Live data from Hacker News

Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths

mdpi.com

101–110 of 304 posts

Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths

#101
post #37

I 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.outs…

Yes stories like this pop up all the time for lots of different diseases. There has never been a statistically significant large result observed. There's no way 90% of people dying from Covid would be saved by vitamin D supplements.

> There's no way 90% of people dying from Covid would be saved by vitamin D supplements.

Why?

I’m not saying the opposite is true, but there is evidence for a inverse relationship between respiratory infections and vitamin D levels. We should all believe things for reasons, what reason do you have for discounting the possibility?

Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths

#102

MDPI follows an author-pays model, which incentivizes it to accept all submissions instead of publishing only good-quality work. In fact, this publisher is highly suspect, as it has allegedly pressured peer reviewers to accept low-quality work for publication in the recent past: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/open-access-editors-r... https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/be... I would trea…

Well, you'd be surprised how much great research doesn't make it into Nature, et al. I wouldn't discount the paper purely because of that.

Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths

#103
post #79

Authors controlled for age, sex. But I'd like to see additional control for race. Black people have less Vitamin D due to melanin blocking sunlight. And black people are disproportionately impacted by COVID. So I'm now curious whether it's really Vitamin D deficiency that's causing the poor outcomes, or some racial socioeconomic factor that Vitamin D is simply a marker for.

That's key. In fact, I've long postulated that helps explain some of the racial differences we've seen in COVID deaths.

Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths

#104
post #59

For 15 years, I've taken many supplements, which greatly varied over time, but the fixed ones, which I never had any concerns with were vitamin D3 (in the morning!) and chelated magnesium. At one point, I read warnings about high vitamin D levels, but I just lowered from 5,000 IU to 2,000 and I still have high, but still in the range levels.

Likewise I had a broad panel of blood tests for a few reasons and my vitamin D levels came back at the top of the range so I reduced my dosage to reduce the risk of a bad outcome.

Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths

#105
post #79

Authors controlled for age, sex. But I'd like to see additional control for race. Black people have less Vitamin D due to melanin blocking sunlight. And black people are disproportionately impacted by COVID. So I'm now curious whether it's really Vitamin D deficiency that's causing the poor outcomes, or some racial socioeconomic factor that Vitamin D is simply a marker for.

Took a closer look at the study and the patient population was from a small town in Germany, Heidelberg. It'd probably be a fair guess that there's not a lot of variation in the patients' ethnicity so in this particular case controlling by race probably wasn't necessary.

This observation makes me more confident Vitamin D plays a role.

In any event, good to review studies for potential issues like this.

Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths

#106
post #19

In case you live in a northern climate and want to catch some rays through a window. Glass filters >90% of the rays that cause vitamin D production.

Not only that, but a large fraction of the English-speaking northern hemisphere does not receive enough sunlight in winter months for the skin to produce Vitamin D.

I often arrive at our offices in the dark, and then leave after dark. In the meantime I'm in a windowed corner office but like others have said - filtered light. I take 10k IU's of vitamin D per day. Absent that, my natural (un-supplemented) vitamin D tests come back with a level about 20+ (30-100 being the desired range).

Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths

#107

MDPI follows an author-pays model, which incentivizes it to accept all submissions instead of publishing only good-quality work. In fact, this publisher is highly suspect, as it has allegedly pressured peer reviewers to accept low-quality work for publication in the recent past: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/open-access-editors-r... https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/be... I would trea…

Well, you'd be surprised how much great research doesn't make it into Nature, et al. I wouldn't discount the paper purely because of that.

Also, an actual peer reviewed paper came out recently that showed giving vitamin d to covid patients upon admitting them did not decrease death rates. I'll look for the link but it was front page here like two weeks ago.

Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths

#108
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, in the civilised world with functioning healthcare infrastrucure.

What do you think was helpful in your snide comment?

It reminds people that the world is not the US. 30+ comments above and nobody pointed out the unspoken assumption.

Re: Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths

#109
post #79

Authors controlled for age, sex. But I'd like to see additional control for race. Black people have less Vitamin D due to melanin blocking sunlight. And black people are disproportionately impacted by COVID. So I'm now curious whether it's really Vitamin D deficiency that's causing the poor outcomes, or some racial socioeconomic factor that Vitamin D is simply a marker for.

Some very circumstantial evidence. I went to a black club 3 weeks ago for a night out. ( I know, stupid) 99% were not wearing masks and two days laters I stated feeling sick, was diagnosed with covid a week later.im better now but the black friend I went with last I heard was in the hospital.
Post reply on HN