Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths • Hacker News Board

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

#161

Post by jnotwell » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 5:52 AM UTC

g42gregory wrote: post #120

xenophonf wrote: post #81

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…

I think that easy and inexpensive treatment methods are getting very skeptical reception by the medical community. My sense is that this is the training from the medical school, which in turn, is influenced (to a degree of course) by the pharmaceutical companies.

The success of dexamethasone [1], compared to the increasingly conflicted results of remdesivir [2], argues against this view.

[1] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2021436 [2] https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/10/16/th...

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

#162

Post by mixmastamyk » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 5:53 AM UTC

fy20 wrote: post #131

If Vitamin D had such a major effect, I would have expected death rates from Southern Europe (Spain, Italy specifically) to be a lot lower than from Northern Europe (e.g. UK, Germany). From my anecdotal experience people in Southern Europe spend a lot more time outside (in parts of Spain you can still go to the beach now, where I live there is snow on the ground...), and older people seem more active and able to live…

Elderly can't produce vitamin D in the sunshine, they need supplementation. They also go outside a lot less than other ages even if they could.

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

#163

Post by TechBro8615 » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 5:54 AM UTC

shortandsweet wrote: post #149

pacaro wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't donate blood, for fairly bogus reasons, this is true for a surprisingly large subset of the population

What's the reason? Maybe not share it but double check that the reason is still valid. The criteria changes pretty frequently. They always need more blood.

AFAIU you can’t donate blood if you’re gay. At least, I saw some segment on Anderson Cooper where he claimed that was the case.

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

#164

Post by Fishysoup » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 5:58 AM UTC

zackees wrote: post #156

g42gregory wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that easy and inexpensive treatment methods are getting very skeptical reception by the medical community. My sense is that this is the training from the medical school, which in turn, is influenced (to a degree of course) by the pharmaceutical companies.

Also - big tech is coming out against vitamin supplementation with their creepy censorship: Example of YouTube saying they will ban vit. c videos using the "misinformation" label: https://twitter.com/i/status/1252676099169038337 Vit. c is known to be a potent immune booster. So this is a real head scratcher.

There's no such thing as an "immune booster". The immune system is incredibly complex and nuanced, and there isn't a knob (or 10) that you can tweak to turn it up or down. It exists in a continuum of largely understood configurations, and it can learn and adapt (not always with good results). If anything, "boosting" it as in turning up immune activity is usually terrible (think auto-immune disorders, inflammation, cancer).

The "misinformation" people are battling is about a) unsubstantiated health claims and b) the fact that supplement manufacturers don't need to provide any evidence or follow any regulations regarding what's actually in the supplements. That means they can say they're selling e.g. Vitamin C but it's just sugar.

John Oliver has a good video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA0wKeokWUU

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

#165

Post by mixmastamyk » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 6:01 AM UTC

rgrieselhuber wrote: post #7

Getting 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.

> in the morning

Noon is the best time, unless you're near the equator.

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

#166

Post by treeman79 » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 6:04 AM UTC

themihai wrote: post #132

g42gregory wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that easy and inexpensive treatment methods are getting very skeptical reception by the medical community. My sense is that this is the training from the medical school, which in turn, is influenced (to a degree of course) by the pharmaceutical companies.

I think the inexpensive treatments are abused by many different actors because they carry little or no cost to develop, thus there is reason a to be sceptical. For example you can find a lot of supplements that claim to cure various cancers and many have been proven to have no effect. People even claim that objects or they by themselves cure diseases. If not much money or effort has been put into a 'treatment' you ha…

Suffered horrific migraines for years. Was using injections that costs thousands.

My routine these days? Magnesium, Vit D, and massaging TMJ joint.

Diet helps a lot too.

Cure cancer, no. Help various issues, often.

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

#167

Post by peteretep » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 6:05 AM UTC

gfxgirl wrote: post #158

peteretep wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No European educational institution or government wants to publicise research highlighting that ethnic groups etc This is just not true and sounds like some weird dog whistle: https://ambulance.libguides.com/c.php?g=677734&p=4854430 From there is the following study which concludes “ Greater risk of severe COVID-19 in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic populations is not explained by cardiometabolic, socioeconomic or…

There's a greater risk in Asians? Japan has had 20k deaths or 1 in 60k, vs USA which is currently at 1 in 1200 People always make up random excuses like "Japan locked down more" No they didn't. In fact they've been practically unlocked since June. "Japan doesn't test as much" That wouldn't hide a raise in the death rate overall. "Japanese people wear masks" Restaurants, coffeeshops, and bars are full (yes, they are)…

> There's a greater risk in Asians

“Asian” in the UK generally means South Asian. Either way you are arguing with the data collected in a study by stating a series of observations about a different country.

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

#168

Post by treeman79 » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 6:06 AM UTC

Fishysoup wrote: post #164

zackees wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also - big tech is coming out against vitamin supplementation with their creepy censorship: Example of YouTube saying they will ban vit. c videos using the "misinformation" label: https://twitter.com/i/status/1252676099169038337 Vit. c is known to be a potent immune booster. So this is a real head scratcher.

There's no such thing as an "immune booster". The immune system is incredibly complex and nuanced, and there isn't a knob (or 10) that you can tweak to turn it up or down. It exists in a continuum of largely understood configurations, and it can learn and adapt (not always with good results). If anything, "boosting" it as in turning up immune activity is usually terrible (think auto-immune disorders, inflammation, ca…

Have autoimmune condition. Life is about calming the immune system.

Crude I stopped eating for a month to kill it off. (Not intentional)

Worked great. Don’t recommend.

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

#169

Post by mixmastamyk » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 6:07 AM UTC

jugg1es wrote: post #85

Relatively small sample and, considering almost half of US citizens are vitamin D deficient, you can't rule out boring correlation (and not causation). EDIT: Why does HN have these downvote trolls? I was a bio major and was trained to critically analyze studies just like this. Skepticism is part of science. Why would you downvote my comment?!

Lack of novelty I'd guess. This is said in every thread and story and your post doesn't add anything else.

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

#170

Post by FreekNortier » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 6:09 AM UTC

mixmastamyk wrote: post #144

samatman wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that surprising. Africa has dramatically lower rates of obesity, a younger population, less asthma, less air conditioning, and as a sibling comment notes, the people get more sun exposure, hence Vitamin D. Everything we know to track with high mortality, Africa has less of. They also have very little testing, so the infection rate is unknown and somewhat irrelevant, since few people are ending up in hospital…

Not much of a winter either, besides South Africa. I wonder how rates were there this last August?

High. This past winter here was one of the coldest ones in more than a decade. South Africa is also the only country in Africa(south of the Sahara) that really tests.