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Vitamin D reduces incidence and duration of colds in those with low levels

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Re: Vitamin D reduces incidence and duration of colds in those with low levels

#211

Post by colechristensen »

pavon wrote: post #47
derbOac wrote: post #28

Glad to see this study, seems decent, but for a different perspective there was a relatively recent meta-analysis on the effectiveness of Vitamin D for RIs that suggested no effect: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8...

One significant difference in this study is that it focused on people with low baseline vitamin D (10-30 ng/mL 25(OH)D), and moderate intervention (2000 IU daily). The meta-analysis you posted did perform subgroup analysis on people with low baseline vitamin D ( 25 ng/mL.

And also there's a difference between infection incidence, intensity, and duration, the evidence I've seen has been strongest in reducing intensity and duration. Also dosage might just be too low.

I've been feeling a little off lately with some respiratory symptoms and took 25,000 IU of Vitamin D, in people who are deficient (probably me lately) 400-1000 daily dose might not actually do enough to have an effect.

It's about time for a meta-meta analysis comparing the traits of the different sets of papers (N, dosage, deficiency status, time of year, duration/incidence/intensity, etc)

Re: Vitamin D reduces incidence and duration of colds in those with low levels

#212

Post by cj »

zahlman wrote: post #169
cj wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took 10k iu via a multivitamin for a few months, and ended up with Vitamin D levels 5x higher than the maximum on the labcorp reference range. "Vitamin D toxicity" It took many months to get the levels back to normal. Vitamin D is one of those things that once you overdose, it takes many months for the levels to slowly come down after you stop supplementing. Be careful with Vitamin D! The downside to having high le…

> An excess of vitamin D causes abnormally high blood concentrations of calcium, which can cause overcalcification of soft tissues, including arteries and kidneys. Symptoms appear several months after excessive doses of vitamin D are administered. A mutation of the CYP24A1 gene can lead to a reduction in the degradation of vitamin D and thus to vitamin toxicity without high oral intake (see Vitamin D § Excess). > Tre…

> In almost every case, ceasing vitamin D intake, combined with a low-calcium diet and corticosteroid drugs, will allow for a full recovery within a month.

Surprised to see just 4 weeks for a recovery. I got retested after 8 weeks (only minor improvement) and wasn't until 16 weeks until the test finally came back in range.

100% no dose is one-size-fits-all. I overdosed from taking a specialty multivitamin (it has a discord channel and everything). So was chatting with people taking the same vitamin, same dosages, also getting tested, but others had no issues at the same doses.

I guess I just absorb vitamin D with great efficiency, who knows.

Re: Vitamin D reduces incidence and duration of colds in those with low levels

#213

Post by givemeethekeys »

bluGill wrote: post #206
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most retirement communities don't have that much supervision Retirement communities in India are relatively new. Most older folks get taken care of at home by domestic staff, which, given India's demographics, are incredibly cheap and thus plentiful.

I forgot this was India, my mistake. Though that means there are essentially no retirement communities to work with there.

There are retirement communities in India and end-of-life care centers as well. Societies change, and thanks to the internet, societies change faster than ever.

Re: Vitamin D reduces incidence and duration of colds in those with low levels

#214

Post by soperj »

_vqpz wrote: post #99
zdragnar wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that people downvoting you have been around northerners much. Down here in the upper midwest US, we tend to consider 4 or 5C to be shorts weather in the spring. I've a friend who would wear flip flops / sandals outside down to roughly -10C. Then again, most people aren't getting the equivalent of 15 minutes of index 7 UVB exposure at those temperatures, so it's not quite the same thing, but still.

People are downvoting because it has nothing to do with the comment they're replying to or the original post. Most people are well aware temperature is relative too, I live in the American South and there are certainly people here who will wear shorts in cold or freezing weather too.

> Winter times can be effectively impossible because you can't sunbathe at 10 below

Re: Vitamin D reduces incidence and duration of colds in those with low levels

#215

Post by astrostl »

I haven't seen convincing evidence that vitamin D supplementation is materially useful for anything but rickets. I get the impression that naturally high serum levels are an effect rather than a cause of other positive things, and that supplementation mostly increases serum levels without effecting positive things. It doesn't seem harmful either, so can't hurt might help?

Re: Vitamin D reduces incidence and duration of colds in those with low levels

#216

Post by [deleted] »

cj wrote: post #127
johnisgood wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50 IU is nothing. 3000 IU is something. I have MS, so I need to supplement at least 10k IU. And yeah, it does not absorb well unless you eat some fat.

I took 10k iu via a multivitamin for a few months, and ended up with Vitamin D levels 5x higher than the maximum on the labcorp reference range. "Vitamin D toxicity" It took many months to get the levels back to normal. Vitamin D is one of those things that once you overdose, it takes many months for the levels to slowly come down after you stop supplementing. Be careful with Vitamin D! The downside to having high le…

[deleted]

Re: Vitamin D reduces incidence and duration of colds in those with low levels

#217

Post by nomel »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #175
cj wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took 10k iu via a multivitamin for a few months, and ended up with Vitamin D levels 5x higher than the maximum on the labcorp reference range. "Vitamin D toxicity" It took many months to get the levels back to normal. Vitamin D is one of those things that once you overdose, it takes many months for the levels to slowly come down after you stop supplementing. Be careful with Vitamin D! The downside to having high le…

Are you aware of the history of setting acceptable levels of Vitamin D? Basically, 100 years ago, people experimented with cures for TB by giving patients one to two orders of magnitude higher dosage than the "vitamin D toxicity" levels reported today. Like insanely high numbers. Strangely enough, most people did recover from the TB, but they kept getting the treatments anyway, and that in a few instances led to bone…

And, fixed dosage never makes sense with Vitamin D. If you're supplementing, you need to make sure you regulate it based on sun exposure, since it's literally the Sun vitamin.

It's easy to double up if you decide to eat lunch outside because the weather is nice this month. I take 10k only if I'm indoors all day, and reduce or take none if I'm out.

Re: Vitamin D reduces incidence and duration of colds in those with low levels

#218

Post by hinkley »

thewebguyd wrote: post #204
hinkley wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s criminal that the US sent Somalian refuges to live in Minnesota. Those are some seriously brown people in the land of no vitamin D. Pretty big population in Seattle as well, which is worse due to cloud cover.

> which is worse due to cloud cover. Not just cloud cover. Most areas in the PNW, the sun is so low in the sky between October and March that you can't synthesize vitamin D through the skin at all during those months, even on a bright sunny day. Even during the summer up here, you really only get a window of roughly 10am to 3pm where enough UV-B rays can penetrate the atmosphere, in July. It's estimated that >80% of…

That same podcast I mentioned pointed out that if a white person nude sunbathed in the winter in full sun, you’d get 2nd degree burns long before you made enough vitamin d.

The body stores it though. So how much of a deficit you’re running for how long matters.

Re: Vitamin D reduces incidence and duration of colds in those with low levels

#219

Post by hinkley »

anvuong wrote: post #181
hinkley wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s criminal that the US sent Somalian refuges to live in Minnesota. Those are some seriously brown people in the land of no vitamin D. Pretty big population in Seattle as well, which is worse due to cloud cover.

I'm an Asian who was born and raised in a tropical weather region of my country. I'm now living in the PNW region of the US and it's always miserable from November-April. Vitamin D helps but it's not the same.

Seattle taught me a lot about procrastination. If you look outside and it’s sunny, and you promised yourself you’d go out today, drop whatever you’re doing and put on a jacket. Because by the time you finish it might be cloudy again. Seize the hour. There are no days to seize.

Re: Vitamin D reduces incidence and duration of colds in those with low levels

#220

Post by hinkley »

lisbbb wrote: post #193
hinkley wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dark skinned people do not produce enough vitamin D in northern latitudes because of melanin. If you’re black and in Minnesota you probably need supplementation.

They have all already disappeared form public and it's only in the 40s right now. By winter you would swear no Somalis live in MN.

There are towns in Canada that have heated hallways that go between buildings so you can’t get completely snowed in during the winter. Maybe they should build those. Or the underground walkways they have in a couple of the cities.
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