Vitamin D deficiency worsens Respiratory Tract Infections: Meta-analysis

Re:Vitamin D deficiency worsens Respiratory Tract Infections... by quotz on Sunday March 15, 2020 @07:08AM (#22582751)

Vit D deficiency is omnipresent in today's society. Literally almost everyone I know has it. Supplementing Vit D drastically changed my mood. Too bad public healthcare in Europe, especially the NHS in the UK, doesnt recognize Vit D deficiency as a problem.

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Re:Vitamin D deficiency worsens Respiratory Tract Infections... by open-source-ux on Sunday March 15, 2020 @08:32AM (#22583095)

"...the NHS in the UK, doesn't recognize Vit D deficiency as a problem."

The NHS does recognise vitamin D deficiency as an issue.

In the UK, a science advisory body (Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition) published a 300 page report of the evidence on vitamin D and health in 2016. Their conclusion: adults and children over one in the UK should have at least 10 micrograms of vitamin D every day. For some people this may mean taking a vitamin D supplement. People who have a higher risk of vitamin D deficiency are advised to take a supplement all year round.

Here is an overview of the guidelines on the NHS website which includes a link to the 300 page scientific review.

https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/the-new-guidelines-on-...

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Re:Vitamin D deficiency worsens Respiratory Tract Infections... by quotz on Sunday March 15, 2020 @08:40AM (#22583138)

Yeah, these guidelines are on point not gonna deny that, but the doctors are actually far behind reading these. My hypogonadism wasn't diagnosed for years despite being in the guidelines. NHS docs just dont care, no skin in the game. My friends dad is a NHS doc and he just admits he tries to process patients faster as it gives him more money, and diagnoses them faster since they get paid per diagnosis not per visit.

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Re:Vitamin D deficiency worsens Respiratory Tract Infections... by globular-toast on Sunday March 15, 2020 @07:15AM (#22582782)

I'm highly sceptical of it being anything but a placebo for most people. I live in the UK so I'm a good candidate for deficiency but I don't actually feel anything is wrong with me. Everyone thinks they are tired all the time and their sex drive isn't as high as it could be. If I supplement vitamin D the only thing it does is give me constipation. I'm sure there are some people with actual deficiency, but if you're white and go outside sometimes you're probably fine.

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Re:Vitamin D deficiency worsens Respiratory Tract Infections... by beagle3 on Sunday March 15, 2020 @07:24AM (#22582816)

There's a difference between sickness-causing deficiency and optimal level. Most people are somewhere in between. If you tried and it didn't make a difference, then you're probably around the optimal level.

However, the specifics do matter; see e.g. https://www.gwern.net/zeo/Vitamin-D - this is n=1 but consistent with many other n=1 self-experiments I'm familiar with; personally, my sleep is improved with increased protein consumption AND 10,000 IU D3 before 10AM (Both contribute; I've not gone about 10,000 IU, but 5,000 UI has a much lesser effect)

I have not find a peer reviewed time-of-taking-D3 paper when I looked, but D3 is recognized as a timing mechanism ("Zeitgebber") in many papers I've found.

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Re:Vitamin D deficiency worsens Respiratory Tract Infections... by nicoburns on Sunday March 15, 2020 @07:46AM (#22582899)

Maybe you're not actually deficient, even though in theory you could be. I used to get regular seasonal depression, to the point that I'd struggle to get out of bed at times. And I'd crave sunshine. Of ot was sunny. I'd obviously tried a lot of things. Changing diet, exercising, and also SAD lights which helped a tiny bit, but not really. Regular supplementation with vitamin D has made this almost entirely go away. I'm a completely different person.

So while you not everyone who is feeling tired or depressed will have a vitamin D deficiency, I'd say that it absolutely can cause those symtoms.

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Re:Vitamin D deficiency worsens Respiratory Tract Infections... by adrianN on Sunday March 15, 2020 @08:15AM (#22583014)

Literally everyone you know got tested for vitamin D levels?

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