Live data from Hacker News

The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

dynomight.net

271–280 of 308 posts

Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This approach doesn't make much sense to me. Why supplement something when you don't even know that you need it? You could make the same argument about any and every supplement and eat the whole alphabet soup every day, but that's just putting extra strain on your body.

Well, if a study finds that nearly everyone of your skin color at your latitude is deficient, you can make an educated guess.

[dead]

Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

#272
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Darker skinned people in northern latitudes. Made worse for vegetarians like Ramanujan in England.

"vegetarians" relevance?

Strict Vegetarians don’t eat eggs. No D vitamin fortified milk in his days. Many vegetarians don’t eat mushrooms, the only plant based source of vitamin D.

Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Its about the angle yes, but the main thing is basically for every square unit of solar radiation gets projected onto a larger surface because of the angle- meaning radiation per unit area is lower. The secondary effect is that sunlight has to travel through more atmosphere, and gets scattered somewhat.

Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

#274
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

People tend to fatten up on winter and peaking at around winter solstice

Not sure how your plan should work?!

Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too much protein can definitely kill you, or at least make you ill, as discovered by the Europeans who explored the northern parts of America and who had initially tried to live from the meat of hunted animals, until they learned from the natives that they must eat enough fat besides the lean meat, in order to survive (most wild animals have little fat, except the bone marrow, which must be extracted). However, too m…

> Too much protein can definitely kill you, or at least make you ill, as discovered by the Europeans who explored the northern parts of America and who had initially tried to live from the meat of hunted animals, until they learned from the natives that they must eat enough fat besides the lean meat, in order to survive (most wild animals have little fat, except the bone marrow, which must be extracted). That's an is…

No, it was too much protein, not too little fat, because they had to eat a lot of meat from hunting to provide enough calories, as they did not carry with them enough food containing starch and/or fat that could provide calories from other sources than protein.

It does not matter if most of the calories (i.e. more than two thirds) are provided by carbohydrates or by fat, as long as they are not provided by protein.

Fat was the solution for living far in the north because they did not have plant cultures that could provide carbohydrates.

Both the amount of fat and the amount of carbohydrates eaten in a day can vary in a very wide range without causing health problems, while the protein intake must be in a relatively narrow range to avoid problems. When eating fat with the right composition, i.e. from sources rich in essential fatty acids and in fat-soluble vitamins, something like at most 40 grams per day should be enough, so it is unlikely for someone to suffer from eating too little fat.

Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

#276

> and it will still tell your bones to scavenge calcium... So the body scavenges a lot of calcium from your bones... Bones take calcium from bones? Net effect 0 then?

Obviously that was an incorrect phrasing.

The concentration of calcium ions in the extracellular water and in blood is always kept approximately constant.

The bones are a reservoir of calcium in solid form, so whenever the concentration of calcium ions in the extracellular water drops the bones release calcium ions and whenever that concentration increases the bones retain calcium ions.

This takes care of short term fluctuations. In order to also keep the amount of calcium stored in the bones approximately constant, the gut will try to absorb more calcium from the food when it is insufficient and the kidneys will excrete the excess, when it is too much.

Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

#277
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

People tend to fatten up on winter and peaking at around winter solstice Not sure how your plan should work?!

Because of industrial food chains making that possible. Before we could refridgerate and ship food all over, most of your calories came from seasonal foods, and summer is usually more bountiful than winter.

Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

#278
Vitamin D is a biomarker of a process that happens in the body that is beneficial for longevity. This biomarker is created in response to receiving sunlight. The synthetic vitamin itself, does little, if anything, for your health. The process of receiving the sunlight is what benefits your health. This applies to a lot of other vitamin supplements as well.

So whilst you may be able to take a supplement to boost your vitamin D levels, the negative health effects of lack of sunlight are still going to occur.

Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

#279

I started to take VitD on a whim and my mood and energy sure improved. Also I feel like I get sick less often. 3 friends whom I recommended VitD told me the same. Living in northern germany. YMMV.

Placebo is a strong thing. Unless you're actually getting more sunlight, it's doing nothing for you.

Re: The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

#280

Vitamin D is a lifesaver for me. I'm severely deficient, and if I don't take about 10,000 IU a day, I seem to get colds every five minutes.

Have you tried going outside? Spend 15 minutes in the sun every day. It's not really that hard.
Post reply on HN