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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

#41

Post by biscuits1 »

"Exercise" not found in the shared text.

I'm sure people who supplement or have good D levels also take care of themselves, generally - because they know D is one of the supplements that make a difference both somatic and psychological.

And thus do better with flu/cold.

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

#42

Post by allisdust »

biscuits1 wrote: post #41

"Exercise" not found in the shared text. I'm sure people who supplement or have good D levels also take care of themselves, generally - because they know D is one of the supplements that make a difference both somatic and psychological. And thus do better with flu/cold.

It is a double blind study. what else do you want for confirmation ?

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

#44

Post by dlcarrier »

canadiantim wrote: post #39

I wonder why we didn’t recommend vitamin D during Covid?

One of the best treatments is interferon. It's something you will also produce yourself, with therapeutic effect, if exposited to sunlight or the infrared light used in red light therapy. Here's a video about it, from a continuing education provider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRkxH56LqCo

Vitamin D therapy doesn't have such an effect.

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

#45

Post by dooglius »

thrusong wrote: post #4

I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba where it is quite cold for a big majority of the year. I have dabbled with supplements because I get a couple of major colds every year. I've heard things like you only need 15 minutes of sunshine per day to get your recommended dose of Vitamin D, but I've also heard it can be quite bad for you if you have too much in your system (and it's hard for your body to flush excess amounts). If t…

You can get blood tests pretty cheaply. The safe level is the level that, after you take it consistently, has you in the desired range on the test.

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

#46

Post by Supermancho »

canadiantim wrote: post #39

I wonder why we didn’t recommend vitamin D during Covid?

There were a few soft recommendations. Specifically I remember an ER doctor in 2019 saying vitamin D seemed to be a differentiator in the sample of cases he was seeing in the ER (everyone was starting to panic) and the CDC walking it back as unsubstantiated. I mentioned it at work, then 10 days later my boss's boss asked me where I had heard it, because he had heard the same thing.

There have been a number of people on HN who have attributed any measurable COVID benefit of Vitamin D, to a confounding variable, as recently as 3 months ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44705486 The Big Vitamin D Mistake

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

#47

Post by pavon »

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.

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

#48

Post by pelzatessa »

hollerith wrote: post #43
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much were you taking?

I don't remember because it was 25 years ago. Not a huge amount.

I take 8000 D3 (+200ug K2 MK7) daily and I'm fine. since covid I go like this for entirety of winter and then back down when summer comes. Perhaps you live in a climate where you get a lot of sun exposure and somehow overdosed on that. A guy from vitadmindwiki.com even says that you'd have to take 14000IU daily for a year until reaching toxicity limit (although this guy tends to sometimes say different things on the same topic, so I'd be cautious on whether this is the exact amount) https://vitamindwiki.com/Overview+Toxicity+of+vitamin+D

Although it'd be great if you explained what exactly happened, perhaps it wasn't a result of taking vitamin D itself but rather some external thing. Judging by "painful experience" I assume kidney stones, which could be caused by too much calcium or genetic preference. not a doctor or an expert on the topic though, just open for a discussion :)

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

#49

Post by nickff »

unionjack22 wrote: post #38

Vitamin D, red light therapy, insulin attenuating response of a walk, immunological benefit of allergen exposure, cognitive noise reduction and rest response of walks in forests. Man keeps trying to bring the outdoors inside.

While I find your comment enjoyably pithy, in the case of vitamin D, many humans are currently living at latitudes which they are not suited to (skin being too dark to generate enough vitamin D given the insolation), and eating diets which do not provide them with sufficient amounts of it (the carnivore diets of Inuits and similar groups being a good contrast).

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

#50

Post by cgh »

ErikCorry wrote: post #14
mwigdahl wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take 5000 IU per day year round and have not had any issues. Research suggests you can dose 10x that without major problems, although personally I wouldn't go higher than I am already. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30611908/

That sounds like a lot: To help prevent vitamin D toxicity, don't take more than 4,000 international units (IU) a day of vitamin D unless your healthcare professional tells you to. Most adults need only 600 IU of vitamin D a day https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-h...

I experimented with taking 10,000 IU a day for about a year. I had my D levels checked with my normal yearly blood test (lipids, etc) and it put me into the high normal range. I still take 5000 IU daily and have for years with no ill effects.

I should note that I live in a place that sees little sun for five or so months a year.

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