methylcobalamin B-12 plus Vitamin D3 is the preferred form.
Skip the D2 vitamin.
The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated
261–270 of 308 posts
Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated
#262I think taking a supplement every day is a good idea. I used to suffer from low vitamin D levels constantly until I started taking a daily vitamin D tablet.
Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
My family runs a blood analysis lab in Belgium for which I wrote some of the statistics gathering software. The thresholds for 25-OH vitamin D: When I looked at all 1738 blood samples that had their Vitamin D tested between Feb 1, 2020 and Mar 13, 2020 (We were looking into the link between Vitamin D and COVID-19): The median (P50) was 20.1 ng/mL and the average was 22.4 ng/mL. Standard deviation: 11.24 ng/mL Half th…
What do you think about the thresholds themselves? How often are they updated usually with new research?
Based on what I've seen while researching the topic for my own health purposes: the thresholds differ in various sources, but in general research appears to suggest that they may tend to err on the too low side rather than too high (there's quite a lot of headroom between what's often considered excessive and what's actually known to be toxic, while the lower end is much fuzzier).
Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated
#264the Vitamin D RDA is too low at 800iu
but taking more than 2000iu per day is not just pointless but dangerous without blood testing
Vitamin D won't cure anything once there is a disease or illness
but it does show some preventative benefits
whole lotta people on Reddit do have blood tests showing it's way too low but those of course are the loudest voices
Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
More hours of sun, but it's less intense.
Is it really less intense? When I go out on a sunny day in Denmark it is murder. When I go out on a sunny day in Italy it's generally just overall warm. At any rate another factor is that in the Northern regions it's my experience people do their best to soak up as much sun as possible.
I think it's because further north the Sun is at a lower angle in the sky. So high frequency waves like UV (needed for Vitamin D production) get filtered out by passing through more of the atmosphere.
Lower wavelengths like IR (heat) can more easily pass through the atmosphere. And since the Sun is lower in the sky, it hits more of your body. So you might feel more of the heat, while still getting less UV.
Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The reason for this is that the sun is at a low angle, so it hits more of your body than it does when the sun is overhead - like you'd get in Australia. This also means that while you need some sunscreen during the day - from about 10 to 5 - it doesn't burn as much. Not sure if I parse this correctly - I'd imagine you need more sunscreen at "low angles" due to more severe and longer exposure? Low angle -> more body…
I’ve found the UV index forecasts to generally be a good metric, so try looking at those for various locations. The main factor here is that the lower the sun is from the horizon, the more its light will be absorbed by the atmosphere due to the longer path. The maximum altitude that the sun will ever reach is (90° – (latitude – 23.4°)), so at the 60°-ish of Scandinavia it’s rarely more than 50° in the sky. It’s a ver…
> it’s almost impossible for me to get sunburn in daily life in Sweden even without sunscreen.
Um most Swedes, even with not-super-pale skin get a sunburn every june. Just being outside in the sunshine for 2-3 hours without any protection and they turn "kräftröd" as they say.
Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
At the equator, the sun is highest at the equinoxes (March and September) and lowest at the solstices. Outside the tropics, the sun is highest at the summer solstice (June or December) and lowest at the winter solstice.
Exactly at the equator the sun is directly overhead (90 degrees) at a single time point (close to 12 on depending on where you are within the time zone) every single day The only thing that varies over the year is the path it takes to get there. At the solstices (summer/winter) the path curvature is maximal while t the equinoxes (spring/fall) it is a straight line.
Sorry that's just obviously false. It's only directly above you at the equinoxes, so twice a year. Otherwise it has traveled further north or south.
Before everything was an app, people had physical globes at home which could illustrate this very well.
Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated
#268I have made this comment on HN many times [0] now but: it's the goddamn sunlight. Sunlight has many pathways in the body, and increased vitamin D levels are just one of those pathways. Swallowing one element of a many-element pathway cannot simulate the human synthesis of vitamin D! This should be obvious! Your car might not run because of bad needle bearings, but the solution is not to add them to the gas tank! Firs…
Here in northern Europe, there just isn't enough sunlight to not become deficient, so a vitamin D supplement is a must.
Vitamin D is fat soluble, so it would be feasible to build up a supply in summer to last through winter. I've seen it theorized that a cyclical weight gain and loss tied to preindustrial seasonal food availability also plays a role.
Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated
#269Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
Come to Australia during the summer and watch how quickly you burn outside without sunscreen.
Only for fair skinned individuals
Dark skin typically provides a protection equivalent to a ~10 SPF. Meaning some protection, but tons of the actual damaging UVB still going through.