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

mdpi.com

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

#141

Post by outworlder »

orangecat wrote: post #39
Exmoor wrote: post #3

I must admit I was completely ignorant of the effects of Vitamin D deficiency on common illnesses such as the flu as well as how unbelievably common that deficiency is for people living in much of the northern hemisphere. Will it cure COVID19? No. But do I think there's a decent chance it will improve my outcome while simultaneously improving my ability to fight off other viruses. I am honestly completely shocked tha…

Yes. I won't be surprised if we eventually determine that advocating Vitamin D supplements would have been one of the most beneficial strategies we could have implemented. But it's a "drug", and therefore "unethical" to recommend without years of studies even though we know that it has effectively zero risk.

> But it's a "drug"

It is. It is not like other 'vitamins' and shouldn't even be called that way. It's a hormone. It is fat soluble, it will linger for quite a while.

> even though we know that it has effectively zero risk

Not true. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/taking-too-mu...

Most people don't consistently take it in high doses for it to become a serious problem. It doesn't mean it's without risks.

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

#142

Post by wolco2 »

nucleardog wrote: post #94
orangecat wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I won't be surprised if we eventually determine that advocating Vitamin D supplements would have been one of the most beneficial strategies we could have implemented. But it's a "drug", and therefore "unethical" to recommend without years of studies even though we know that it has effectively zero risk.

I don’t think that’s really the blocker here. Vitamin D supplementation is very low risk and the risks are well known. I’ve seen at least one study that I can recall saying exactly that—the correlation is there and vitamin D is safe and basically risk free so we should be supplementing it in at least the at-risk population immediately.

Vitamin D taken orally needs to bind with Calcium or Mg.

Sun Lamps may be a better option for the at risk group.

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

#143

Post by coding123 »

UShouldBWorking wrote: post #107
alfalfasprout wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you'd be surprised how much great research doesn't make it into Nature, et al. I wouldn't discount the paper purely because of that.

Also, an actual peer reviewed paper came out recently that showed giving vitamin d to covid patients upon admitting them did not decrease death rates. I'll look for the link but it was front page here like two weeks ago.

Please find the link because about 2 / 3 months ago there was a story that was exactly the opposite finding.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24366006

I've been monitoring HN for Vitamin D info very closely.

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

#144

Post by mixmastamyk »

samatman wrote: post #130
55555 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And black people are disproportionately impacted by COVID. Isn't Africa doing surprisingly well?

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?

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

#145

Post by 1234throwaway »

peteretep wrote: post #127
1234throwaway wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent comment here said publicise, not publish. The studies will go ahead, but you won't see the mainstream media putting this on the front page. The reason is that it's too sensitive. Look at the massive argument and tension that was generated just from someone pointing out that certain skin types are not suited to certain environments (melanin skin to north europe, non-melanin skin to australia) - nobody who v…

“How coronavirus tore through Britain's ethnic minorities” https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52894225 “Socio-economic inequality means we're more likely to catch the virus, while our biology means we're more likely to die” Literally just the first link that 10s of Googling found. > from someone point internet out that certain skin types are not suited to certain environments That’s because this is a crassly overloaded dog…

But, without the recently invented therapeutics you mentioned (vitamin d supplements, sunscreen), people will have negative health outcomes from living in an environment they are not suited to.

There is no need to get emotional here - just accept the scientific and natural fact that in the long term evolution means that people are highly A/B optimised for their environment - there is a reason why in nature there are different ethnicities in different climates

Your approach is well intentioned, but it will lead to unnecessary suffering

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

#147

Post by corprew »

55555 wrote: post #115
DevX101 wrote: post #79

Authors controlled for age, sex. But I'd like to see additional control for race. Black people have less Vitamin D due to melanin blocking sunlight. And black people are disproportionately impacted by COVID. So I'm now curious whether it's really Vitamin D deficiency that's causing the poor outcomes, or some racial socioeconomic factor that Vitamin D is simply a marker for.

> And black people are disproportionately impacted by COVID. Isn't Africa doing surprisingly well?

In addition to what the peer comments say, Africa has learned a lot of lessons in fighting infection disease outbreaks from fighting Ebola: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7404531/

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

#148

Post by bradenb »

When this started circulating a few months ago my wife and daughter decided to get their blood tested (I was already taking regular Vitamin D supplements). They both showed with extremely low levels of vitamin D and have since started taking 2000 IU daily to try and increase their levels. It's so cheap and easy that everyone should be doing it right now. Even if you don't want to get your blood tested, I think going on a supplement _now_ is right for everyone. But I guess each person should consult their doctor if they're concerned.

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

#149

Post by shortandsweet »

pacaro wrote: post #69
shortandsweet wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not make it simple? I donate blood every 2 months. They tell me cholesterol and if I have c19 antibodies. Why not other important health indicators?

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.

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

#150

Post by NiceWayToDoIT »

Ragib_Zaman wrote: post #13

I highly recommend watching this video: https://youtu.be/Kvh4D_osFXs Sunlight gives us vitamin D and nitric oxide (which improves blood flow and reduces hypertension). Vitamin D is crucial for the functioning of our immune systems, and the 1000IU dosage of many supplements is laughably small. A light skinned person in a singlet standing outside at noon for 30 minutes will produce between 10,000IU and 20,000IU in thei…

Recently there was article/paper on HN about specific UV light wavelength from LED diodes that can produce very good response without daylight, creating significant amount of vitamin D.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-11362-2 "The 293 nm LED was best suited for evaluating its effectiveness for producing vitamin D in human skin due to the shorter exposure time"

I tried looking for that manufacturer/diode but it seems it is not commercially available.

By now we should be able to buy a cheap lamp at any store maybe it would save some lives.

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