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Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

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Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#51

Post by didgeoridoo »

trevorkoob wrote: post #43

Did my masters on Vitamin D - It is very difficult to extract CLINICALLY RELEVANT information from retrospective epidemiological studies. However, there a a few things that are clear: 1. Calcium absorption from the intestine increases with vitamin D supplementation dose up to around 8-10,000 IU D3 daily. 2. 15 minutes of full body exposure in noon sun is equivalent to a dose of ~20,000 IU D3 3. There are few cases of…

Interesting, I've always heard of the calcium absorption effect as a negative aspect of D over-supplementation — I guess the theory is that it raises your blood calcium level too high, leading to arterial calcification? Is that effect overblown in your opinion?

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#52

Post by arethuza »

tomtomistaken wrote: post #44
watertom wrote: post #20

Since I was a child I’ve been a walking respiratory illness machine. Bronchitis, sinusitis, flu, pneumonia, common cold, etc. During “flu” season I was usually sick for the entire season with a rotating assortment of viral respiratory issues, this lasted until about 7 years ago. 8 years ago in September I started taking 10,000 IU of vitamin D3 and 180mg of K2 daily. I haven’t had a deputies illness since. My children…

I had anxiety attacks and back pain for years. Maybe it’s just a weird and strong placebo effect, but after starting to take vitamin D these things were simply gone.

I found the same - I was starting to get anxiety first thing in the morning - started taking Vitamin D and it simply stopped. At the time I had no idea that Vitamin D could have that effect.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#53

Post by elric »

trevorkoob wrote: post #43

Did my masters on Vitamin D - It is very difficult to extract CLINICALLY RELEVANT information from retrospective epidemiological studies. However, there a a few things that are clear: 1. Calcium absorption from the intestine increases with vitamin D supplementation dose up to around 8-10,000 IU D3 daily. 2. 15 minutes of full body exposure in noon sun is equivalent to a dose of ~20,000 IU D3 3. There are few cases of…

Re #2: the figure gets thrown around a lot. But who is outside, naked, at noon for fifteen minutes? It's really hard to translate that to anything meaningful or actionable.

Here's a tool that can help calculate useful exposure depending on your location/time of year. Doesn't take clothing into account however..

https://fastrt.nilu.no/VitD-ez_quartMEDandMED_v2.html

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#54

Post by kedean »

guptaneil wrote: post #34

This requires a huge correlation != causation flag. The article briefly mentions this, noting that it’s possible vitamin D is just a sign of a healthy person, so of course they’ll do better with COVID. Another correlation that doesn’t get discussed whenever vitamin D comes up is that people with darker skin generally have less vitamin D, because our skin doesn’t absorb sunlight as much. We also know that COVID is dis…

I felt like the article spent sufficient time on the idea that the explanation could be that healthier people simply have higher vitamin D levels, and that the vitamin D itself is not the cause. At no point did they choose a side on that part, the bias was only that they believe vitamin D is a promising avenue.

I really loved that the whole piece was informational, and not trying to convince the reader that Vitamin D is or isn't a cure or remedy for anything. It simply presented the available facts, the research, and the positives and negatives of that research. It even explained multiple aspects and positions of the debate on whether vitamin D supplementation is good or bad.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#55

Post by ip26 »

elric wrote: post #53
trevorkoob wrote: post #43

Did my masters on Vitamin D - It is very difficult to extract CLINICALLY RELEVANT information from retrospective epidemiological studies. However, there a a few things that are clear: 1. Calcium absorption from the intestine increases with vitamin D supplementation dose up to around 8-10,000 IU D3 daily. 2. 15 minutes of full body exposure in noon sun is equivalent to a dose of ~20,000 IU D3 3. There are few cases of…

Re #2: the figure gets thrown around a lot. But who is outside, naked, at noon for fifteen minutes? It's really hard to translate that to anything meaningful or actionable. Here's a tool that can help calculate useful exposure depending on your location/time of year. Doesn't take clothing into account however.. https://fastrt.nilu.no/VitD-ez_quartMEDandMED_v2.html

Skin shade, location, time of year, and atmospheric conditions are other huge variables.

My pale skin in the midday desert sun for fifteen minutes in July? I'd have a pretty serious burn.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#56

Post by chl »

dminder is a great app to estimate Vitamin D "intake"/production through sun exposure (and also food, albeit this won't matter much for most people):

http://dminder.ontometrics.com/

I only wish the algorithm used to derive the estimates was public/documented somewhere ...

http://dminder.ontometrics.com/Estimation.html

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#57

Post by cgh »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #50

These studies need to keep up until we can fully account for the difference in fatality not only worldwide, but state to state. Why has Japan, with an older population (median age 47), a tiny island, crowded indoor subways —- has only experienced 900 deaths and never locked down! while some zip codes in New York experiences 2x that amount. Even state to state the difference is alarming.

Diabetes is likely a factor: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/931132

And obesity is strongly correlated with diabetes: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-and-obesity.html

There is a distinction to be drawn between obesity rates in the US and Japan and that might be part of the answer to your question.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#58

Post by amanaplanacanal »

tomhoward wrote: post #22

All these articles about different individual nutrients start to feel like heath whack-a-mole. How about this: to be in the best possible position to beat any serious infection, you need to be in generally good health. That means having adequate levels of all essential nutrients - i.e., all the vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes etc that you get from maintaining a good diet and healthy lifestyle over the long t…

Vitamin D seems like a special case in the whack-a-mole though, since health authorities have been heavily pushing behavior that leads to getting less of this for a generation now. The message to never go outside without wearing sunscreen has probably killed way more people than it has saved.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#59

Post by mrfusion »

trevorkoob wrote: post #43

Did my masters on Vitamin D - It is very difficult to extract CLINICALLY RELEVANT information from retrospective epidemiological studies. However, there a a few things that are clear: 1. Calcium absorption from the intestine increases with vitamin D supplementation dose up to around 8-10,000 IU D3 daily. 2. 15 minutes of full body exposure in noon sun is equivalent to a dose of ~20,000 IU D3 3. There are few cases of…

Will your body make vitamin d from sunlight if you already have a enough from a supplement?

I’m worried about overdosing if I take 5000 UI and get a lot of sun.

Re: Vitamin D: the New Covid-19 Chloroquine?

#60

Post by elric »

With all this talk about Vitamin D and K deficiencies, which inevitable meanders onto Magnesium and fish oil supplements and whatnot; maybe it's time for a "vitamin subscription service"? Enter a bunch of information (location, lifestyle, diet, health issues) and get tailor made supplements sent to your home every month? The levels of some vitamins could vary depending on time of year (more D in winter) or circumstances (more Mg when more active in summer).

Ideally all packaged into one tablet or something. I take an unholy cocktail of supplements to help curb my migraines, that's 5 tablets/caps a day. Not much fun.

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