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The controversy about vitamin D is becoming like ivermectin. There is no doubt that vitamin D is essential for bone health and is important in many other proce

by NoPie 5y ago

The controversy about vitamin D is becoming like ivermectin. There is no doubt that vitamin D is essential for bone health and is important in many other processes in the body. The correlation between low vitamin D levels and general health status is very clear. And yet, it remains elusive to prove that vitamin D supplementation will improve covid infection outcomes. Most likely low vitamin D levels are indicative of other issues in the body that vitamin D supplementation will not easily resolve.

raxxorrax 5y ago
It is astonishing that these supplements are that successful. In absence of any metabolic disorder, you can be pretty sure you have no nutritional deficits in any developed nation. Vitamin D might be an exception, although you can get small amounts by nutrition too. Instead of ordering supplements in front of your PC, why not spend a few minutes outside? And people taking zinc supplements against Covid? Why not just eat some bananas or some fish... Some even got kidney stones from taking to much Vitamin C supplements. Nothing of that seems particularly healthy.
- null_object 5y ago
  > why not spend a few minutes outside? This has been gone over so many times on HN that I'd think it hardly needs repeating, but above or below certain latitudes the ability to "spend a few minutes outside" to get an adequate dose of vitamin D does not apply for about half the year.
- NoPie 5y ago
  Vitamin D supplementation is very effective in case of rickets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickets). It is very rare now in developed countries because nutrition has considerably improved. Some countries even fortify certain foods with vitamin D so you have to be a very special case to not get at least some vitamin D. VitD has some other functions in the body too. However, it appears that once you have resolved issues with the bones, the levels are generally sufficient for everything else to function properly. I cannot imagine a situation where a person has problems with the bones due to vitamin D insufficiency and then gets supplements, it will somehow fail to improve these other functions too. Optimal levels are just a guideline and slightly suboptimal levels mostly will have only a marginal effect. Currently we don't routinely test for vitamin D levels in population except for people at risk because the benefit is small and not cost effective. There is a theory that these suboptimal vitD levels are very dangerous in case of covid but studies have been really controversial about that. I suspect that most of those studies that show big effect are biased in one way or another similarly to many positive ivermectin studies.

by NoPie 5y ago

raxxorrax 5y ago

It is astonishing that these supplements are that successful. In absence of any metabolic disorder, you can be pretty sure you have no nutritional deficits in any developed nation. Vitamin D might be an exception, although you can get small amounts by nutrition too. Instead of ordering supplements in front of your PC, why not spend a few minutes outside? And people taking zinc supplements against Covid? Why not just eat some bananas or some fish... Some even got kidney stones from taking to much Vitamin C supplements. Nothing of that seems particularly healthy.

null_object 5y ago
> why not spend a few minutes outside? This has been gone over so many times on HN that I'd think it hardly needs repeating, but above or below certain latitudes the ability to "spend a few minutes outside" to get an adequate dose of vitamin D does not apply for about half the year.
NoPie 5y ago
Vitamin D supplementation is very effective in case of rickets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickets). It is very rare now in developed countries because nutrition has considerably improved. Some countries even fortify certain foods with vitamin D so you have to be a very special case to not get at least some vitamin D. VitD has some other functions in the body too. However, it appears that once you have resolved issues with the bones, the levels are generally sufficient for everything else to function properly. I cannot imagine a situation where a person has problems with the bones due to vitamin D insufficiency and then gets supplements, it will somehow fail to improve these other functions too. Optimal levels are just a guideline and slightly suboptimal levels mostly will have only a marginal effect. Currently we don't routinely test for vitamin D levels in population except for people at risk because the benefit is small and not cost effective. There is a theory that these suboptimal vitD levels are very dangerous in case of covid but studies have been really controversial about that. I suspect that most of those studies that show big effect are biased in one way or another similarly to many positive ivermectin studies.