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Vitamin D3 During Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance at 10 Years

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Re: Vitamin D3 During Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance at 10 Years

#31

Post by cenamus »

kloop wrote: post #28
niteshpant wrote: post #23

I have thoughts on this 1. Yes, vitamin D actually controls a lot of bodily functions it’s very easily set aside as not a “main” factor when in reality it actually controls a lot 2. This study was done on women in Denmark only which isn’t a great study subject considering Denmark doesn’t get a lot of sun to begin with so most of these women would already start at very low levels 3. This doesn’t directly correlate to…

Do they need more vitamin D? I thought they just needed more sun to get the same vitamin D

At these latitudes they just get almost none naturally, that's why you need to supplement more

Re: Vitamin D3 During Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance at 10 Years

#32

Post by georgeburdell »

api wrote: post #21
pkoird wrote: post #2

I'm not sure if there are any research showcasing the effects humanity has had in general due to low sun exposure. From all the benefits of Vitamin D and the recent human behavorial shift leading to low sun exposure (car travel, air conditioning, sunscreens even), there are bound to be new biological or psychological changes humanity is experiencing for the first time.

I've wondered for a while if the apparently higher cognitive performance and resulting societal wealth at higher latitudes might be some kind of second order side effect from long-term selection for lower sun exposure. We already know this vitamin D is almost certainly why Northern peoples evolved lighter skin. (I realize this is a frought topic, so please hold the race science bullcrap replies or the over-reactions…

Does not explain India where there is high genetic diversity and generally the South is more educated and wealthy

Re: Vitamin D3 During Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance at 10 Years

#33

Post by alexashka »

daniel_c_code wrote: post #4

This is exactly what I've been thinking about lately. The modern knowledge-worker lifestyle is practically an experiment in extreme sun deprivation. We optimize our indoor spaces with perfect AC, ergonomic setups, and even custom ambient noise apps just to stay locked in a room for 10 hours a day doing deep work. It makes you wonder how much of what we accept as "normal" afternoon brain fog or tech burnout is actuall…

We share about 99% of our DNA with chimps.

Whatever we're doing that isn't what they're doing is not normal.

Re: Vitamin D3 During Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance at 10 Years

#34

Post by p-o »

I don't know, the study seems pretty mild in findings and the research doesn't mention anything about the socioeconomic environment in which each of the children grew in.

Maybe it's the high dose vitamin, maybe it's because one cohort was skewed one way on the socioeconomic spectrum, maybe it's something else entirely. More evidence would be needed imo to confirm Vitamin D3 has a direct contributor to cognitive performance as the research portrayed.

Re: Vitamin D3 During Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance at 10 Years

#35

Post by ifwinterco »

stephc_int13 wrote: post #18
SoftTalker wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Myopia is one that comes to mind, with data suggesting that low exposure to natural sunlight contributes. Though in my case, I played outside a lot as a kid and I still have terrible eyesight.

It is not about sunlight or UV. And it is not "just genetics". The natural rest position of the human eye is to focus at the infinite. Focusing on closer objects like books or screens requires a constant effort (we don't feel it). The eye simply adapts and elongate to relieve some of the strain. Wearing corrective lenses further amplify the process. If you want your kids to have perfect vision they should spend a lot…

Yeah I'm not sure what currently "science" says, but from first principles something along these lines must be true, because "genetics" can't explain why some places like China went from low levels of myopia to extremely high levels in a couple of generations.

Clearly there's some significant environmental factor, and constantly focusing at short distances and/or getting no bright light exposure are the two obvious candidates (in other words, being inside all the time)

Re: Vitamin D3 During Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance at 10 Years

#36

Post by throwup238 »

therein wrote: post #26
pkoird wrote: post #2

I'm not sure if there are any research showcasing the effects humanity has had in general due to low sun exposure. From all the benefits of Vitamin D and the recent human behavorial shift leading to low sun exposure (car travel, air conditioning, sunscreens even), there are bound to be new biological or psychological changes humanity is experiencing for the first time.

>car travel, air conditioning, sunscreens even And even clothing.

Tailored clothing is at least 80,000–170,000 years old based on genetic clock research in body lice [1] but archaic humans have probably been wearing hides for at least a million years (there’s currently a big debate about how they managed to migrate to colder climates like Spain 800k-1.2m years ago).

I don’t think clothing is that big a factor because all humans in hot environments adapt and very little survives in the archaeological record. Many populations lived in heavily forested jungles where they was little sun exposure and those in deserts used stuff like Otjize for sun protection. Given all the ethnographic reporting from the age of exploration, tons of that clothing was probably made of feathers, cordage, bark, and other materials we wouldn’t even think of using for clothing.

[1] https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/28/1/29/984822

Re: Vitamin D3 During Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance at 10 Years

#37

Post by xwowsersx »

niteshpant wrote: post #23

I have thoughts on this 1. Yes, vitamin D actually controls a lot of bodily functions it’s very easily set aside as not a “main” factor when in reality it actually controls a lot 2. This study was done on women in Denmark only which isn’t a great study subject considering Denmark doesn’t get a lot of sun to begin with so most of these women would already start at very low levels 3. This doesn’t directly correlate to…

Study seem to have addressed point #2 in several ways.

1. They measured maternal vitamin D before supplementation began. They explicitly adjusted for these preintervention levels.

2. the two groups started at essentially the same vitamin D levels.

3. They specifically tested whether baseline vit D status changed the effect of supplementation

Re: Vitamin D3 During Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance at 10 Years

#38

Post by bethekidyouwant »

georgeburdell wrote: post #32
api wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've wondered for a while if the apparently higher cognitive performance and resulting societal wealth at higher latitudes might be some kind of second order side effect from long-term selection for lower sun exposure. We already know this vitamin D is almost certainly why Northern peoples evolved lighter skin. (I realize this is a frought topic, so please hold the race science bullcrap replies or the over-reactions…

Does not explain India where there is high genetic diversity and generally the South is more educated and wealthy

The reason that southern India is generally richer is very complicated.

Re: Vitamin D3 During Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance at 10 Years

#39

Post by tchalla »

niteshpant wrote: post #23

I have thoughts on this 1. Yes, vitamin D actually controls a lot of bodily functions it’s very easily set aside as not a “main” factor when in reality it actually controls a lot 2. This study was done on women in Denmark only which isn’t a great study subject considering Denmark doesn’t get a lot of sun to begin with so most of these women would already start at very low levels 3. This doesn’t directly correlate to…

> This study was done on women in Denmark only which isn’t a great study subject considering Denmark doesn’t get a lot of sun to begin with so most of these women would already start at very low levels

Generally, when a study is done in the US - no one will ever question the location. The moment the study is outside the US, "not US so not generalisable" questions always arise.

Re: Vitamin D3 During Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance at 10 Years

#40

Post by tdb7893 »

niteshpant wrote: post #23

I have thoughts on this 1. Yes, vitamin D actually controls a lot of bodily functions it’s very easily set aside as not a “main” factor when in reality it actually controls a lot 2. This study was done on women in Denmark only which isn’t a great study subject considering Denmark doesn’t get a lot of sun to begin with so most of these women would already start at very low levels 3. This doesn’t directly correlate to…

For point 2: I don't think there's really good or bad places to study it, it might not generalize to sunnier places but the reverse is also true. Presumably the scientists working on this can understand these things (I know in my field I'm aware that studies in the tropics will find different things than studies in Canada).

For my own point: in this study they have like 22 test values but still use the 95% confidence interval. Even on random data there will be a significant result like a third of the time so I think it's easy to interpret these result as more definitive than they are. Not that it's a bad study though (no study will be everything, baby steps like this are important in science).

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