Have we been wrong about the benefits of Vitamin D? | Hacker News Reader

Have we been wrong about the benefits of Vitamin D?

independent.co.uk

29 pointsrjknight14 comments

Funny, I was just looking at the vitamin D literature (http://www.gwern.net/Longevity#vitamin-d)... The short answer: No. If vitamin D were all that harmful, Spector would be able to point at increases in all-cause mortality from the meta-analyzed RCTs, the same way he could point at some other vitamins I won't mention, not grab a few cherry-picked endpoints like fracture from a few small studies while ignoring the implications of consistently lower all-cause mortality in vitamin D groups.

For a great overview of all the vitamin D endpoints, I'd suggest the mega-review/meta-analysis Theodoratou et al 2014, “Vitamin D and multiple health outcomes: umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies and randomised trials” http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g2035.full

This article is about Vitamin D supplements. (Not the vitamin in general.)

I remember looking up Vitamin C supplements and found similar articles on the harms of those and similar supplements.

Turns out that the vitamins found in foods and created by our bodies are more complex than RPG stats. There are complex combinations of vitamins and minerals that need to be taken together. You can't just up a Vitamin level and it not effect other chemicals in your body.

On one side as you mention the body need to get certain combinations, let's imagine the fuel to air relationship for proper combustion. On the other side sometimes you also need certain combinations just for the mater of absorption, Curcumin and peperine for absorption or calcium and vitamin D.

Should "or calcium" above read as "of calcium"?

>The billions we waste on these products, assisted by the poorly regulated but rich and powerful vitamin industry should be spent on proper healthcare – and people should be educated to go in the sunshine and eat a diverse range of real food instead.

There are so many question marks in this advice..

What exactly is "proper" healthcare ?

In nutrition, the scientific approach is quite problematic I notice.. This very article is an example of how science changes it's course dramatically every decade or so. The scientist now thinks that his favorite vitamin is not so good after all !

What about the damage done to the body after years of following the scientific advice given 10 years ago ?

Then there is the "real" part of the "real food" in our high tech society... The rabbit hole goes pretty deep in the food industry and very few people actually want to know how their food is produced. Really, isn't it better to just not know what's in that sausage ? It makes us sad when we think about these things..

And finally, what he really suggests is not to worry about vitamin D after all ..

Just live a good life and nutrition will come after it... Or is it the other way around ...

>Virtually no vitamins or supplements have actually been shown to have any benefit in proper randomised trials in normal people without severe deficiencies.

Does this mean vitamin/mineral/iron supplements work for covering vitamin deficiencies ?

So say I want to start a basic diet where I just eat whey + oat + seed/nuts to easily control my macros and have an easy to prepare diet - is there evidence that I will not have deficiencies if I take a "daily formula" supplement ?

I've done this on my previous job for 6 months - it worked great for losing weight/gaining strength - I never felt weak, exercise recovery was as fast if not faster than when I was previously working out with a normal protein heavy diet (only downside was digestion adjusting for the firs two weeks - after that had 0 problems). When I changed jobs I lost my routine and stopped working out - been a hectic year. I'm thinking of start this again and staying on it - I'm wondering if there's any research if vitamin supplements work for people with deficiencies.

Here's the thing. Just like markets, it's harder to differentiate good and bad cells in resource rich environments. I keep seeing a correlation between vitamin use and cancer and I can't help think that the cancerous cells become the biggest beneficiaries. This is natural selection working at the somatic level.

"One study based on the large SELECT trial suggested that supplements such as vitamin E and selenium actually increased prostate cancer in some men. And last year massive analyses combining 27 studies on half a million people concluded that taking vitamin and mineral supplements regularly failed to prevent cancer or heart disease. Not only are they a waste of money for the majority of us – but if taken in excessive quantities they can actually hasten an early death, increasing your risk of heart disease and cancer.

Virtually no vitamins or supplements have actually been shown to have any benefit in proper randomised trials in normal people without severe deficiencies. Rare exceptions have been lutein nutrients for macular degeneration, a common cause of blindness – and vitamin D, the golden boy of vitamins."

Having witnessed as a new parent the religious zeal of healthcare professionals about Vitamin D I couldn't but wonder how come did our ancestors even survive without buying these supplements ;)

They didn't. The mortality rate for kids used to be insanely high.

They likely also got more sun.

Our ancestors didn't spend all day in an office and only got to go home when it was dark outside.

In a country like Sweden, you might not get sun when you go to work and home again. So spending all day outside hunting might have given you enough.

I feel better with Vitamin D, especially during the winter. Was also some research on how Somalians developer autism because of a severe lack of sun in Sweden: http://www.thelocal.se/20110328/32862

Children used to play in full sun with no sun screen and minimal clothing.

Now they have UV blocking clothing and regularly applied sun block. Slip slop slap.

Children used to play outside. Now they spend a lot less time outside.

Rickets used to be a hell of a thing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickets

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