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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

#51

Post by soperj »

jerf wrote: post #26
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…

"Winnipeg, Manitoba" ... "only need 15 minutes of sunshine per day to get your recommended dose of Vitamin D" That doesn't apply to you most of the time, unfortunately. Vitamin D is the result of UVB exposure. For significant portions of the year, you don't get very much [1], compare with, say, [2] Orlando Florida in the US. 10-15 minutes is for a UV index of 7 [3], so that's only 4-6 months out of the year for you.…

I grew up on the Canadian praries. -10C is basically shorts weather.

edit: seriously though, anything warmer than -10C you'll definitely see kids in shorts. I go skiing in shorts every year.

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

#52

Post by slow_typist »

layer8 wrote: post #30
ErikCorry wrote: post #7

Most vitamins are a waste of time and money, some are even harmful[1], but there are a lot of people with D deficiency, especially in winter[2]. 1 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/17/2744#:~:text=highest%20... 2 https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/vitamin-d#edit-group-image--...

Vitamin D isn’t technically a vitamin in the strict sense, because unlike the other vitamins the human body can produce it itself (by exposure to sunlight).

Dogs can synthesise vitamin C…

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

#55

Post by djtango »

nickff wrote: post #49
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).

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...

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

#56

Post by loverofhumanz »

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.

Man suffered outdoors very much, for a million years.

Man want both good of indoors and good of out outdoors.

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

#57

Post by [deleted] »

jghn wrote: post #31
ErikCorry wrote: post #7

Most vitamins are a waste of time and money, some are even harmful[1], but there are a lot of people with D deficiency, especially in winter[2]. 1 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/17/2744#:~:text=highest%20... 2 https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/vitamin-d#edit-group-image--...

The issue I've found with these discussions is it appears there's mixed evidence on if vitamin D *supplementation* actually has a positive impact, regardless of vitamin D deficiency. In other words, is the deficiency causal or correlative. I have no opinion on the matter, and am inclined to think there is at least some positive benefit. But YMMV

[deleted]

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

#58

Post by xwowsersx »

Supplementing with vitamin D is honestly one of the easiest things you can do... it's cheap, available everywhere, and makes a real difference. Just make sure you're also taking magnesium citrate (or another good form of magnesium) with it, since your body needs magnesium to properly use vit D

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

#59

Post by LocalPCGuy »

jghn wrote: post #31
ErikCorry wrote: post #7

Most vitamins are a waste of time and money, some are even harmful[1], but there are a lot of people with D deficiency, especially in winter[2]. 1 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/17/2744#:~:text=highest%20... 2 https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/vitamin-d#edit-group-image--...

The issue I've found with these discussions is it appears there's mixed evidence on if vitamin D *supplementation* actually has a positive impact, regardless of vitamin D deficiency. In other words, is the deficiency causal or correlative. I have no opinion on the matter, and am inclined to think there is at least some positive benefit. But YMMV

Just my results (n=1) and I don't think this is exactly what you were saying, but just in case other read it the same way I did at first: having had (lab tested) vitamin D deficiencies, vitamin D supplementation can help to restore levels back into the desired range. So supplementation can have the desired effect of improving vitamin D levels (more below). It is a simple test that most doctors don't quibble about adding on to other blood tests (i.e. during annual checkup, for instance), but isn't generally checked by default. (note: insurers may want it to be "diagnostic" rather than "preventative" in order to cover the test.)

Whether it has a "positive impact" on overall health (which I believe to be your point), that would be even more anecdotal and also impossible for me to narrow down whether that one factor had any significant effect, so I won't posit that. And I agree that from different studies I've read, the actual science on it is pretty varied and I haven't seen anything conclusive. Even this study notes their conclusion was "... among adults with suboptimal baseline vitamin D levels".

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

#60

Post by nradov »

jghn wrote: post #31
ErikCorry wrote: post #7

Most vitamins are a waste of time and money, some are even harmful[1], but there are a lot of people with D deficiency, especially in winter[2]. 1 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/17/2744#:~:text=highest%20... 2 https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/vitamin-d#edit-group-image--...

The issue I've found with these discussions is it appears there's mixed evidence on if vitamin D *supplementation* actually has a positive impact, regardless of vitamin D deficiency. In other words, is the deficiency causal or correlative. I have no opinion on the matter, and am inclined to think there is at least some positive benefit. But YMMV

Most of the vitamin D supplement studies have been very low quality in that they give all subjects in each group a fixed amount (or placebo). Ideally they should periodically test blood levels and titrate the dose to hit a target range. This would get us closer to establishing causality (or lack thereof) including a response curve. The amount needed to hit a given target will be wildly different for many individuals based on factors that are still not well understood.
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