Evidence to suggest vitamin D can prevent viral respiratory infections and lessen the severity if you do contract it

[Roostersmum2]

Just sharing this here for anybody who wasn't aware of the benefits of vitamin D in regards to respiratory infections. He knows what he's talking about

In summary, if you're not already - take vitamin D

We're taking 4000iu vitamin D daily w/ 1000iu vitamin C

Looking most childrens ones only have 2.5micrograms to 5.
Not the 10 recommended.

If you have had a blood test that shows up vitamin D deficiency, does anyone know how it is described on their blood test? Does it say Vitamin D levels or it called something else (like Iron levels are called Serrum ferritin)?

I've got Vit D test results (I test myself a couple of times a year as I am always tending towards deficiency unless I supplement). I'm hypothyroid and that is usually associated with Vit D deficiency, btw.

For those curious, this is what the results look like, I get mine done via finger prick kits from City Assays.

www.vitamindtest.org.uk/

Place marking

I really want to know more about vit d and dementia. I'm sure there is a strong link

Could be. I have been reading papers on sugar and what I call ODDD for a few years - obesity, diabetes, depression and dementia - all of those seem to be worse from eating a lot of sugar and it would not surprise me if lack of vit D/sunlight was part of the picture too i.e. our not getting something we should have and in the case of sugar getting chocolate and sweets and cakes we should not be having.

LWJ70 Data from Iceland: estimated that half the population is infected.

Where on earth did you get that from? It looks like less than 1% of our population is infected. You must have misunderstood something, even the Daily Mail didn't get it that wrong.

But it's true that it is common knowledge here that supplementing vit D is essential because it is absolutely impossible to get enough from sunshine exposure alone, even if you are palest person on the planet, though thanks to our outside geothermal pools perhaps we get more sunshine exposure than people might assume. The traditional solution is cod liver oil. My kids have a spoonful every morning all year round - I take the capsules because it is gross. We also use fortified milk in our house. Most people take something or other. I don't think this has much to do with the COVID stats, but maybe it hasn't hurt.

Oh I suppose you got it from this: "Though they know 50 per cent of the population will carry the virus at any one time". That Daily Mail article is so utterly terrible, I do advise you to look for better sources of information. Honestly don't believe any of that shit, they've garbled everything up so much you are getting a really misleading picture.

I've been waiting for a published study of blood serum levels of vit D3 versus patient outcome and the first one that I have seen is on the net and the results show a significant correlation. Bear in mind it is not peer reviewed and does not prove causality. But I will continue with this until science proves me wrong.

The study was done by a researcher called Alipio from the Philippines. He took the data from 212 covid patients and ranked their symptoms: mild, ordinary, severe, critical.

He statistically analysed the categories and blood serum levels: normal was defined as vitamin D3 less than 30ng/ml, insufficient was in the range 21–29ng/ml and deficient as less than 20ng/ml.

Here are his results:
mild symptoms = 86% had normal levels of D3, 1.3 % had insufficient levels of D3
ordinary symptom = 26% deficient, 44% insufficient
severe = 40% deficient, 29% insufficient
critical = 32% deficient, 26% insufficient, 3% normal

OK I hear you say, it could be because those patients already had underlying conditions which rendered them deficient in the first place. But this is significant data.

Study is here:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3571484

Two things really stand out for me. This is a study of 212 Philippines nationals living in SE Asia. This is one of the BAME communities who have sadly disproportionatly died of covid in the UK:
www.theguardian.com/world/2...exerts-heavy-toll-on-filipino-community-in-uk

Meanwhile, there have been only 446 deaths in the Philippines, with a population of 110 million (they had their first case of covid on 30th January!).

Secondly, the UK government has said that they will keep all the scientific data secret until after the pandemic -

'Key scientific data and advice the UK government is using to guide its covid-19 response won’t be published until the pandemic ends. Documents used to make decisions and the minutes of meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE) will only be made public when the current outbreak is brought under control, according to Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser.''

www.newscientist.com/articl...advice-wont-be-published-until-pandemic-ends/

LW that data is really something!!

I do glad I got in the d3 thing early and have been supplementing since
January.

There is clearly so much we do not yet understand about the body, just this year we have had data that suggests a gut bacteria that can be supplemented via probiotics could slow or reverse the build up of a protein associated with Parkinson's.. The links between the gut and the immune system are also a massive area for future research.

That is even stronger than i thought.
cAn you raisd vit d by injection too? Or just diet tablets?

How many mcg in iceland cod liver oil.!?

Long term hospital inpatients sometimes get high dose vitamin d injections into a muscle.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5240054/

I have had Coronavirus and I've walked outside and taken vitamin D all winter. So maybe it works for some or maybe quantity needed.

You seem to be alive though, @onlinelinda so maybe your vit d level helped you fight off the infection?

It’d be really interesting to find out how redheads are experiencing this crisis. They actually make their own vitamin d and need far less sunlight to make sufficient amount. If we think that vitamin d is one of the key factors that make bame group more affected, could redheads be the opposite ? Obviously far more important to do the research into the high risks but I’d be interested to know if there is any evidence about redheads Unfortunately as a red head I can't cope well in the sun, I cover up, I use factor 50, I never sit out in the sun. So last year I discovered I was deficient in vitamin D so have been taking a capsule for just over 6 months.

I have a history of bad chest infections, starting when I was a toddler and admitted to hospital with bronchitis. In recent years have had such bad coughs I have broken ribs. In the last six months I have had one mild chest infection. I wonder.....

@MajesticWhine Possibly so.

I think you can only get it properly from the sun not pills but obviously supplements would be better than nothing.

I suppose if we spent 20,000 being used to having X amount of sun for our skin colour/type and then we suddenly get none that is bound not to go down well with most bodies. (Had my daily sun shine + yoga stretches in the garden this morning - just about the best weather in my view on the planet in the UK in spring in late April - I much prefer it to mid summer)

I agree with 123 above to that what is in the gut matters a lot too including to how you feel mentally never mind just physical health.

I hope after this crisis we can have a really good look at what people eat, drink, their lives, weight etc and see how we can best save the NHS (although I was not keen to see smokers seem to do better from Covid 19 and France has even had to limit access to nicotine patches and some hospitals are even giving covid 19 patients nicotine patches as that feels very wrong to me - destroy your lungs with smoking (my mother died of lung cancer and emphseyma from smoking) and thence save yourself from a lung condition.

Xenia i am similar my mum copd and heart attack from smoking.

And i agree uk need to look at health. From obesity/smoking to us all (incl me) having children later.
The nhs is broken by all the binge drinking etc

I have asthma and, years ago, I was horrified to learn that asthmatics who regularly take corticosteroid inhalers were at great risk of developing osteoporosis.

From then on, I have regularly taken a calcium and vitamin D and K supplement.

Later still, I started taking a separate vitamin D supplement, as I spent (and still do spend) a lot of time either indoors or working unpredictable shifts.

It wasn't until this pandemic struck, that it dawned on me that I had been unwittingly boosting my immune system in my attempt to prevent bone loss.

If you're in the UK linda, I don't think going outside is going to get you much vitamin D in the winter?

As a rough rule of thumb, in order for sunlight to contain the right wavelength for the body to make vitamin D, you need your shadow to be shorter than your height. That never happens between October to April, even at midday, so you need to take a supplement during those months. You also need supplements if you have an indoor-based occupation/lifestyle, have darker skin, live in a cloudier/polluted region... even volcanic ash eruptions can affect world population vitamin D levels for many months after. Also, very little vitamin D is obtained by diet, unless you’re an Arctic first nations person eating a traditional 97% hunter-fisher diet. A few servings of oily fish a week isn’t going to significantly increase vit D to sufficient levels to mitigate respiratory infections.

Irregardless of covid. We need to look.at campaigning for fortification.
As i say most vitamins are lower than daily recommended anyway.

Care homes need to look at vitamin supplements.
I know there is some in some cereals.

The third study in the world that shows a clear relationship with vitamin D deficiency and covid 19 severity has been published. It's a study from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans.
20 patients, randomly sampled.
Conclusions:

''Strikingly, 100% of intensive care patients less than 75 years old had vitamin D deficiency. Among these, 64.6% had critically low (less than 20ng/mL) and three had less than 10 ng/mL.''

Only one of the randomly sampled patients was caucasian - the other 19 were afro american and hispanic.

The study also cites 33 references of causal evidence.

Here is the link.

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.24.20075838v1.full.pdf

A number of the patients were taking vitamin D supplements. So safe sunlight exposure must be more important and the much lower deaths rates in equatorial and southern hemisphere regions are surely explained by this.

SAGE, the group of scientists that advises Public Health England only meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so they will not have seen this study. I doubt whether they have read the previous two conclusive blood studies.

Even if SAGE does read these three studies, they do not have any specialist molecular virologists or immunologists to professionally interpret and evaluate the scientific evidence:

'Government rushes out request for experts to work with Sage panel Notice sent to universities amid concern over lack of expertise in parts of Covid-19 advisory group''

''The government's secret science group has a shocking lack of expertise''

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/27/gaps-sage-scientific-body-scientists-medical

www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/29/government-rushes-out-request-for-experts-bolster-sage-panel

In the meantime thousands of elderly are dying in care homes. The government can't even be bothered to test all of them for covid and vit D def. and administer any vitamin D3 supplements. If only they knew.

Thanks LW. That's very interesting

This was a meme two months back...Mumsnet, stop following regular news, Twitter and Facebook and look at other sources for your info. Trust me, you will be way ahead of the curve!