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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

#61

Post by hollerith »

pelzatessa wrote: post #48
hollerith wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The symptoms are hard to describe (but did not include kidney stones), but it was obvious that something was drastically wrong and the drastic wrongness went away in response to my completely avoiding all sunlight and dietary sources of vitamin D and my doing a few other things described below.

Most people could probably take as much supplemental vitamin D as I did without incurring this adverse effect, but there is no straightforward way for a person to know whether they are in the minority of people who will incur the effect. (I do remember that having Northern European ancestry makes the effect more likely.)

The drastic wrongness started showing up after only a few months of whatever high dose of D I was taking (and I regret that I cannot provide this information: I did search for it briefly; but it was definitely not an "absurd amount") so if you've been taking the 8000 D3 for years, then the drastic wrongness is unlikely to suddenly show up in your case -- and if it does show up it would probably be because you contracted some sort of chronic infection.

The presence of certain kinds of chronic infections and genetics are the main causative factors according to the information I relied on 25 years ago. Actually, here is the basic information. I followed most aspects of the protocol including my obtaining a prescription for olmesartan, but then I lost interest when the drastic wrongness went away (after not much longer than 4 months IIRC). I was also probably on an antibiotic during this recovery.

https://mpkb.org/home/patients/protocol_overview

P.S., I take as much MK7 as you do (i.e., twice as much as the "suggested usage" on the label) and have for many years, just without supplemental vitamin D.

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

#62

Post by stronglikedan »

canadiantim wrote: post #39

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

Because the right people couldn't make money off of it - same reason that a lot of beneficial treatments were not recommended or flat out defamed.

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

#63

Post by slow_typist »

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…

EU considers 600 I.U. per day as safe. Probably not enough if the level is low. Blood sampling is cheap, why don’t you have it checked.

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

#64

Post by mwigdahl »

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

This is solely my own anecdote, but I used to get bad seasonal depression every winter. I tried a number of interventions short of medication; none moved the needle very much. I started supplementing with vitamin D probably 8 years ago and haven't had any issues with seasonal depression since.

I'm pretty personally convinced that it was the supplements that helped here.

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

#65

Post by LocalPCGuy »

theshrike79 wrote: post #37
jghn wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

Echo this with a PSA: it's a simple test to get your levels, and I'm a proponent of ensuring it's included when you have other regular blood tests (may have to ask for it). That can allow a person to see patterns, how effective any supplementation (and different amounts) are, etc.

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

#66

Post by delecti »

slow_typist wrote: post #52
layer8 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

And humans aren't dogs.

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

#67

Post by mwigdahl »

mda wrote: post #40

Unfortunately Vitamin D deficiency tests (probably it is not covered by your insurance), high dose supplements are currently pushed so much by Doctors I started to think this is almost a scam. Most of the research about the subject are very noisy and conflicting.

If it's a scam, who's profiting? The pills are dirt cheap, generic, and over the counter.

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

#68

Post by zdragnar »

soperj wrote: post #51
jerf wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

I'm not sure that people downvoting you have been around northerners much. Down here in the upper midwest US, we tend to consider 4 or 5C to be shorts weather in the spring. I've a friend who would wear flip flops / sandals outside down to roughly -10C.

Then again, most people aren't getting the equivalent of 15 minutes of index 7 UVB exposure at those temperatures, so it's not quite the same thing, but still.

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

#69

Post by LocalPCGuy »

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...

As has been commented elsewhere, everyone absorbs vitamin D differently, this really is a matter where someone should just get tested, if they (and their doctor) decide supplementation is needed, do so, test again, and adjust dosage accordingly until desired levels are attained.

Not medical advice here, but harmful effects from vitamin D exposure/toxicity generally only happen at very high levels, or if high doses are taken over long periods of time (as excess can be stored in fatty tissue/liver). Doctors often prescribe a very high dose (like 50,000 IUs) for individuals who are very deficient (often taken once a week, not daily) for a short period before going on a more standard (400-2,000, maybe 5,000) IU dose for maintenance.

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

#70

Post by Aldipower »

slow_typist wrote: post #52
layer8 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Wow, that is interesting. They can synthesise it in their liver?
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