Programmers Must Take Vitamin D • Hacker News Board

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#81

Post by graeme » Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 12:33 PM UTC

postfuturist wrote: post #50

001sky wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[5] forms (vitamers) of vitamin D exist (see table). The two major forms are vitamin D2 or ergocalciferol, and vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol, vitamin D without a subscript refers to either D2 or D3 or both. These are known collectively as calciferol....Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is produced by ultraviolet irradiation (UV) of its precursor 7-dehydrocholesterol. This molecule occurs naturally in the skin of animals a…

It looks to me like the supplement is D3 and the one you get from UV exposure is D3, so no, spending time outdoors doesn't give you any better Vitamin D than the supplement. Of course, exercise has other benefits.

I would amend that to no proven benefits. The body is a complex system. D3 generated by the body via natural pathways may be more effective than ingested D3 in some way we don't understand yet.

Leaving aside any other ill-understood benefits of sun exposure.

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#82

Post by AmaralHerberth » Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 12:40 PM UTC

bascule wrote: post #48

john61 wrote: post #38

That is doctoring on the symptom, not the cause. Go outside. You do not only need Vitamin D, you also need fresh air, green and exercise. You can not get this with pills. In the long run you save time, because of longer life (and hacking) and reduced illness (better hacking).

I thought it was funny that this blog post didn't mention getting outside as a potential solution. That said, it's not like it's a dichotomy: I take a daily vitamin D supplement, try to eat as much catfish and salmon as I can, and try to get out in the sun as much as possible. That said, getting out in the sun is a fairly nuanced debate. Most dermatologists will tell you not to, because of the risk of skin cancer, an…

Just an observation: there are certain time intervals in a day that you CAN get some sun exposure without worring (too much) about UV rays & skin cancer. I do not know about the rest of the world, but in tropical regions the intervals are 6-9 am and 4-6 pm. 15 minutes per day is enough in tropical regions and a bit more in other regions.

Nevertheless, you have more than a couple of hours to get outside and get some sun. Just have a schedule and stick to it :)

One last thing: visit your doctor often and check for overall nutrient levels (vitamins, minerals, etc) and avoid taking supplements before it.

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#83

Post by aswanson » Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 1:33 PM UTC

awolf wrote: post #24

There are many different types of vitamin D synthesized in our bodies which require sunlight to form. The many varieties of D are used in an enormous amount of different chemical processes in our bodies- many of which are quite complex and not fully understood. Vitamin D supplements consist of (mostly) one type of Vitamin D. People are typically deficient in that specific type so mild supplementation is a reasonable…

Nitpicking, but I don't think we as a species have been here for 100 million years. I doubt we've been even as hairless as we are now for more than a few hundred thousand, so we may not have gotten as much sunlight due to that. But your point still stands.

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#84

Post by bane » Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 1:41 PM UTC

m1chael wrote: post #34

bane wrote: post #25

I actually have to avoid Vitamin D. I have a disorder (Hypercalcaemia) that causes me to build up calcium in my blood. Vitamin D can rapidly improve the body's ability to absorb calcium (hence Vitamin D enriched milk). Too much calcium in your blood can lead to various physical nervous disorders (I get facial ticks in the muscles around my eyes) but can also result in various psychologically similar problems like dep…

Have you read much about vitamins K2 and A with reference to your condition? Supplementation or otherwise insuring adequate intake of K2/A might be of benefit for you in reducing vit D toxicity among other things. These papers are good references: http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/pdfs/vitaminKarticle.pdf http://cl.ly/2y3a3e3s0P43

I have not...but I will take a look now! Thanks!

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#85

Post by drhowarddrfine » Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 1:46 PM UTC

Go outside in the sun for 15 minutes. Done. No need for supplements or anything else.

Why does this guy think that coding at night means you'll be deficient? If you code during the day instead does that change anything? No. If you code at night but bask in the sun during the day are you still deficient? No.

Another nonsense article.

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#86

Post by carbocation » Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 1:58 PM UTC

jokull wrote: post #75

A high quality source of vitamin D is liver. Cod liver oil is a great way to supplement your diet. In Iceland you can get it in small sardine type cans and spread the liver on crackers.

It does contain some vitamin D, but it also contains about 10x as much vitamin A. Hypervitaminosis A is a real problem. I would not think it particularly safe to use cod liver oil for vitamin D supplementation because of this risk, especially when other supplements exist.

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#87

Post by carbocation » Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 2:01 PM UTC

patorjk wrote: post #13

This problem actually happened to me. A few years ago I started feeling incredibly lethargic. I would wake up with no energy. It was like sleep had done nothing for me. I didn't know what was wrong, but I felt horrible. After around two weeks I went to the doctor. A blood test was done and it showed I had low vitamin D (26 ng/mL). After about a week of supplementation I felt normal again. It's easy to forget to go ou…

20 is the lower limit of normal per US guidelines, though some specialty societies have their low threshold set at 30.

At any rate, you are unlikely to have any calcium metabolism deficits at 26 and it's unlikely to have been a cause of any symptom in an otherwise healthy adult.

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#88

Post by streptomycin » Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 2:30 PM UTC

Well, that's a pretty content-free article.

And there are lots of posts here, with anecdotes and opinions... but nobody is talking about hard data, science, and (most importantly) clinical trials. Is that because it hasn't been proven through a real clinical trial that "programmers must take Vitamin D"?

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#89

Post by Fando » Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 2:49 PM UTC

Go outside!

Re: Programmers Must Take Vitamin D

#90

Post by ralmeida » Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 2:57 PM UTC

streptomycin wrote: post #88

Well, that's a pretty content-free article. And there are lots of posts here, with anecdotes and opinions... but nobody is talking about hard data, science, and (most importantly) clinical trials. Is that because it hasn't been proven through a real clinical trial that "programmers must take Vitamin D"?

The article says something too broad to be true (that if you're a programmer, you need to take vitamin D). However, a clinical trial would be overkill: you might need a clinical trial to determine if, say, cell phones are bad for you, but you don't need a clinical test to determine that 100% of people who stop breathing die. Where do you draw the line? Also, it spends a great deal of effort to make a statistically meaningful clinical test.

This could all be solved if, instead of prescribing supplements based on profession, the article's tone were more like "Hey, vitamin D defficiency is a thing and your lifestyle favors it. Go get yourself checked out and mention this to your doctor."