COVID-19, Vitamin D, and Taiwan

Harryharryharryhauson, or something. So much better than CGI.

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This study was adjusted for loads of factors, and still shows a clear correlation between hospitalization and vitamin D levels up to 60ng/ml

Also the studies of calcifediol, activated Vitamin D given in high doses to sick people have shown clear benefits, and there are actually many such studies.

There simply has been no RCT with dose over 400-800IU for Supplementation so far on a larger scale. The British RCT with supplementation should benefit but was not significant. However they used 400 or was it ,800 IU as dose, so was too little.
It is generally accepted that vitamin D lowers inflammation, so there is good reason to believe it helps.

Plus it’s really cheap. The main cost is the packaging and distribution.
Plus already there are loads of people deficient, and it’s generally accepted consensus that children need to be supplemented to at least 20ng/ml so they don’t get crickets. There is no discussion on that point. The thing is, that somehow this 20ng/ml, sometimes 30 was deemed as enough without any further long term supplemtation RCTs… on general health. And if you just supplement a very low dosese it will likely lead to non significant results… Easy to test Vitamin D to not significant that way.

Vitamin D is a hormone, not w Vitamin. Most Vitamin we do really have enough. Especially vitamin C which is added as conservative to loads of foods (it’s the cheapest one more or less - many companies like nestle have a whole department working on how to convince governments to add more vitamin C to products or to new products. It’s cheap and customers wanna buy it…).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC6431073/
Article about vitamin D deficiencies in Taiwan, however looking then at other research you won’t find any developed country except Norway that has higher levels.

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That sounds quite unpleasant! :slight_smile:

I thought vitamin D also affects your mood and depression.

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Yup, Jason and the Argonauts.

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As I seem to have kicked off an interesting discussion about Vitamin D, I’d like to add my motivation to mention Vitamin D.

Vitamin D is free and readily available, your body produces this when exposed to UVB Light… and yes it is an essential vitamin. How essential… you can debate further.

Of course you can take in supplement form, and these have their use too… but mostly are of very limited benefit, except if you are a Pharmaceutical company (these guys are all encompassing and all powerful).

My point… in this supposed global health crisis, Governments around the world decided to deprive Citizens of free and essential Vitamins, as well as depriving them of many other free and essential requirements - oxygen, freedom of movement, companionship spring initially to mind… now of course most at risk are freedom of expression, bodily autonomy, privacy)

With so many basic essentials forcibly removed… is it any wonder that people appear ill? Do you wonder why those in Power, continue to Party, grow richer, travel globally without Quarantine, never wear face masks?

Brian… this goes back to my cynicism over your ‘all about Healthcare’ comment… it really isn’t. None of this is about healthcare.

I’m sure some (or most) of you will have opposing opinions, which is fine… much better to debate than simply to hate (hate and extreme polarisation of populations is part of the big plan)

I hope, with this message, to clarify my position a little, and maybe to encourage a few people to think deeper and evaluate the world around them… before committing us all to a world that nobody ever wants, and one from which nobody can return.

I’m sure my words will create some resentment, and I’m holding tight for your replies… but my intentions are surely not to generate any hatred or division. If you all consider my opinions a load of BS, that’s fine too

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A number of other studies made similar reports, though it is only a Spanish study, conducted in early September, that came close to incontrovertibly proving low vitamin D levels have a pivotal role in causing increased death rates. There, 50 patients with Covid-19 were given a high dose of vitamin D, while another 26 patients did not receive the nutrient. Half of patients who weren’t given vitamin D had to be placed in intensive care, and two later died. Only one patient who received vitamin D required ICU admission, and they were later released with no further complications.

Well here is a new double blind RCT on vitamin D, or better Calcifediol:

Especially in the 7-14 days time there is a clear advantage. 160 patients overall. Of course most people would be way better off, had they had high vitamin D levels when contracting the virus. way better to already have 50ng/ml serum levels before getting infected as only reaching it a week later. And those people in the study were mostly overweight/obese.

A post-hoc composite of three respiratory symptoms (trouble breathing, chest congestion and dry or hacking cough) resolved 3.0 days faster when 25D was elevated at Days 7 and 14 (p<0.05); chest congestion resolved 4.0 days faster with 25D increases of ≥25 ng/mL (p<0.05). Safety concerns including hypercalcemia were absent with ERC treatment.

Conclusions and Relevance ERC was effective in increasing serum 25D in outpatients with COVID-19, which may have accelerated resolution of respiratory symptoms suggesting mitigation of COVID-19 pneumonia risk, findings which warrant further study.

There are tens of thousands of papers linking Vitamin D with everything under the sun.
That’s no surprise because vitamin D is a vital molecule for us to function .There’s a bit more nuance to it as well because Vitamin D is actually a collection of similar molecules.

However HOW it is linked to any given disease (is it a symptom rather than a cause or is it simply statistical noise ) is a different story and WHETHER supplementation could improve the situation is another complete story again !

Something very important to understand. A lot of researchers want to show a link. There’s less interest in proving doesn’t have any link (yeah we knew that already it’s a dead end is this even worthwhile publishing ) compared to saying hey look I found something linked , let’s investigate further, (aren’t you clever and here your publication which you knocked together from a months work )!

It’s the easiest kind of research you can do to be honest. Do some vitamin d level testing in blood and take medical histories of patients over a time course.

That’s why above I linked an double blind study. Clearly showing faster resolution or illness.

And there were already enough other Supplementation studies showing great effect, though mostly non blind.

The fact that most people dying or covid 19 are severely deficient already prior to infection is well known and not disputed (the question is only can Supplementation help or not).

There is a non-profit organisation that has been doing research for years, and no, it is not a fake organisation.

https://vitamindsociety.org

The Vitamin D Society is a Canadian non-profit group organized to:

  • Increase awareness of the many health conditions strongly linked to vitamin D deficiency.
  • Encourage all Canadians to be proactive in protecting their health and have their vitamin D blood levels tested annually.
  • Fund valuable vitamin D research.

I didn’t say anything about it being fake or whatever. :grin:
I’m telling you how clinical research often works.

Also non profit doesn’t mean a lot. It doesn’t mean that commercial operators aren’t sitting behind them. Which I suspect is very much the case for this society too.

Look up the story of Purdue Pharma and how they worked with ‘non profits’ to advocate for them.

A nice way to make yourself some profit in the back pocket is to open a non profit and pocket a massive salary and luxiourious expenses paid lifestyle :wink:. I have often day dreamed of doing that.

well besides all the research linked at vdmeta.com - there was also this new study from Israel showing clear benefit for supplementation:
Israeli study offers strongest proof yet of vitamin D’s power to fight COVID | The Times of Israel

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The first double blind parallel randomised study to vitamin D with a good design is out, prevents 75% of infections, so way better than the vaccination!

It exactly confirms my point that the vitamin D addition to many food products in Taiwan is the real reason how Taiwan could avoid covid for so long and why it will be here like in Norway:

And yeah while the virus of course can adapt to vaccines, it most likely cannot adapt to better immune system by vitamin D.

Now sadly Taiwan is not supplementing around 4000 IU per day but rather 1500. But that explains perfectly why it could stop pre Delta, had a hard time with Delta and is now not possible to stop omicron. Assuming marginal gains on increasing supplementation 1500 IU will halve the infectibility. With an R of 2-3 for Delta that worked and with 4000 IU most likely Delta could not even spread without any other protective measures. As it developed to omicron it’s not enough. But it will very surely prevent a lot of severe disease as shown in other studies.

Remember Taiwan and Norway have the highest vitamin D serum levels of any country worldwide.

There is nothing stopping one from having both. They aren’t mutually exclusive.

They don’t replace each other.

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No there isn’t but the vaccination right now prevent nothing much at all except for old people with co morbidities. It certainly doesn’t achieve 75% reduction in infection. Plus it has loads of side effects while 4000IU of vitamin D is absolutely safe for adults with no negative side effects. It’s the recommended dosage for supplementation without actually testing vitamin D serum levels. It’s well below 10.000 IU per day where you run into a decent chance of having negative side effects (not likely but clearly outweighted by the benefits Vs 4000IU)

What foods in Taiwan have vitamin D added?

Yeah why does Taiwan have a high vitamin D consumption?

Many, go into a 7 and look at the ingredients. Mainly convenience food. I was really surprised at the amount because it’s the only country in the world where I found products with vitamin D added . The Scandinavian countries don’t declare it as it’s added by default to mild and or flour. Taiwanese avoid sun like the plague yet after Norway it’s the country with the lowest amount of deficiency, it can only come from the food.

Sunlight - Vit D is free (but of course you can take supplements too)

Direct sunlight is a great way to increase your Vit D - makes one suspicious why everyone has been restricted from going out side (globally not specifically Taiwan)