Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why? • Hacker News Board

Re: Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why?

#41

Post by detourdog » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:39 AM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #37

brandonb wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My doctor said she’s seeing a huge number of patients coming back with excessively high Vitamin D levels after taking supplement doses recommended by influencers. It happened to me, too, with what I though was a conservative dose of Vitamin D (5K IU, not even taken every day) IMO that’s part of what’s interesting about this study design — they tested vitamin D blood levels and adjusted the supplement dose based on…

> I think the headline is accurate. The 52% number is from the experiment arm (participants who received a vitamin D supplement, with the quantity guided by blood testing). While it’s technically possible for the supplement dosage to be calculated as zero, 85% of participants were deficient at baseline, so this isn’t the main effect. Yes, but it's also important to note that the study wasn't on a representative sampl…

I think the supplements are just average Vitamin D off the grocery store shelf. Malabsorbtion is obvious possible.

Re: Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why?

#42

Post by fragmede » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 1:41 AM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #36

detourdog wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't doubt you but I also wonder what you base this information on. In 2020 I test results for vitamin D was ridiculous low. I have been taking supplements Jan 02, 2020 4:32 pm 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D Total 9 ng/mL 30-100 ng/mL I took me five years just to get to something close to the lowest end of normal. I was started on supplements in the in 2k IU and after poor progress boosted to 5k IU everyday to get to this l…

My own experience getting a too-high result from supplementing 5K IU several times a week. When it came up, my doctor said I wasn't alone and that she's seeing a lot of people come back too high. > I took me five years just to get to something close to the lowest end of normal. Five years of supplementing to get up to 30ng/mL? Something is wrong. Could your supplements have not actually contained any real amount of V…

Don't forget your K2!

Re: Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why?

#43

Post by relaxing » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC

tylerhou wrote: post #38

detourdog wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't doubt you but I also wonder what you base this information on. In 2020 I test results for vitamin D was ridiculous low. I have been taking supplements Jan 02, 2020 4:32 pm 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D Total 9 ng/mL 30-100 ng/mL I took me five years just to get to something close to the lowest end of normal. I was started on supplements in the in 2k IU and after poor progress boosted to 5k IU everyday to get to this l…

A big problem is that the range that we have decided to call “normal” might not actually be a normal range. For example, 50% of surfers were found to have insufficient vitamin D in one study. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17426097/ There are at least two possible conclusions that you could draw. One conclusion is that we all need vitamin D supplementation regardless of how much sun exposure we receive. Another conc…

No, the conclusion is surfers are conscious of their exposure and wear sun protection.

Re: Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why?

#44

Post by seba_dos1 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 3:08 AM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #36

detourdog wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't doubt you but I also wonder what you base this information on. In 2020 I test results for vitamin D was ridiculous low. I have been taking supplements Jan 02, 2020 4:32 pm 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D Total 9 ng/mL 30-100 ng/mL I took me five years just to get to something close to the lowest end of normal. I was started on supplements in the in 2k IU and after poor progress boosted to 5k IU everyday to get to this l…

My own experience getting a too-high result from supplementing 5K IU several times a week. When it came up, my doctor said I wasn't alone and that she's seeing a lot of people come back too high. > I took me five years just to get to something close to the lowest end of normal. Five years of supplementing to get up to 30ng/mL? Something is wrong. Could your supplements have not actually contained any real amount of V…

Five years is unusually long, but your case is an outlier too. Usually it will take about 3 months to rise serum levels by ~30ng/mL on 5K IU daily, though there's plenty of individual variation of course.

It's a low enough dose that if I had to choose between taking it blindly or not taking it at all if I was so depressed I couldn't get out of bed to get my levels tested, then I would do it blindly for a month or two without second thoughts.

Re: Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why?

#45

Post by seba_dos1 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 3:19 AM UTC

LooseMarmoset wrote: post #28

leetrout wrote: post #9

This is interesting to me because I was put on prescription 50000IU D2 and it gave me heart palpitations.

I was put on 5000IU D2 and I got kidney stones, twice. The doctor wouldn't believe that the D2 was the cause, but I stopped taking it and the stones have not recurred. I would like to bring my D levels up, but not at the expense of kidney stones.

Why D2?

Re: Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why?

#46

Post by seba_dos1 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 3:21 AM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #30

leetrout wrote: post #9

This is interesting to me because I was put on prescription 50000IU D2 and it gave me heart palpitations.

50K IU in a single dose is probably a bad idea. You’d also want D3 generally.

It's not, in many studies there was no observed difference between higher dose weekly or lower one daily when it summed up to the same amount. Sometimes even higher monthly doses are used.

It's just easier to overdose by mistake this way.

Re: Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why?

#47

Post by KellyCriterion » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 10:35 AM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #36

detourdog wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't doubt you but I also wonder what you base this information on. In 2020 I test results for vitamin D was ridiculous low. I have been taking supplements Jan 02, 2020 4:32 pm 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D Total 9 ng/mL 30-100 ng/mL I took me five years just to get to something close to the lowest end of normal. I was started on supplements in the in 2k IU and after poor progress boosted to 5k IU everyday to get to this l…

My own experience getting a too-high result from supplementing 5K IU several times a week. When it came up, my doctor said I wasn't alone and that she's seeing a lot of people come back too high. > I took me five years just to get to something close to the lowest end of normal. Five years of supplementing to get up to 30ng/mL? Something is wrong. Could your supplements have not actually contained any real amount of V…

Could also be a problem with the liver (e.g. too much alcohol), since if its stressed it cant convert the Vitamin D efficiently anymore unless the stress is gone.

Re: Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why?

#48

Post by detourdog » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 11:52 AM UTC

KellyCriterion wrote: post #47

Aurornis wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My own experience getting a too-high result from supplementing 5K IU several times a week. When it came up, my doctor said I wasn't alone and that she's seeing a lot of people come back too high. > I took me five years just to get to something close to the lowest end of normal. Five years of supplementing to get up to 30ng/mL? Something is wrong. Could your supplements have not actually contained any real amount of V…

Could also be a problem with the liver (e.g. too much alcohol), since if its stressed it cant convert the Vitamin D efficiently anymore unless the stress is gone.

Alcohol has never been something I enjoyed. I probably don't drink alcohol more then once a year.

Re: Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why?

#49

Post by pseudohadamard » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 12:01 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #25

The headline is poorly worded. The 52% number was for people with Vitamin D levels within a certain range, whether or not they took supplements EDIT: The study was also performed exclusively on patients who presented with acute coronary syndrome. Average age was over 60, nearly 80% were men, and half had already had at least one heart attack. Keep that context in mind when reading numbers about the patients in the st…

> Average age was over 60, nearly 80% were men, and half had already had at least one heart attack.

Well at least it wasn't in mice, that's a big step up from the usual stuff.

Re: Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why?

#50

Post by leetrout » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 12:47 PM UTC

LooseMarmoset wrote: post #28

leetrout wrote: post #9

This is interesting to me because I was put on prescription 50000IU D2 and it gave me heart palpitations.

I was put on 5000IU D2 and I got kidney stones, twice. The doctor wouldn't believe that the D2 was the cause, but I stopped taking it and the stones have not recurred. I would like to bring my D levels up, but not at the expense of kidney stones.

I was put on it because I have stones and my parathyroid hormone level is 2.5x normals. The understanding is that low vitamin D causes higher PTH which can influence stones even though my blood calcium is normal. We didn't get to a root cause on the palpitations but my vitamin D has dropped back to 9 so I am going to have to supplement.