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> One of the biggest risk factors for COVID and especially for poor outcomes is Vitamin D deficiency. Is it? How exactly is vitamin D deficiency measured and

> One of the biggest risk factors for COVID and especially for poor outcomes is Vitamin D deficiency. Is it? How exactly is vitamin D deficiency measured and diagnosed? How much variance / tolerance is there between people. Most importantly does COVID impact Vitamin D levels? This may be a serious oversight. Or it may be that the Vitamin D thing is pseudoscience.

nradov 6y ago
I recommend you read through all the studies indexed on this page and then get back to us. https://vitamin-d-covid.shotwell.ca/ https://vitamin-d-covid.shotwell.ca/
JamesBarney 6y ago
> Is it? Yes > How exactly is vitamin D deficiency measured and diagnosed? Usually with a blood test. It's diagnosed because the blood test comes back out of range which is usually below 30 ng/ml for insufficiency, and below 20 for a deficiency. > How much variance / tolerance is there between people? The std. deviation is 16.6 ng/ml > Most importantly does COVID impact Vitamin D levels? I don't think we know, it's hard to track this. You'd need to follow a huge cohort of people who you test for vitamin d often enough so that while they're getting the infection we see their vitamin d in real time.
kragen 6y ago
> Is it? Yes, in the usual sense medical researchers use the term "risk factor", e.g., having a heart attack is a risk factor for having one of your great-grandparents die of a heart attack. Taking vitamin D probably won't reduce your covid risk, but it might, and it's a low-risk intervention that probably isn't harmful, so you should do it anyway unless you have some contraindication such as a high risk of kidney stones. The best review I've seen of the research literature is this post: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/covidvitamin-d-much-more-than-you https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/covidvitamin-d-much-mo... (That post isn't medical advice, but this comment clearly is.)
pbhjpbhj 6y ago
Not a lot of people seem to know, but in the UK VitD supplements are recommended by the NHS for practically everyone in Winter. AIUI, VitD is involved in T-cell production and so is needed to maintain our immune systems. This is our course not medical advice.

nradov 6y ago

I recommend you read through all the studies indexed on this page and then get back to us. https://vitamin-d-covid.shotwell.ca/ https://vitamin-d-covid.shotwell.ca/

JamesBarney 6y ago

> Is it? Yes > How exactly is vitamin D deficiency measured and diagnosed? Usually with a blood test. It's diagnosed because the blood test comes back out of range which is usually below 30 ng/ml for insufficiency, and below 20 for a deficiency. > How much variance / tolerance is there between people? The std. deviation is 16.6 ng/ml > Most importantly does COVID impact Vitamin D levels? I don't think we know, it's hard to track this. You'd need to follow a huge cohort of people who you test for vitamin d often enough so that while they're getting the infection we see their vitamin d in real time.

kragen 6y ago

> Is it? Yes, in the usual sense medical researchers use the term "risk factor", e.g., having a heart attack is a risk factor for having one of your great-grandparents die of a heart attack. Taking vitamin D probably won't reduce your covid risk, but it might, and it's a low-risk intervention that probably isn't harmful, so you should do it anyway unless you have some contraindication such as a high risk of kidney stones. The best review I've seen of the research literature is this post: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/covidvitamin-d-much-more-than-you https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/covidvitamin-d-much-mo... (That post isn't medical advice, but this comment clearly is.)

pbhjpbhj 6y ago

Not a lot of people seem to know, but in the UK VitD supplements are recommended by the NHS for practically everyone in Winter. AIUI, VitD is involved in T-cell production and so is needed to maintain our immune systems. This is our course not medical advice.