Theranos was so readily believed. As the quantified self movement that gained popularity around the same time showed, there's an appetite in certain segments of the population for this type of testing and tracking but the process isn't very transparent and often expensive due to it being a profit center. Make it a simple yearly subscription where you can stop in at any time at a clinic like a CVS Minute Clinic, get a blood sample drawn, and then get your results a couple of hours later. Maybe a limit of once a month or once every other week depending on your needs. Only if something is out of standard range would you need to involve a doctor. It would also be good for your next annual checkup to have an entire year's worth of such data.