Vitamin D reduced the rate of ICU admission from 50% to 2%. Do black lives matter?

Given that people with dark skin are more likely to be deficient in Vitamin D, wouldn’t studies like these be the best way to show that black lives actually matter? Would you like training in cultural sensitivity or to avoid the intensive care unit?

Sunshine Vitamin.

A free antiviral shining down on you?

In the Castillo study in Spain, 76 patients were randomly assorted into Calciferol treatment ( 0.532 mg Vitamin D ). Of the 26 who didn’t get it, 13 were admitted to the ICU. Of the 50 who got Vitamin D doses on days 1, 3, and 7 — only one ended up in the ICU. It’s worth noting that all patients got HCQ as well, and azithromycin too.

A second study tested 500 people to find out if they were deficient and followed them to see if they caught Covid.

Why has it taken 6 months of pandemic to do these small studies?

Before the pandemic came there was already ample evidence suggesting that it mattered.  Vitamin D influences over 200 genes. Its levels also correlate with lower rates of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressureasthma, heart disease, dental caries, preeclampsia, autoimmune diseasedepressionanxiety, and sleep disorders. One recent long German study showed half the people who died of respiratory illnesses might not have died if they had enough Vitamin D. Even Indonesia managed to do a study and publish results by May 1.

The West spends billions looking for vaccines and new antivirals, but hasn’t even done the basic studies on cheap and easily available nutrients?

First Castillo et al:

 Effect of Calcifediol Treatment on Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19: A Pilot Randomized Clinical study”

Conclusion

Our pilot study demonstrated that administration of a high dose of Calcifediol or 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a main metabolite of vitamin D endocrine system, significantly reduced the need for ICU treatment of patients requiring hospitalization due to proven COVID-19. Calcifediol seems to be able to reduce severity of the disease, but larger trials with groups properly matched will be required to show a definitive answer.

People who were seriously deficient in Vitamin D were nearly twice as likely to get sick

Could Boosting Vitamin D Cut COVID-19 Risk?

Molly Walker, Medpage

One Vitamin D trial shows that people with very low vitamin D levels are 80% more likely to catch Covid. The message here is that it’s wise to get tested, and make sure you are in the healthy range.  (Don’t forget to get Vitamin K as well if you take large doses of D).

Among nearly 500 patients, the relative risk for infection was 1.77 (95% CI 1.12-2.81, P=0.02) in those judged to be vitamin D-deficient (below 20 ng/mL or 18 pg/mL, respectively) compared with patients believed to have sufficient vitamin D, reported David Meltzer, MD, PhD, of the University of Chicago, and colleagues writing in JAMA Network Open.

It’s an observational study, not a randomized one. Cause and effect is not guaranteed:

The authors acknowledged one major caveat, however: vitamin D deficiency may be associated with many other COVID-19 risk factors, including age, obesity, diabetes, and chronic illness. Their statistical analysis included adjustments for many of these, but potential remained for residual confounding.

Meltzer and colleagues suggested that interventions to reduce vitamin D deficiency, as a means to reduce COVID-19 risk, be tested in randomized trials. Such research would be especially pertinent since both African-American and Hispanic populations not only have disproportionate morbidity and mortality from COVID-19, but also high rates of vitamin D deficiency.

 It’s possible that SARS-2 could strip out Vitamin D, or that the co-morbidities could, in which case it may be coincidental to some degree. Then again, it could be that a lack of Vitamin D contributes to those comorbidities in the first place.

The procedure in Castillo:

All hospitalized patients received as best available therapy the same standard care, (per hospital protocol), of a combination of hydroxychloroquine (400 mg every 12 hours on the first day, and 200 mg every 12 hours for the following 5 days), azithromycin (500 mg orally for 5 days. Eligible patients were allocated at a 2 calcifediol:1 no calcifediol ratio through electronic randomization on the day of admission to take oral calcifediol (0.532 mg), or not. Patients in the calcifediol treatment group continued with oral calcifediol (0.266 mg) on day 3 and 7, and then weekly until discharge or ICU admission. Outcomes of effectiveness included rate of ICU admission and deaths.

h/t TedM, Slithers

REFERENCES

Castillo et al (2020) “Effect of Calcifediol Treatment and best Available Therapy versus best Available Therapy on Intensive Care Unit Admission and Mortality Among Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19: A Pilot Randomized Clinical study”, The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Available online 29 August 2020, 105751

Meltzer DO, et al “Association of Vitamin D Status and Other Clinical Characteristics With COVID-19 Test Results” JAMA Network Open 2020; DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.19722.

9.5 out of 10 based on 75 ratings

81 comments to Vitamin D reduced the rate of ICU admission from 50% to 2%. Do black lives matter?

  • #
    Saighdear

    “Why has it taken 6 months of pandemic to do these small studies?”Yes indeed -WHY?
    I too am going through a phase of asking questions like that…. As a mainly Machinery person, I am increasingly finding similar scenarios: is the answer ‘simply’ because the Elders were retired out early and the Apprentices who had being fooling around and not learning properly are now left in charge? They have been programmed to use Computer Modelling for everything – you know the ‘ype – ” Rubbish in , rubbish out” – but The Apprentices never heard that message. And so now like the King’s new clothes, they have this Hunger for compliance and do what they do – because they can….. get away with it. Change for change’s sake. The HR people are mostly to blame for recruiting such useless craters and disposing of any threats to their reign thro’ early retiral of the experienced with attractive retirement packages etc. The ‘bernies’ have thrown all their toys up in the air but now there is a severe storm of falling toys which whilst losing Potential Energy through time as they lost esteem, have gained much more Kinetic Energy from the Heat of political storms over the recent Decades – and when they fall, LOOK OUT – not as the guy in the lower Bunk when the one above shouts it out before he Bowks. Yes this Planet, now is in for a VERY STORMY Crossing. – will it be safer in the Top or Bottom Bunk?
    Better nae gonnae gang there – but it’s almost too late for most – the Planet has tilted and we’re all sliding that way.

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    • #

      “As a mainly Machinery person, I am increasingly finding similar scenarios:”
      Why not encourage people to check their vitamin D situation anyway. Bypass the testing. Not a big risk or expense. The most valid test is to just do it.
      Also what about the sniffer dogs. The practice of testing things that could have serious side effects does not seems to a be required for a dog to sit near some one who smells covid 19 affected to it. Yet the use of dogs is delayed by many studies that will go on forever only to need more research.
      While a dog getting it wrong could be an annoyance and delay for someone it is not likely to kill them and enough tests have been done to show the dogs mostly get it right. Surely they would take out the super spreaders already. Real life testing could be figuring out more problems earlier while the dog solves problems itself that a computer could not predict and the testing is productive rather than being just another cost.

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      • #
        Saighdear

        Quite agree, but with these modern control freaks – does it fit the model? – it’s ‘not kool’ is what I think they’ll be saying to thermselves. I have to ask whether there is confusion between deception ( for whatever end one can only guess ) and perception ( when proposing to the idiots ). Whilst I can switch off a faulty machine, LIVESTOCK can NOT – hence why I am not a doctor of Living things ( Nurse may-be). We expected that our leaders and Medical profession, for what they are remunerated, do the right and proper thing, but aided & abetted by the stupid MSM, they do NOT ….. and here we are.

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    • #
      sophocles

      Saighdear said:

      simply’ because the Elders were retired out early and the Apprentices who had being fooling around and not learning properly are now left in charge? They have been programmed to use Computer Modelling for everything – you know the ‘[t]ype – ” Rubbish in , rubbish out”

      To those apprentices, it’s “Scripture in, Gospel Out” and sweep the uncertainties under every possible rug/carpet. “Cover your backside” was suddenly the rule, not the exception. Besides, the computers couldn’t possibly be wrong …

      The HR people are mostly to blame
      my last employer went through the staff like a wheat harvester and the last lot to be “reaped” was HR. All the replacements for HR were young and pretty (not to mention vacuous, so I won’t mention it …) females. Average age had gone from somewhere around 45 to 18-20 yrs. One of the original staff was left. She had been overworked before the combine harvester went through, and was now doubly (at least) overworked. Of course the new staff were totally useless. They could do their hair and makeup well, but anything else? If they couldn’t figure it out, at all, they ‘lost’ the paperwork.

      In the first case I had to take to HR, I learnt they had:
      – no urgency
      – no accuracy/capability
      – no memory

      So I didn’t bother the kiddies. I left them to their hair and makeup. It was above my pay grade to tell them how to do anything — I did what I had to do and damned the torpedoes, filing the paperwork in File 13.(I learnt something from them: if there’s any doubt then lose the paperwork!).

      There weren’t many torpedoes because my name wasn’t attached to what I did 😀
      and nobody could figure out my signature … They had made me redundant four years before, found they needed me, and hired me back on an annual contract as a “contractor.” What had been a good wicket had become an even better one, so as soon as I could retire, I did. That’s been a wonderful “Life style change” 😀

      My last job before I went out the door was to take my hard drive out of the computer I been given to use and put the original hard drive, with MesSy Winders and MesSy Office, etc back into the machine. Nice easy way of backing up my files …

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    • #
      UK-Weather Lass

      Thank you Saighdear for a thoughtful post the contents of which I almost wholly agree with. I think at some point during the last few decades we lost the ability to have ‘masters’ teaching ‘apprentices’ a trade largely because so many ‘masters’ had been binned off and so many ‘apprentices’ were just cheap labour. There were exceptions but far too few of them.

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  • #

    Jo

    Interesting. Some 80% of those hospitalised for covid over here are diabetic and are either overweight or obese. However there is no study to show an obese person is more likely to become hospitalised in the first place so it’s after caching it that the condition becomes significant.

    Looking at this study

    https://spectrum.diabetesjournals.org/content/24/2/113

    It appears vitamin d is a big factor in diabetes so there might be some link that means. Vitamin d deficient diabetic is more suspectible to the virus and then this and the diabetes causes problems once the virus is caught.

    Black people apparently have a higher than average level of obesity but it is weight carried round the middle rather than all over the body that is the distinguishing feature

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    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      G’day Tonyb,
      David Madisson provided this link yesterday:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mth0LqC9z4&feature=youtu.be
      at:
      http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/thursday-open-thread-19/#comment-2364350
      Dr Mobeen (who, in previous posts I have named as Dr Been – my apologies) describes how obesity and vitamin D interact, adversely for the patient.
      A very informative presentation and in full support of the value of vitamin D. 45 minutes. Well worth watching, and thanks David M.

      He, Dr Mobeen, did say that Dr Zelenko apparently doesn’t use vitamin D. While I can’t verify this – I think the video has been deleted by youtube – in an interview I saw he was specifically asked about vitamin D and his reply was ” Oh yes, I always give a dose of 50,000 IU on day 1″, if I remember correctly. But he doesn’t mention that in his “protocol” unfortunately.
      Cheers,
      Dave B

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    • #
      A C Osborn

      Tonyb, the relationship between Vitamin D nad illness has been known since the 1950s when it was established that Solar Radiation controlled the severity and amount of Flu.
      This was followed up by a study in 2007 which showed that giving middle aged black women Vitamin led to them having no cold or flu symptoms for the 3 year period of the study.
      You can see the history and the data here.

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2279112/

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  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Many factors contribute to the behaviour of CV19 and this has been obvious for some time.

    The story of the “large” New Jersey family was an early message about the effect of co-morbidities and possible increased danger for some groups.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/nyregion/new-jersey-family-coronavirus.html

    KK

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  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    So living healthier, getting out in the environment more, and eating fresh has significant health benefits. Who knew!

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    • #
      GD

      So living healthier, getting out in the environment more .. has significant health benefits

      Unfortunately, Daniel Andrews and VicPol have forbidden people, even pregnant women, from sitting alone on a park bench.

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      • #
        GD

        The first video on Rita Panahi’s thread shows VicPol moving on an elderly couple enjoying a coffee in the open air. Scroll down to see VicPol harassing a 28-week pregnant woman for having a rest on a park bench during her morning walk.

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      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        so the idea that you should have a healthy lifestyle is valid.

        But hey, I understand that you have a need to promote some random video, and therefore can stray from the topic.

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        • #
          Sceptical Sam

          Peter, don’t be a [Snip]AD.

          GD is showing you what happens when your unscientific green left socialist comrades adopt fascist like behaviours.

          The Victorian socialist government of Daniel Andrews is a prime example of what happens when an extreme-left socialist tin-god manages to get the reins of power.

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          • #
            Peter Fitzroy

            The post is about Vit D, it’s not about Victoria, the lockdown, or victorian police. GD is just cross posting random garbage.

            [Snip]I have removed the offending word from Sceptical Sam’s reply and you’re offending reply so let’s call it even and move on.]AD

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            • #
              Sceptical Sam

              GD is just cross posting random garbage.

              Rubbish.

              Yes, the thread is about Vit D.

              And sitting on a park bench in the Sun is how the majority of people get their vit D.

              But not in Victoria under the fascist tin-god Dan Andrews.

              It comes as no surprise that you chose to pretend to not understand.

              GD is on the money.

              Other than you, who knew?

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        • #
          Sceptical Sam

          [Duplicate]

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  • #
    Reverse Transcriptase

    Taking Vitamin D supplements is not a new idea.
    It is general medical advice for post-menopausal women to take Vitamin D as a guard against osteoporosis.
    In my experience Vitamin D consumption in winter is very good for my general mood.
    I have a suspicion that there is a winter light level relationship leading to Vitamin D deficiency, low-level depression and hence to higher alcohol consumption.
    The further north in Europe the more likely the population is to consume hard spirits.
    As an abstainer however I am happy with my Vitamin D supplements in winter.

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    • #

      Reverse Transcriptase
      After working with them, Serbians frequently offer me Slivovitsa. A type of plum brandy. Seems to be just a little stronger than Metho. Had never thought to associate that with latitude. Here is another possible association with the virus.

      Study links fermented vegetable consumption to low COVID-19 mortality.

      Click here.

      UV levels seem to vary much more during the year than visible light. UV wavelengths are attenuated by the atmosphere with UVc the shortest being attenuated the most UVb highly variable and UVa getting through more. The tilt of the earth to the sun would mean more atmosphere for the light to pass through. So i guess would attenuate more UV while refracting lower wavelengths in more.
      Check out the day light hours and monthly UV index charts for different cities here.
      Link should display Belgrade. Click here.
      Have also noticed a weekly cycle in most types of daily covid data and some is not explained by paper work routines. So wonder if those on the knifes edge of serious vitamin D deficiency can show the results of a weekly diet? Like fish Friday. Or if there are harmonics of monthly lunar cycle effects on atmospheric density making a near weekly UV cycle.

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      • #
        Reverse Transcriptase

        Siliggy,
        Plum brandy helps with the Quercetin requirement for zinc uptake. Win Win.
        Here’s another thing about Vitamin D.
        Where ever you find people in the world who are “traditional residents” of a given latitude, typically the women will have a lighter skin tone than the men.
        Why? Because women make babies and they need Vitamin D to help with this.

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    • #
      greggg

      There’s a map here showing access to UV-B rays by latitude:
      https://drbenkim.com/vitamin-d-facts.htm

      30

  • #
    Peter Kenny

    The 2 earliest studies substantiating this that I heard of: one from an Indonesian, the other an Irish group. If the Irish AND the Indonesians agree on something, it is surely true!

    70

  • #
    TedM

    “Then again, it could be that Vitamin D contributes to those comorbidities in the first place.”
    Jo shouldn’t this read “……..lack of vitamin D contributes to those co-morbities….”

    Or perhaps I am missing the point.

    [Of course. I have read too many Vitamin D studies. Thanks. – Jo]

    60

  • #
    David Maddison

    Why hasn’t this been thought of before?

    1) Maybe it’s the Left’s assault on critical thinking skills which are not taught in schools anymore. Students are expected to accept standard dogma on everything, e.g. supposed anthropogenic global warming. Or HCQ or orange man bad.

    2) Also, heavy reliance on “computer modelling” for everything. No concept of “garbage in, garbage out” which has been known since the time of Charles Babbage. How many so-called “climate scientists” ever even look out the window to see what the weather’s really doing?

    3) The way “education” works today no one, including teachers, has “deep knowledge” about anything or knowledge of the history of science and technology. They think the answers to everything is new and complicated when all along the answers were there. E.g. how many of those that advocate windmills know that they were rapidly dropped 250 years ago as soon as a practical steam engine was developed. If they knew history, they wouldn’t be doing again something that was done before and rapidly dropped as soon as continuous power production could replace intermittent production.

    4) For decades, the medical profession has had an aversion to dietary supplements saying they were useless in Western countries where everyone is well nourished. It is not true that people on a standard Western diet will not have deficiencies. Numerous people are Vitamin D or zinc deficienct no matter how good their diets are. They need supplements.

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    • #
      Reverse Transcriptase

      For years I used to have a poor sense of smell and thought nothing of it.
      Since this crisis began and I started taking zinc supplements my sense of smell has improved remarkably.

      150

      • #
        David Maddison

        Interestingly, a loss of sense of smell is a symptom of Covid.

        41

        • #
          Reverse Transcriptase

          David,
          It appears that the sensory cells in the nostrils and taste-buds need zinc to be able to function.
          No zinc, no sense of smell, so it all fits.

          40

    • #
      greggg

      People don’t need to be deficient for supplements to have effect, any more than people don’t need to have a deficiency in a pharmaceutical drug to have an effect.

      40

    • #
      DonS

      5) Studies that find off patent drugs to be effective are not welcome by the pharma industry or the medical journals that they spend big advertising dollars in. Follow the money is almost always the answer.

      10

  • #
    Matty

    https://www.advanceaustralia.org.au/victorian_doctors_demand_andrews_lift_lockdown?utm_campaign=20200911_enews&utm_medium=email&utm_source=advanceaustraliaorgau

    There has been plenty of people out to make a name for themselves in 2020. Explosions of self importance as well as plain agenda. Left leaning medical activists echoing the UN line have done what the climate issue could not – shut us down indefinitely. We’ve seen a procession of AMA figures take up the UN’s causes with gusto. As Lenin once said – a well organized minority beats a disorganized majority every time. The climate issue necessitated the plundering of wallets which is more politically challenging than the stripping of freedoms with fear. Bingo.

    51

    • #

      Active cases down 84% in just one month in Victoria. That being a turn around from rapidly increasing not from a stand still. Sadly the tail of the exponential curve would take that out to three months or more for the last 16%. Even longer if restrictions are eased early. Do these doctors and big pharma have a strong incentive to keep the profits rolling in by preventing continued success? A “plain agenda”?
      That tail of the exponential curve could be cut very short indeed if contact tracing takes charge from the point it is not overwhelmed and the beautiful sunshine kicks the Vitamin D levels of the general Victorian population up.
      Notice things have not gone so well in new Zealand. Is the night time curfew the difference?

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Perhaps the answer is vit d and hcq and just have flying squads to jump on outbreaks. Given the recent “94%” CDC report basically trashes the supposed lethality of the virus, a virus being infectious is not a harbinger of its lethality.

        They should just declare the mess over and use vit d and drugs to mop up, open up the economy and get on with things, the alternative is people turning on govts, wholesale.

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        • #

          OriginalSteve What about the sniffer dogs? Everybody ignores the sniffer dogs. Even Jo Nova ignores the sniffer dogs. The whole reason for the lockdowns is to quarantine the sick by quarantining everyone. But if the sick can be easily identified by dogs who don’t take DNA samples from the paranoid to give to the devious. Then the quarantining can be specific.
          “the alternative is people turning on govts, wholesale.”
          This turning on governments and police is breaking down society catastrophically. It starts by giving political names to tools.
          EG: A spanner is monarchist. An arc welder is anarchist. An incoming travel ban is racist and a lockdown is communist.

          30

  • #
  • #
    RickWill

    I found a January 2020 study that aims to give a global picture of Vitamin D deficiency:
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41430-020-0558-y

    Some extracts:

    Similarly, critically ill patients have a very high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, and low vitamin D levels are clearly associated with greater illness severity, morbidity, and mortality in both adult and pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) patients, as well as medical and surgical ICUs

    India has a problem with Vitamin D deficiency:

    Worldwide, many countries report very high prevalences of low vitamin D status. 25(OH)D levels 20% of the population are common in India, Tunisia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. For example, it has been estimated that 490 million individuals are vitamin D deficient in India [2, 17].

    Some Vitamin D deficiency is related to other medical conditions:

    Specific categories of patients have a very high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. Often, they are characterized by an insufficiency or failure of organs involved in vitamin D metabolism. Patients with chronic renal failure and on hemodialysis, renal transplant recipients affected with liver disease or after liver transplantation may have a prevalence of vitamin D deficiency ranging from 85 to 99% [20,21,22].

    Specific groups likely to be deficient:

    This may vary by age, with lower levels in childhood and the elderly [17], and also ethnicity in different regions, for example, European Caucasians show lower rates of vitamin D deficiency compared with nonwhite individuals [2, 17].

    Vitamin D deficiency is well known by medical practitioners and those practitioners monitor their level or just dose up if they know they are likely to be low. Not sure if individuals in the broader community are aware of their own Vitamin D level.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    It would be interesting to see measurements of vit D levels in Victoriastanis who suffer under the world’s strictest, most totalitarian, most communist-inspired lockdown regime with people allowed out of their homes only one hour per day.

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  • #

    Some more info on Vitamin D, but not covid related.

    Vitamin D is actually toxic at higher levels. I work in the petfood area and had personally found vitamin D linked to sickness episodes with dogs in one situation, and others I work with have seen similar. Vitamin D is essential and far too many people are not getting enough (petfood manufacturers in contrast nearly all add vitamin D, and a host of other vitamins and minerals, to their products)

    More vitamin D is needed but overloading can cause issues…

    60

    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      G’day Aussie,
      I think it’s unsafe to compare dogs and humans in their dietary reactions. And while the possibility of overdosing on vitamin D is possible, the upper safe limit is not clearly defined as described in:

      https://media.mercola.com/assets/pdf/ebook/vitamin-d-in-the-prevention-of-covid-19.pdf

      from which I’ve taken this quote from page 27:
      ” It is useful to understand that significant levels of vitamin D can be produced from sun exposure
      during non-winter months. Approximately 10,000 to 25,000 IUs of vitamin D3 can be produced in
      a short time in the sun with full-body exposure, so it is obvious that your body can handle that amount easily.
      135
      So, let’s look at some of the recent studies that support a higher dose of vitamin D. One was done in a psychiatric hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. The age range was from 18 to 90 years. Half the patients were black, and nearly half were white.
      All patients entering since 2011 were offered supplementation of 5,000 or 10,000 IU/day of
      vitamin D3. For 36 patients who received 5,000 IU/day for 12 months or longer, vitamin D levels
      rose from 24 to 68 ng/mL, whereas for the 78 patients who received 10,000 IU/day, mean
      concentrations increased from 25 to 96 ng/mL. No cases of vitamin D-induced hypercalcemia
      136
      Another recent study used 10,000 IU/day of vitamin D for 8 to 12 weeks, and 93% of the subjects had vitamin D blood levels at or greater than 30 ng/mL after the first month; in two months the
      137
      Although doses of 15,000 IU/day are rarely needed or recommended, they were found to be
      138
      The U.S. Institute of Medicine issued vitamin D and calcium guidelines nearly ten years ago. Their guidelines are seriously dated and have not kept up with the current science, as their recommendation was based solely on the effects of vitamin D for bone health and not for any of the metabolic benefits reviewed in this paper.
      some participants who had started taking vitamin D supplements shortly before enrolling.
      amount easily.
      were reported.
      percentage increased to 100%. They also had no cases of hypercalcemia occur. ”

      The link also includes two graphics which relate vitamin D levels and COVID mortality (Fig 18), and dosages to achieve a desired level (Fig 32).
      Cheers
      Dave B

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      • #
        tom0mason

        One of the main misunderstandings with vitamin and mineral intakes is the recommended daily allowance term popularly used as a synonym for recommended dietary allowance (NDA), or some-such recommendation from authority. There are many different names and formats for the recommended average daily or dietary intake. Recommended Dietary Allowance, or Recommended Daily Allowance, or Recommended Daily Intake or RDI, again there are two names for the same acronym! You may ask what is then the difference between the RDA (recommended daily/dietary allowance) and the RDI (reference/recommended dietary intake)? The RDI is an extension of the RDA including both the recommended intakes and adequate intakes. Both of these are age related recommendations
        Further information can be found from wikipedia —
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_Daily_Intake

        The real point is that RDA covers just the minimum for an ‘average’ person to stay alive and be (minimally) healthy. However your requirements can (and will at any particular time) vary widely! It depends on so many things — age, gender (if female whether pregnant or not), average diet, types of food, regularity of meals, drug use (prescription or not), activity level and exercise, mental state, dental state, your metabolism and its innate ability to process vitamin and mineral and how fast they are excreted, whether you have other underlining (and maybe not even clinical) conditions or infections.
        So all-in-all staying just above RDA when you are ill is a good move, as the body tends to repair itself better when there is plenty of vitamin and minerals resources available.

        20

  • #
    Crakar24

    Covid takes control of your blood pressure regulation by inhibiting AXE and increasing ACEll by 300 fold. This triggers a bradykinin storm which goes in to fill your lungs with acid. Vit D, helps reduce the bradykinin storm. Zinc helps to reduce the ACEll development when taken with HCQ but what would Trump know.

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  • #
    William Astley

    Vit. D appears to be a medical ‘miracle’. Our bodies are different at a cellular level when we are Vit. D optimum.

    Currently the US pop. Vit. D average is 26 ng/m. Vit D optimum is above 60 ng/ml based on the women breast cancer study, 80% reduction with calcium supplements and study found body requires a blood serum level of greater than 32 ng/ml to control calcium which explain finding that taking calcium supplements is dangerous. Prostate cancer is expected to follow same relationship. The Vit. D pop. deficiency is a scandal and a miracle and weird. It could be corrected in a month.

    Every cell in our body has a copy of our DNA.

    Why go to the effort to copy the DNA and construct a copy in our cells? Why?

    Our cells access their copy of the DNA, to get the blueprints that enables our cells, to build chemical modules that produce the specialized bioactive chemicals that our cells have developed, to protect our cells from virus attacks, to enable the muscle cells to contract, to repair cells, to protect against inflammation, and so on.

    These specialized bioactive chemicals are released by our cells on stimulus.

    For example. Mice and humans have receptors all over our fat cells. When the Mice receptors on their fat cells are stimulated, the mice burn up their fat cells and produce new muscle cells.

    The mice lose weight and gain muscle mass.

    The same effect occurs in humans when their Vit D level is raised from 26 ng/ml to above 40 ng/ml. A 50% reduction in type 2 diabetes and the patients lost 20 to 40 lbs without dieting.

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960076015300091?via%3Dihub#bib0105

    Incidence rate of type 2 diabetes is >50% lower in Grassroots Health cohort with median serum 25–hydroxyvitamin D of 41 ng/ml than in NHANES cohort with median of 22 ng/ml.

    Type 2 diabetes affects 29 million Americans.

    Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90–95% of adult diabetes cases.

    The CDC expects the number of cases to double or triple in the next 40 years.

    Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, non-traumatic lower limb amputations, and new cases of blindness among adults and is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. The estimated total yearly cost of diabetes in the United States is $245 billion [1].

    Receptor makes mice strong and slim
    Molecule that regulates two side effects of aging identified

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200625115916.htm

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141022164052.htm

    Finally: Missing link between vitamin D, prostate cancer

    A new study offers compelling evidence that inflammation may be the link between vitamin D and prostate cancer. Specifically, the study shows that the gene GDF-15, known to be upregulated by vitamin D, is notably absent in samples of human prostate cancer driven by inflammation.

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      OriginalSteve

      One wonders if the govt “panic” about skin cancer is a ham fisted approach to creating conditions that position into lowering immune function by keeping smothered in sun blocking chemicals?

      Id be interested in knowing also if sunscreens have any chemical impact on vit d directly.

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    Ruairi

    It seems vitamin D gives a boost,
    Against Covid so wickedly loosed,
    But for warmists it’s tripe,
    As their longstanding gripe,
    Is that climate has changed and is goosed.

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    JeffT

    In the original text posted by Joanne, under the subheading of – Could Boosting Vitamin D cut Covid-19 risk, Mollie Walker, Medpage.
    (Don’t forget to get Vitamin K as well if you take large doses of D).

    Sound advice if you make that Vitamin K2, as Vit K is derived from green leafy vegetables and is very helpful for coagulation if you are cut or injured. but not to affect your Calcium. Vitamin K2 is mostly derived from fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, or my favorite, the Japanese dish Natto (an acquired taste). Vitamin K2 puts the Calcium into your bones, not into your arteries and heart. Vitamin K2 comes in at least 10x forms, the versions Mk4 and Mk7 being the most relevant for putting Calcium into your bones.

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    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Zn, Vit D3, HCQ, Ivermectin, Azithromycin, Pineapple enzyme. All available and relatively cheap. Medical best practice would employ these medicines to facilitate an end to this CV-19 shonky jive. We could soon return to growing the economy into recovery and getting our lives back. It is not about best medical practice though, or facilitating workable solutions. It’s about controlling people through prolonged suffering and fear so that they will gladly accept whatever costly vaccine the pharmaceutical industry eventually produces and deems as fit for purpose. Unfortunately, big profits for the pharmaceutical industry is the rate determining step for our health and welfare in this pandemic.

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      Serp

      Agreed. You’d think a real nanny state would promote the remedies you enumerated and strengthen its population but instead we are subjected to a depressing welter of dubious numbers day in day out which is morale crushing. Just a two minute tag at the end of the presentation would suffice. I suppose it’s not done because it smacks of ceding control to the individual and the next thing you know that individual will start thinking for itself and ignoring authority and then where would we be…?

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        Great Aunt Janet

        Oh, but all our leaders (local, state, fed) ‘care’ about our well-being, they keep telling us – so everyone must just accept that everything they say is valid and do what we are told.

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    Lucky

    Related to statistics for places that use or do not use a particular cure, on Peter C on 5.1 and 6.2, and on Tonyb 7.7.1-

    If the test worked, that is if it did what was claimed, and had a false positive rate of say one percent, the resultant outcome could be far worse than an erroneous one percent. This can be shown by probability calculations using Bayes Theorem.

    For a general explanation of Bayes see-
    https://betterexplained.com/articles/an-intuitive-and-short-explanation-of-bayes-theorem/

    For application of Bayes to detection of viruses-
    https://towardsdatascience.com/false-positives-negatives-and-bayes-rule-for-covid-19-testing-750eaba84acd

    This relates to the question-
    https://medium.com/@javiergb_com/why-testing-positive-for-a-disease-may-not-mean-you-are-sick-4a3a16a290eb

    The real problem is in that first ‘If’.
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/07/covid-19-testing-1000-times-too-sensitive/

    It may look as if I am making the case that this test gives random results, well, it is worse than that.

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      Lucky

      Whoops-! this should have gone in the Thursday open thread.

      [While always good to be on topic at the top of the thread Lucky you’re not way off topic at #18.]AD

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        sophocles

        Hey, I reckon it’s close enough to being on topic to be acceptable.
        (But it’s not my blog to call it … )

        Thanks for those links. I think I’ll find them interesting.

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    Peter C

    If the test worked, that is if it did what was claimed, and had a false positive rate of say one percent, the resultant outcome could be far worse than an erroneous one percent.

    Thanks Lucky.

    I think your references to previous comments by myself and Tonyb my have gone a bit astray but the point you raise is important for us objective thinkers.

    I would say that my knowledge of Bayes Theorem is rudimentary at best but I have become interested in it.

    I can only add that in Medicine a really good test would be 95% accurate. I doubt if the PCR is anywhere near that. Maybe 75%.

    So as a diagnostic test it may be useful (ie in people with symptoms consistent with a Covid Infection) but as a community screening test, forget it!

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    mwhite

    “Vitamin D & the Upper Respiratory Tract”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmDng_uMCnY

    If you’re forced to stay in all day you will not get much vitamin d

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    ivan

    Jo asks The West spends billions looking for vaccines and new antivirals, but hasn’t even done the basic studies on cheap and easily available nutrients?

    I think the answer is ‘because it does not fit the political agenda that is sweeping the west’. If you look closely at what is happening with lockdowns, forced mask wearing etc. we can see another film parallel (the first was Idiocracy), this one is V for Vendetta. For those that don’t know the film there is a good write up about it on Legiron’s blog https://underdogsbiteupwards.wordpress.com/2020/09/10/all-except-one-part/

    Unfortunately there is no simple answer to the panic that has been induced in the population by the so called ‘experts’ just as there is in the ‘global warming’ farce. I’m in my 80s so should be cowering in fright and not going anywhere to which I say piffle and go about as normal sans mask, if I get it I am prepared with chloroquine and a few other things.

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    el gordo

    Breaking Nooze

    ‘A virologist who claimed the Chinese government covered up the coronavirus outbreak says she will produce scientific evidence the virus was man-made.

    ‘Respected Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan, who specialised in virology and immunology at the Hong Kong School of Public Health, claimed that Beijing knew about the coronavirus well before reports began to emerge.

    ‘She has since been forced to flee Hong Kong fearing her life is in danger, and appeared today on Loose Women from a secret location, revealing that the Chinese government had ‘removed all her information’ from government data bases.’ Daily Mail

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    Lucky

    Another brilliant thread. Thanks Again Joanne.
    Giving 10 stars feels quite insufficient in this case so a few comments follow.

    Actions have upsides, downsides, costs, and benefits.
    In the case of Vitamin D supplementation the cost for readers here would be negligible, there are no downsides apparent, the overdose level (over 10,000IU per day?) being well above any supplementation needed. There is definite benefit, “from 50% to 2%”
    A government that cared would advise on how much of supplements to take supplying charts for latitudes, time of year and your err. level of suntan.
    A lefty government would issue it free with vouchers.
    A socialist government would make it compulsory.
    But we have governments who ignore this obvious measure but get police to patrol the streets, etc.
    How to describe them …

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      sophocles

      NZ’s govt ignores vit-d. What follows is what it could have been telling the popuation in NZ:

      Here’s the UVB Index for New Zealand.

      I sunbathe through winter to make my Vit-D.
      Here’s New Zealand’s `latitudinal’ UVI chart:
      https://niwa.co.nz/sites/niwa.co.nz/files/sites/default/files/import/attachments/Web_plots.pdf
      Auckland is at 36°S, Wellington -41°, Christchurch -43° Dunedin -45° Invercargill 46°

      Lots of vit D is manufactured in the body for any UVI over 1 and adequate for 1.

      Use vitamin K2 (90mcg/d for females, 120mcg/d for males), zinc and Magnesium. and you only need to be worried about high levels of D if supplementing. Can’t overdose by sunbathing as long as you don’t burn.

      Spend 20-30 minutes in the sun. (30 mins in the sun at solar noon (12:30pm in NZ) makes about 13,000 IU with a white skin and less for higher levels of melanin. Don’t use any sunscreen.

      Measure serum levels twice a year. Aim for 120-200 nmol/L (ideal range)

      NZ has had 25 Covid deaths. If HMNZG had been at all serious about stopping Covid and helped with vitamin D, roughly half those deaths need not have happened. I’m not overly surprised: NZ Health Dept has hissy fits whenever the Good Health Hormone is mentioned.

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    tom0mason

    Interesting study here — https://www.primarydoctor.org/covid-19-is-a-lack-of-nutrients

    Called ‘COVID-19 is a lack of nutrients, exploited by a virus’ it indicates that vitamin D is the key nutrient for fighting and recovering from this infection.

    Vitamin D vs COVID-19

    Vitamin D3 (commonly known simply as “vitamin D,” but formally as cholecalciferol) may be the most potent defense available against COVID-19, from the studies described below. It may also be the most easily acquired COVID-19 treatment, because vitamin D is produced in the skin on exposure to sunlight, with further processing in the liver and then in the kidneys to its fully useful form.
    In this large Israeli study of over 7,000 people, “low plasma [vitamin D] levels almost doubled the risk for hospitalization due to the COVID-19 infection in the Israeli studied cohort.” Also, “the mean plasma vitamin D level was significantly lower among those who tested positive than negative for COVID-19.” (1)

    In a retrospective cohort study in Indonesia of 780 cases of COVID-19 positive patients, it was found that those with below normal vitamin D levels were associated with increasing odds of death. (2)

    The correlation among low serum vitamin D levels and COVID-19 mortality was so high in that study that this nutrient may turn out to be the most decisively valuable against COVID-19. This graph (3) shows the stark contrast found between high and low vitamin D levels and COVID-19 survivability.

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    JS

    There were studies back at least as far as May (and quite probably earlier) showing that vitamin d deficiency was strongly correlated with adverse outcomes.
    Of course these were ignored as it’s more important to be enforcing what ‘s latest diktat is than following anything resembling real science.

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    William Astley

    I totally agree. US Black lives do matter.

    The Vit. D deficiency’s effect is a hideous, monstrous, biological handicap for dark skin people in the US. 82% of the US black population is Vit. D deficient which is a blood serum level less than 20 ng/ml as compared to 42% of the US general population and only 30% of the US ‘white’ population.

    The Vit. D deficiency is a biological handicap that helps explain why so few young black men move up economically as compared to ‘white’ men. It is sad, as these are real people, not statistics.

    “Put another way, according to a McKinsey report, almost 70% of Black middle-class children are likely to fall out of the middle class as adults.
    No doubt the figures are stark: In 2016, the average wealth of Black U.S. households was $140,000, compared with $901,000 for white households was, nearly 6.5 times greater, according to a 2019 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.”

    Vit. D deficiency is linked to dementia and to depression. People who are Vit. D deficient have back aches, muscle pains, arthritis, and so on.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fixing-americas-racial-economic-divide-could-add-400-billion-to-us-gdp-goldman-sachs-chief-economist-195442619.html

    82% of the US ‘black’ population, 68% of the US Hispanic population, and 42% of the US general population and (roughly 30% of the US white population) is deficient in ‘Vitamin’ D which in this study is defined as a Blood serum level of active ‘Vitamin D’ of less than 20 ng/ml.

    Prevalence and correlates of vitamin D deficiency in US adults.

    https://tahomaclinic.com/Private/Articles4/WellMan/Forrest%202011%20-%20Prevalence%20and%20correlates%20of%20vitamin%20D%20deficiency%20in%20US%20adults.pdf

    Vitamin D deficient has been linked to long term brain damage and difficulty in concentrating and making good decisions…

    “Only around 3% of Black men born into the bottom quintile make it into the top income quintile, compared to around 10% of white men,” wrote Hatzius. “ If left unchecked, this perpetuates the income disadvantage of Black men across generations.”

    Put another way, according to a McKinsey report, almost 70% of Black middle-class children are likely to fall out of the middle class as adults.
    No doubt the figures are stark: In 2016, the average wealth of Black U.S. households was $140,000, compared with $901,000 for white households was, nearly 6.5 times greater, according to a 2019 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland..

    When Vit. D levels are raised the muscle/tendon system around the skeleton tightens and strengthens. People stand up with a curve in their spine.

    Worry lines disappear, squinty eyes open up, people look and feel younger, have a natural ‘spring’ in their body that helps them move and stand up.

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    Matty

    Hands off our girl….
    Unbelievable. When Doctors enter politics they should understand it can come from anywhere….as it should. So the AMA and the Chief Medical Officers(CMO’S) are in cahoots??? Who would have guessed.

    https://www.9news.com.au/national/queensland-coronavirus-update-back-off-chief-health-officer-australian-medical-association/0926c611-4b26-4882-8164-8ee869d46839

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    mwhite

    More NEW published studies related to vitamin D

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNji13yoW9g&pp=QAA%3D

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    JCalvertN(UK)

    How do the Inuit remain healthy?
    Two 145g cans of tuna per week will provide enough vitamin-D -without any exposure to sunlight.

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      Saighdear

      aah! ….. but then there’s the Hg…………. and the plastic ………… and the over -fishing ……….and the Evirogreens………. and Misinformation

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    RUSSELL KLIER

    “The West spends billions looking for vaccines and new antivirals, but hasn’t even done the basic studies on cheap and easily available nutrients?”…Because “cheap and easily available” preventatives would bankrupt medicine in the West. There are no advocates with money backing “cheap and easily available” alternatives for disease, like there are no money advocates backing climate skepticism.

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    kentlfc

    I’ve been taking a daily D3 pill since February, even though I get plenty of sun. I think I read it here back in February and thought, “Meh. Can’t do any harm!”

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    kentlfc

    All good apart from the third arm that grew! 😛

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