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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

#221

Post by seba_dos1 »

thewebguyd wrote: post #201
Theodores wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vitamin D supplementation in the UK - now there is a fascinating topic. With the industrial revolution there was a problem of kids in cities getting rickets. This was due to a lack of vitamin C and that was due to a lack of daylight due to the smog. The solution was to take the kids out of the city so they could spend time in the countryside. However, along with the industrial revolution came steam trains, and, with…

> Maybe following their example for this winter could be my next 'nutrition experiment' Anecdotal and a sample size of 1, but I tried supplementing Vitamin D last year in the winter months. I live in the PNW, which between October and March, the sun is too low to trigger vitamin D synthesis in the skin to see if it had any effect on my energy levels and mood, I suffer from seasonal affective disorder pretty severely.…

~5000 IU daily between February and May was barely enough to raise 25(OH) D level in my blood from 9 to 30 ng/ml.

Depending on who you ask, 30 is either the bound between "deficient" and "insufficient", or between "insufficient" and "sufficient". Regardless of who you ask, there's plenty of headroom until "excess".

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

#222

Post by theshrike79 »

Etheryte wrote: post #102
theshrike79 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that vitamin D doesn’t absorb the same way for everyone. If a 100 people take 50IU of Vitamin D, you get 100 different results. Some get enough from minor sun exposure and maybe eating a fish now and then. Others need massive doses to get any results.

50IU is a minuscule dose though, no? If people are recommended to supplement, they generally take a dose in the range of a few thousand.

The point wasn't the dose, I just picked a number out of my ass.

The point is that from that N IU the 100 people will absorb anything from 0-N, it's very individual and varied.

The only way to be sure is to test your levels, which costs money every time. There really should be a simple and cheap home test kit for it. You'd sell millions every year just in the Nordics and Canada =)

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

#223

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

Etheryte wrote: post #198
swalsh wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'm guessing he meant 50k not 50. 50k is quite a large dose.

There is no way that's what they meant. 50k is an absurdly large dose that's way outside the safe intake range. 10k is used sometimes under medical supervision and even then it's a very short term measure. For long term intake, 4000IU is a widely accepted safe upper limit. 50k is an order of magnitude more than that.

There's plenty of documentation of people taking 50k for a period of time and having no side effects. There's been something like a dozen trials using high doses like this to treat TB, and they're usually successful, with no significant negative symptoms.

Conversely, some studies have shown that 4k IU does contribute to hypercalcemia in a small number of cases (4 per 1000). So actually 4k is deemed "not completely safe" as a limit.

The point is, the amount you take needs to be adjusted by a clinician, as the safe range for you is unknowable otherwise.

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

#224

Post by NedF »

gwerbret wrote: post #100

Heh...this is a shady study if I ever saw one. -- Exactly 400 study participants recruited. -- Exactly 193 of 200 participants completing the study in each group (which, for a study administered in a community setting, is an essentially impossibly-high completion rate). -- No author disclosures -- in fact, no information about the authors whatsoever, other than their names. -- No information on exposures, lifestyles,…

[dead]

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

#225

Post by djtango »

lawlessone wrote: post #138
djtango wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amusing how thanks to the war on cholesterol the UK unravelled a lot of egg eating habits - a natural source of vitamin D. The UK also consumed a lot more liver than it does today I imagine...

Are they that unpopular? Seem like a staple of an English Breakfast.

Couldn't quickly find any sources for the UK specifically but this should suffice

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4632449/

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

#226

Post by philipallstar »

IAmBroom wrote: post #134
yadaeno wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allergy shots work very well.

Privileged comment. Walks in a controlled greenhouse without allergenic pollinators also work, but the poor can't easily access either in the US.

Anti-allergy pills are some of the cheapest[0] and safest products on the market.

[0] https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-allergy-relief-d... $4.99 for 24x 1-a-days

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

#227

Post by vintermann »

hinkley wrote: post #188
mwambua wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only criminal if they aren't provided with the education/information they need to live healthy lives (which is possible with the right diet/supplements).

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.

Minnesota? Minnesota isn't particularly dark. Minneapolis is apparently on the same latitude as Venice, Italy, and I don't think of Venice as particularly dark or gloomy (to be fair, they probably have better weather).

But yeah. Low vitamin D levels are common even with lily white people in Northern Europe, and at least here in Norway everyone with dark skin knows that they need vitamin D supplements. Traditionally, public health recommendation (for everyone) was to take cod liver oil regularly for every month with an R in it.

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

#228

Post by Etheryte »

theshrike79 wrote: post #222
Etheryte wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50IU is a minuscule dose though, no? If people are recommended to supplement, they generally take a dose in the range of a few thousand.

The point wasn't the dose, I just picked a number out of my ass. The point is that from that N IU the 100 people will absorb anything from 0-N, it's very individual and varied. The only way to be sure is to test your levels, which costs money every time. There really should be a simple and cheap home test kit for it. You'd sell millions every year just in the Nordics and Canada =)

Maybe this comes across snide, but have you been to the Nordics? I can get tested at my GP for free practically as often as I'd like, I doubt you'd sell too much in the way of home test kits.

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

#229

Post by rcxdude »

Theodores wrote: post #150
djtango wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amusing how thanks to the war on cholesterol the UK unravelled a lot of egg eating habits - a natural source of vitamin D. The UK also consumed a lot more liver than it does today I imagine...

Vitamin D supplementation in the UK - now there is a fascinating topic. With the industrial revolution there was a problem of kids in cities getting rickets. This was due to a lack of vitamin C and that was due to a lack of daylight due to the smog. The solution was to take the kids out of the city so they could spend time in the countryside. However, along with the industrial revolution came steam trains, and, with…

The NHS does recommend that everyone in the UK 'consider' vitamin D supplementation during the autumn and winter: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-... , because the amount of sunlight available in those months is not enough to maintain a healthy level.

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

#230

Post by rcxdude »

seba_dos1 wrote: post #221
thewebguyd wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe following their example for this winter could be my next 'nutrition experiment' Anecdotal and a sample size of 1, but I tried supplementing Vitamin D last year in the winter months. I live in the PNW, which between October and March, the sun is too low to trigger vitamin D synthesis in the skin to see if it had any effect on my energy levels and mood, I suffer from seasonal affective disorder pretty severely.…

~5000 IU daily between February and May was barely enough to raise 25(OH) D level in my blood from 9 to 30 ng/ml. Depending on who you ask, 30 is either the bound between "deficient" and "insufficient", or between "insufficient" and "sufficient". Regardless of who you ask, there's plenty of headroom until "excess".

Yes, it's possible but relatively hard to overdose on vitamin D, and due to a cock-up in some calculations in a study, until recently the recommended supplement amounts were about an order of magnitude too low: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5541280/
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