Hacker News Reader

Comment by whoisjuan | Hacker News Reader

Can someone tell me why HN is so obsessed with Vitamin D? I see a Vitamin D related article on the front page every few months. Also, https://hn.algolia.com/?q=vitamin+d shows a lot of articles about Vitamin D with a lot of upvotes.

Note: I supplement with Vitamin D daily, so no hate at all, just curious.

View on HN

Comparing the segment of the general population with the lowest vitamin D to the highest, the odds ratio for all-cause mortality is 1.9[1]. In other words people with low vitamin D are almost twice as likely to die as those with high vitamin D.

That means that at least from an association standpoint, vitamin D deficiency is as predictive of poor health as smoking vs. non-smoking status.[2]

Imagine the existence of a health intervention that is just as effective as stopping smoking, that consisted of a $0.10 pill taken once a day. It's worth shouting from the rooftops.

Now there are certainly reasons for apprehension. And of course correlation does not always mean causation. In particular supplementation does not seem to directly lower mortality. However sun exposure does seem to directly lower mortality. That suggests the possibility of an unidentified sub-type of vitamin D or other micronutrient related to sun exposure that is driving lower mortality. (In which case serum vitamin D would be acting as a proxy for sun exposure.)

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4103214/ [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22688992

Not sure but I’ll submit a hypothesis that many people here sit inside mainly dark spaces all day and don’t always feel great. And because that doesn’t seem avoidable, hacking the system is a natural action of many here.

We all know we should probably get outside more for health.

A low-cost Vitamin D blood test was FDA approved in 2011, and since then Vitamin D deficiency diagnoses have skyrocketed. Plus, the narrative works (humans need sun for vitamin D, but now humans are inside, thus humans need to supplement D).

Can't speak to the general point, but for COVID-19 in particular, it's starting to look like this matters. And not surprisingly, we're all kind of obsessing on that. If something so simple can keep people off ventilators, it's surely worth pursuing.

Past that, someone I know who lived in Alaska a few years started developing weird symptoms, including a declining ability to balance. Turned out she had low D, and once she fixed that, the symptoms all went away.

It’s not just HN, people are always intrigued by the idea that they can improve themselves by taking supplements you can buy at the store.

I think it speaks to everyone’s desire to improve themselves, but also to our desire to improve ourselves without putting in too much effort. Taking a pill every day feels like a small, token accomplishment for your health without breaking a sweat.

There are also a lot of narratives floating around about deficiencies, or speculation about optimizing levels. This leads many people to assume that more is better, which in turn leads to excessive dosing. Hypervitaminosis D is a real condition that can happen with regular, over the counter supplements.

The truth is that yes, the average person in North America could use a little more Vitamin D. But it’s also true that most of us could get that Vitamin D from paying even minor attention to our diets and getting a little bit of sun in moderation.

There’s not much harm in taking small doses of Vitamin D, but beware of taking some of these excessive doses discussed online for extended periods of time without bloodwork.

My guess would be, its a low toxic, proven beneficial substance that health hackers can play with.

Less controversial politically than drugs.

Additionally those in North Europe and Canada often cannot get it naturally for about a third of the year.

Personally I care about it because I have been diagnosed with VD deficiency, as my blood VD level is only half of the minimum healthy one. It makes sense since I am always inside.

Programmers tend to not go outside as much, in the batcaves creating value many times in the dark of night.

Bring up a picture of the sun on your monitor?

People who spend a lot of time indoors are generally deficient.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com