Vitamin D and resistance to Viruses

@bunnyknight said
I proved that eating 5 nuts doesn't cause a quick death.

Well that's one way of getting rid of the nutters. Please carry on.

Tested the rays, took off my shirt and making vitamin d as I type.

@Eladar
Just use your UV box naked, you get lots of D that way.

@sonhouse said
@Eladar
Just use your UV box naked, you get lots of D that way.

My UV box?

@sonhouse said
@Eladar
Just use your UV box naked, you get lots of D that way.

I suppose those 3D artists working with UV textures must get more vitamin D than anyone else.

@eladar said
There is lots on the subject, here is one link on the topic.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121423/

You can read all of it if you wish, but there seems to be a positive effect of supplementing with vitamin D if you are deficient. It mentions respiratory infections specifically.

Normally I'm highly skeptical about claims of vitamin supplements as being helpful, due to the scarcity of prospective studies or randomised controlled trials finding anything other than harms (e.g. beta-carotene for smokers). This is believed to be due to problems with bioavailability of the vitamin content in vitamin pills.

In this case there's some low to moderate quality evidence of an effect. The paper you cited was largely theoretical and in medicine theory is all well and good but evidence rules. They cite a study in Finnish Army recruits which was a double blinded placebo controlled trial, which is free to read [1]. They randomised 164 healthy volunteers to 10 ug of vitamin D3 (n = 80) or placebo (n = 84). Their outcomes were blood serum vitamin D3 levels and days unavailable for duty with acute respiratory illness.

Despite being a fairly small study they found that the mean serum 25(OH)D concentrations (±SD) were 71.6 ± 22.9 nmol/L (n = 58) in the intervention group and 51.3 ± 15.5 nmol/L (n = 50) in the placebo group (P<.001). So for the surrogate outcome there was a statistically significant outcome.

The paper goes on to say:

The main outcome variable, which was the number of days absent from duty due to respiratory tract infection, did not differ between groups. Mean number of days absent (±SD) was 2.2 ± 3.2 days in the intervention group and 3.0 ± 4.0 days in the placebo group (P = .096).

They did find a significant result for a secondary outcome:

Nevertheless, the proportion of men remaining healthy throughout the 6-month study period was greater in the intervention group (41 [51.3%] of 80) than in the placebo group (30 [35.7%] of 80; P = .045).

This does seem to indicate that vitamin D has some effect on respiratory illness, I have to point out that the countries worst hit in Europe are Spain and Italy where one would expect winter vitamin deficiency to be less of a problem than in, for example, Germany.

Clearly this is just one study and a systematic review would consider considerable numbers of studies.

[1] https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/202/5/809/1746565

@DeepThought

Evidently in Germany the people with Coronavirus are younger than in Italy.

During the winter the sun is generally not high enougg in the sky to make vitamin d.

It is now, at least in the southern states in the US.

@eladar said
A  simple test is to look at your shadow. If its the same height or shorter than you, you’re getting enough sun to make vitamin D. 

Comedy gold ... pure gold!

@wolfgang59 said
Comedy gold ... pure gold!

Are you realky that ignorant? That was from the University of Oregon.

If You Live Far From the Equator
People living in areas farther away from the equator make less vitamin D in their skin.

In these areas, more of the sun's rays, especially UVB rays, are absorbed by the earth's ozone layer. So people who live farther away from the equator usually need to spend more time in the sun to produce enough.

What’s more, people who live farther from the equator may not produce any vitamin D from the sun for up to six months a year during the winter months.

For example, people who live Boston, USA and Edmonton, Canada struggle to make any vitamin D from sunlight between the months of November and February .

People in Norway cannot make vitamin D from sunlight between October and March

During this time of year, it’s important that they get their vitamin D from foods and supplements instead.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-d-from-sun

If you cannot get a sunburn in winter, but get fried easily in the summer, it is a good indication you are having difficulty making vitamin d.

@deepthought said
Normally I'm highly skeptical about claims of vitamin supplements as being helpful, due to the scarcity of prospective studies or randomised controlled trials finding anything other than harms (e.g. beta-carotene for smokers). This is believed to be due to problems with bioavailability of the vitamin content in vitamin pills.

In this case there's some low to moderate ...[text shortened]... sider considerable numbers of studies.

[1] https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/202/5/809/1746565

There was an interesting study that made it into the British Medical Journal about five years ago. No surprise that there was no sig dif for groups taking multivitamins vs control in terms of viral illnesses, but (from memory) there was a curious phenomenon that not only did endurance athletes suffer less viral illnesses, but for that group multivitamins had made a further and significant reduction in viral illnesses compared to other athletes. Not really my area so I just read it in passing, no idea if it was ever repeated or taken further.

@petewxyz

If the study was done during the summer, then no surprise vitamin d supplementation would do little. Of course the amount of vitamin d is important too.

Now they are saying 5000 IU is a good dosage for most people.

Cod liver oil is a good source.

@eladar said
@petewxyz

If the study was done during the summer, then no surprise vitamin d supplementation would do little. Of course the amount of vitamin d is important too.

Now they are saying 5000 IU is a good dosage for most people.

Cod liver oil is a good source.

The curious thing is the endurance athletes who you would imagine saw more sun than average.

@petewxyz

Depends on when they run. But it makes sense that someone who stresses the body for long periods of time would benefit from supplementation.