New Study on Vitamin D and COVID

[audreyh1]

After pondering the various reading materials here, it seems the vitamin D issue with COVID is primarily when a person has a vitamin D deficiency. Much of the super mega vitamin D dosing of COVID patients was to recover from that deficiency, if I read it correctly. So to me that means that keeping one's levels up to snuff is more important than taking preventative mega doses of vitamin D. And that keeping under the 4000 IU limit will get the job done for most people?

Reading that report in no way does it say someone should take megadoses of Vitamin D as a preventative. I think it reinforces the idea of keeping your Vitamin D levels in a healthy range. It seems to imply that patients with bad outcomes were severely Vitamin D deficient, and that’s why initial megadoses were used.

If someone measures their level and they are severely deficient, like way under 25ng/dL, then taking larger doses like 10,000 IU daily for a while may be appropriate. That’s what my doctor had me do. You really should do such a thing under doctor supervision.

 

[timo2]

Reading that report in no way does it say someone should take megadoses of Vitamin D as a preventative. I think it reinforces the idea of keeping your Vitamin D levels in a healthy range. It seems to imply that patients with bad outcomes were severely Vitamin D deficient, and that’s why initial megadoses were used.

If someone measures their level and they are severely deficient, like way under 25ng/dL, then taking larger doses like 10,000 IU daily for a while may be appropriate. That’s what my doctor had me do. You really should do such a thing under doctor supervision.

That is correct, the articles do not mention the casual use of megadoses. I'm channeling the human behavior that sengsational also mentioned. I'm opposed to unprescribed mega doses of anything, but see people in society promoting the casual use of megadoses of vitamins quite often. That's why the thought popped out in my writing. So we are in agreement here.

 

[Boho]

The RDA of vitamin D for me is 600 IU. I'm ordering 1000 IU chewables and taking half a day. I'll probably get well over the other 100 IU from diet and sun. This will be the first supplement I've had since baby vitamins when I was a kid.

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-Consumer/

Birth to 12 months 10 mcg (400 IU)
Children 1–13 years 15 mcg (600 IU)
Teens 14–18 years 15 mcg (600 IU)
Adults 19–70 years 15 mcg (600 IU)
Adults 71 years and older 20 mcg (800 IU)
Pregnant and breastfeeding women 15 mcg (600 IU)

 

[audreyh1]

Oops, I meant to type 25 ng/ml above.

 

[Katsmeow]

Reading that report in no way does it say someone should take megadoses of Vitamin D as a preventative. I think it reinforces the idea of keeping your Vitamin D levels in a healthy range. It seems to imply that patients with bad outcomes were severely Vitamin D deficient, and that’s why initial megadoses were used.

If someone measures their level and they are severely deficient, like way under 25ng/dL, then taking larger doses like 10,000 IU daily for a while may be appropriate. That’s what my doctor had me do. You really should do such a thing under doctor supervision.

When I began taking it the last name, the doctor I believe had my start at 50000 IU a week. Then after several weeks I cut back to 5000 IU. I would not recommend doing anything like the 50000 IU weekly or other high does without talking to a doctor first.

 

[Vacation4us]

I live in California and at the time I was diagnosed with low vitamin D levels I was walking 7 miles a day with a hat but no sunscreen. My level was 17. I have taken a daily dose of 5000 iu daily under medical advise. Interesting to note that my sister and daughter also run low and take supplements.

I do get retested and now have normal levels.

 

[Winemaker]

Unless I have been diagnosed with a Vit D deficiency, my insurance will only pay once a year to have the test done.

 

[Sunset]

Unless I have been diagnosed with a Vit D deficiency, my insurance will only pay once a year to have the test done.

I just get tested with my annual physical. Not sure it changes that quickly unless someone was taking massive doses.

 

[RAE]

Unless I have been diagnosed with a Vit D deficiency, my insurance will only pay once a year to have the test done.

Once a year should be sufficient. Just have it checked annually and adjust your dosage of Vitamin D (and/or your sun exposure) based upon your lab test results. That's basically what I've done.

 

[Bongleur]

Had my annual physical yesterday. The doc told me to add “taking a Vitamin D3 supplement” to my morning regimen.

Hope you didn't pay for that USELESS advice.
What BLOOD LEVEL of which METABOLITE is the target of "taking" it?

 

[Bongleur]

FWIW I've been on a D3 supplement for several years. However make sure you are monitored as your level can get too high resulting in other complications. My PCP recently dropped my daily dosage from 5000 iu to 4000 iu since my test came back at 70 in the 30-100 acceptable range.

And what is the medical reason for keeping it in the lower part of the range?
And who defined this acceptable range? Does it apply to YOU (your age, race, sex, other health concerns...)

Have not read this yet:

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/937313

News > Medscape Medical News > Conference News > ASBMR 2020

Mega Vitamin D Harms Bone in Women, Not Men, Without Osteoporosis
Marlene Busko
September 14, 2020

"More is not necessarily better" when it comes to vitamin D supplements for women with adequate serum levels, new research suggests.

In a study of healthy 55- to 70-year-old women who took very high-dose vitamin D supplements — either 4000 IU/day or the previously identified "upper safe limit" of 10,000 IU/day — for 3 years had a significantly greater loss of total bone mineral density (BMD) at the radius and tibia than women who took 400 IU/day. However, this effect was not seen in men.

And the higher-dose vitamin D supplements did not improve bone strength in men or women.

But this was an exploratory post-hoc analysis, and these were healthy community-dwelling adults with sufficient serum vitamin D levels (and no osteoporosis) at study entry, stressed lead researcher Lauren A. Burt, PhD, from the University of Calgary, in Alberta, Canada.

SNIP rest w/ links to primary source

 

[tmm99]

I know having a high level of Vit D can cause hypercalcemia and is really bad for your heart and other organs.

 

[Sojourner]

I know having a high level of Vit D can cause hypercalcemia and is really bad for your heart and other organs.

True, but this can be mitigated to a large degree by also taking vitamin K2 supplements. K2 (particularly the MK-7 form) works in conjunction with D3 to help keep calcium in bones and out of arteries.

 

[tmm99]

True, but this can be mitigated to a large degree by also taking vitamin K2 supplements. K2 (particularly the MK-7 form) works in conjunction with D3 to help keep calcium in bones and out of arteries.

Oh good. I do take both D3 and K2 together, but I didn't remember why I was doing that.

 

[OmegaDog]

K2

Oh good. I do take both D3 and K2 together, but I didn't remember why I was doing that.

Some people say you should never take vit D without K2.

 

[imnontrad]

Well, I have not read the study but I have spent a lot of time for months walking outside. If a reduced COVID possibility plus a nice tan is the result, I'll take it.

 

[Old Microbiologist]

This has been known since April but is only just now making it into US information. We now know that it is part of the Renin-Angiotensin System (RAS) which has been identified as the cause of the Bradykinin storm seen in COVID-19. Vitamin D is essential to down regulate ACE2 and upregulate ACE.

Chris Martensen (who is an investment counselor [Peak Prosperity Inc.] but has a PhD in Pathology) has done some excellent videos making this easy(ier) to understand by laymen. This particular video explains the RAS involvement.

It has been pretty obvious for a while now that Vitamin D is essential to prevent symptomatic COVID and now we know why. That said, you must recognize that as we age the amount of Vitamin D absorbed drops dramatically and to make it worse our skin stops making Vitamin D as well. The drop is roughly 90% by age 65. To reach effective Vitamin D3 levels you must take supplements and a lot of it. I take 2,000 units daily and my levels are in the correct range now. I also eat a lot of wild mushrooms and I spend a great deal of time in the sun sailing. Despite that my levels are not extraordinary but are good enough. It is very hard to overdose on Vitamin D. My wife is taking 200,000 units a month for osteoporosis treatment and her levels are about the same as mine but she is age 72 so it definitely takes more as you age to maintain adequate levels.

 

[BigNick]

Have not read this yet:

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/937313

News > Medscape Medical News > Conference News > ASBMR 2020

Mega Vitamin D Harms Bone in Women, Not Men, Without Osteoporosis
Marlene Busko
September 14, 2020

But this was an exploratory post-hoc analysis, and these were healthy community-dwelling adults with sufficient serum vitamin D levels (and no osteoporosis) at study entry, stressed lead researcher Lauren A. Burt, PhD, from the University of Calgary, in Alberta, Canada.

Statistically significant results from exploratory post-hoc analysis in subgroups with sample sizes of 50 are pretty much always due to noise. To the lead author's credit she acknowledges that in the last paragraph above, but the press release was written anyway. So, yet another study that found very little (which is fine; science is hard) but gets turned into a game-changing finding by the PR machine.

 

[NoiseBoy]

Dr. Fauci takes 6000IU per day (see YouTube link below.)

I have a number of thoughts about Vitamin D. First of all, I am convinced that it is a cheap, readily available supplement that many studies indicate can be a very effective prophylactic against the coronavirus. It's not a preventative, but otherwise healthy people, who are not vitamin D deficient, do not get as sick or need as much hospital care as those who are deficient. When you consider that 42% of the US population is vitamin D deficient, I don't understand why our national health care organizations are not recommending vitamin D supplementation loudly. Those numbers jump to 80% for blacks and 72% for the hispanic population (darker skins make less vitamin D) by the way. I take a daily 50+ multi-vitamin (1000IU of D3) and, since learning about this relationship, I've added an additional 1000IU D3 capsule to my daily regimen. Nowhere have I read that 2000IU per day is dangerous for adults. I cannot understand why this does not get more attention from the mainstream media. Winter is coming, afterall!

An interesting outcome of some of the studies I've read linking vitamin D levels to health outcomes is that there is some support for the view that vitamin D levels may be the true reason for the seasonality of the flu. Interestingly, the flu is not seasonal in sunny, warmer climates, but its seasonality is well noted in temperate climates. What if the real reason is because people stay indoors and thus get less sunlight and therefore make less vitamin D? For the same reason, what if vitamin D deficiency can explain, at least in part, why the coronavirus rips through senior care homes?

My daily multi-vitamin costs $12 per year and my D3 supplement costs the same, so for $25 per year the adult US population could make themselves more "resistant" let's say, to viral infections. To me it's a positive action we could be taking to help end, or at least reduce the sickness rate, for the pandemic rather than passively waiting for big pharma to produce a vaccine of uncertain efficacy that will be administered to an unknown percentage of the population.

I've decide to evangelize a bit on this subject. I can't do a whole lot besides tell my family and friends (done), write my elected representatives (in progress) and post about it (also in progress) but I'd like to ask for your help. Dr. John Campbell, who's video I've linked below, has a lot to say on this topic and I also watch MedCram's Covid-19 reports as my sources. I think that both provide excellent science based, apolitical information on the coronavirus, so if you become as convinced of the usefulness of vitamin D as I am, please consider helping to spread the word. Thanks for listening

 

[Blueskies123]

Vitamin D

I too just watched this video and shared it with some friends. The best part starts at about minute 14. I did not see in the video how much vitamin D we should be taking so hopefully the good doctor will go into that in future videos.
I was taking 5000 units but those bottles sold out. I take 2000 in the morning and 1000 at night. It was interesting to learn that it takes 4 days for the body to modify the raw vitamin into something the body can use.

 

[Blueskies123]

Here is link to the a Medium article that summarizes the findings for those that do not want to watch the video.



https://medium.com/microbial-instin...t-vitamin-d-therapy-for-covid-19-906a9d907468

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I would like to take this opportunity to point out that the ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) Foundation web page from 2014 stated that Vitamin D levels were severely deficient in ARDS patients. It is really sad that so many lives have been lost and our economy and social lives all upended when our "best and brightest" COVID researchers ignored for many months some obvious factors like vitamin D that could have been found with a 1 minute Google search.

Really there's a lot of nutritional research on many disorders like this that is simply not well known because there is no profit in it.

 

[tmm99]

I too just watched this video and shared it with some friends. The best part starts at about minute 14. I did not see in the video how much vitamin D we should be taking so hopefully the good doctor will go into that in future videos.
I was taking 5000 units but those bottles sold out. I take 2000 in the morning and 1000 at night. It was interesting to learn that it takes 4 days for the body to modify the raw vitamin into something the body can use.

I haven't been consistent with Vit D, but I will be, starting today and I will refrain from risky behavior for the next 4 days!

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

Dr. Fauci takes 6000IU per day (see YouTube link below.)

I have a number of thoughts about Vitamin D. First of all, I am convinced that it is a cheap, readily available supplement that many studies indicate can be a very effective prophylactic against the coronavirus. It's not a preventative, but otherwise healthy people, who are not vitamin D deficient, do not get as sick or need as much hospital care as those who are deficient. When you consider that 42% of the US population is vitamin D deficient, I don't understand why our national health care organizations are not recommending vitamin D supplementation loudly. Those numbers jump to 80% for blacks and 72% for the hispanic population (darker skins make less vitamin D) by the way. I take a daily 50+ multi-vitamin (1000IU of D3) and, since learning about this relationship, I've added an additional 1000IU D3 capsule to my daily regimen. Nowhere have I read that 2000IU per day is dangerous for adults. I cannot understand why this does not get more attention from the mainstream media. Winter is coming, afterall!

An interesting outcome of some of the studies I've read linking vitamin D levels to health outcomes is that there is some support for the view that vitamin D levels may be the true reason for the seasonality of the flu. Interestingly, the flu is not seasonal in sunny, warmer climates, but its seasonality is well noted in temperate climates. What if the real reason is because people stay indoors and thus get less sunlight and therefore make less vitamin D? For the same reason, what if vitamin D deficiency can explain, at least in part, why the coronavirus rips through senior care homes?

My daily multi-vitamin costs $12 per year and my D3 supplement costs the same, so for $25 per year the adult US population could make themselves more "resistant" let's say, to viral infections. To me it's a positive action we could be taking to help end, or at least reduce the sickness rate, for the pandemic rather than passively waiting for big pharma to produce a vaccine of uncertain efficacy that will be administered to an unknown percentage of the population.

I've decide to evangelize a bit on this subject. I can't do a whole lot besides tell my family and friends (done), write my elected representatives (in progress) and post about it (also in progress) but I'd like to ask for your help. Dr. John Campbell, who's video I've linked below, has a lot to say on this topic and I also watch MedCram's Covid-19 reports as my sources. I think that both provide excellent science based, apolitical information on the coronavirus, so if you become as convinced of the usefulness of vitamin D as I am, please consider helping to spread the word. Thanks for listening

Dr Rhonda Patrick is a PhD in biomedical science and is probably the smartest female I've come across. Watch her videos and draw your own conclusions.

She takes 5000IU's of vitamin D daily. I copy several of her habits.

 

[audreyh1]

Interesting that Fauci is taking 6000 IU daily. It’s hard to judge without the context of monitored blood Vitamin D levels. Still, he’s quite elderly and generally elderly need more supplemenation.

I switched to a Vitamin D k1/k2 supplement for a while.

I have had my vitamin D levels routinely measured a few times a year.