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Comment by hatsunearu | Hacker News Reader

D3 (and a bunch of other vitamins) might just be a proxy for simply good nutrition or even just wealth. If your D3 levels are alright, maybe everything else in your health is alright?

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Its certain correlated with disability. Those who are chronically ill wont be getting out into the sun as much and tend to have low Vitamin D. It is a well known proxy for overall health.

There are relatively few dietary sources of Vitamin D, fatty fish and fortified foods being the main sources. It is quite possible to eat a healthy diet and be deficient in Vitamin D if you do not eat these foods. The principal source of Vitamin D is exposure to sunlight on bare skin and people at northern latitudes cannot get sufficient exposure during the winter.

Yes, but unfortunately there is a genetic element which has been disentangled with regard to vitamin d production otherwise. I.e. certain minorities in the developed world have good otherwise health but poor vit-d due to the production being related to absorbed sunlight through the skin

Yep. Now is that related to overall wealth of people with low vit-d. Or is it linked to other factors like genetic heritage?

The extreme low cases of vit-d in developed nations tends to have a genetic component or other health thing. But the genetic link I think has been disentangled from overall affluence. I.e. certain people if they take vit-d supplements can improve their overall health.

yes, I think you are onto something, for ever research paper they need to properly disentangle and normalize the various effects - controlling the factors.

Sounds like disentangling vitamin D levels is much more difficult than say controlling for social status, or income, age etc.

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