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Comment by nkozyra | Hacker News Reader

Vitamin D has been thrown around a lot from the get-go, probably because of its value against other forms of coronavirus including SARS and viral infection in general. My layman's understanding is that supplementation hasn't shown to be effective, meaning D deficiency may be a co-indicator.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7189189/ [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3308600/#:~:tex....

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> meaning D deficiency may be a co-indicator

I saw a statistic/study from China that found that only 1 in 7000 cases were exposed outdoors. The link could be as simple as people who spend a lot of time indoors get more exposure to the virus.

The only real action you can glean from that isn't to take supplements, it's don't do what caused those people to be vitamin D deficient which is usually staying indoors.

Maybe it's the vitamin D, maybe it isn't.

Perhaps Vitamin D status is just an indicator of adequate sunshine on the skin. This would explain why people with low vitamin D are more susceptible, yet supplementation with Vitamin D is ineffective.

I've seen two theories floated:

1. Vitamin D as a side effect of sun exposure is not itself the important indicator. Instead, some other biological response increases immune response simultaneously. Hence, D supplementation is itself copying the wrong response.

2. Vitamin D deficiency is caused by illness, hence it actually doesn't affect mortality and the relationship is not casual.

My money is on 1. Vitamin D deficiency is caused by lack of sunlight. I'm skeptical of doctors telling me to avoid the sun and take a pill instead.

I eye-rolled at that guidance too, until a loved one was diagnosed out of the blue with stage-2 melanoma. It's terrifying.

Don't screw around with sun protection. Despite what the internet says, people who work outside get it too.

I don't doubt that skin cancer happens. I doubt that vitamin D supplementation is delivering all the benefits that sunshine does.

and you're basing this on....

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5593895/

No doctor is telling you to not go outside. The pills are for people who can't be relied upon to go outside enough (or if they do, simply cannot get enough sun to achieve a similar result). It's important to remember that doctors are human beings just like (presumably) you and me and know they're working with other human beings who sometimes (sadly) won't do the things that are absolutely best for them. They work with the tools they have.

Why is skepticism of western medicine so heavily downvoted on HN? Doctors have been wrong about things in the past, e.g. tobacco, fats, 6-11 servings of bread/cereal/pasta.

I wish more people here thought about the fact that vitamin D deficiency is caused by the same illnesses that Covid-19 is comorbid with. It could still be the vitamin D, but then again, it could be the hypertension, diabetes and ace2 receptors.

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