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Comment by cosmiccrisp | Hacker News Reader

I jumped on the train recently after the wife suggested it. And have heard some promising info from watching some John Campbell's videos and a bit of googling around about it. Been taking 4000/day since August and do feel better overall. Haven't caught any colds yet (knock on wood). From what I had read, 4000 was the max suggested amount to be safe. I'm hoping that I won't get any bad colds this winter by doing this.

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> I'm hoping that I won't get any bad colds this winter by doing this.

Unfortunately, I was still getting colds regularly while my blood levels were around 100ng/mL.

This is the type of magical Vitamin D thinking I was talking about: Fixing a vitamin D deficiency is a positive improvement, but it's not a miracle vitamin.

No one got colds "regularly" during last year's "lockdown and mask" periods, or during the summer. Maybe, if you had a kid in preschool, but they have been closed during those periods as well. There is something unique about your situation you are unaware of or perhaps not telling us.

I'd stop giving out advice to a population that is almost certainly, mostly deficient in Vitamin D. Sure, don't overdo it, but as it is quite hard to, probably affecting a tiny percent of the population, is a lesser concern right now.

>Fixing a vitamin D deficiency is a positive improvement

Apparently, quite a lot of people are vitamin D deficient. As a computer nerd, I'm pretty sure I was.

As a fellow computer nerd, I bought into the same narratives. That's how I ended up approaching Vitamin D toxicity as I mentioned above.

That's my point: The narratives around Vitamin D are getting greatly exaggerated. Mild supplementation is usually fine, but this idea that we're all deficient and we all need to be taking huge doses is getting out of control on social media.

>but this idea that we're all deficient and we all need to be taking huge doses is getting out of control on social media.

Agreed!

You reached 100ng by supplementing 5000 IU per day? That doesn’t add up.

I was told by my doctor I was, about a year before covid hit. Now I take vitamin D and C supplements and try to spend more time outside. My guess is that a lot of indoor computer workers are going to be deficient, but it's something your bloodwork can show you.

There is little evidence of any health benefit from oral vitamin C supplementation. If you have a normal metabolism and eat at least a little bit of fresh produce then you're probably getting enough. Any excess isn't absorbed, just pissed away.

Intravenous vitamin C might be another story and there is active research underway as a potential treatment for several conditions. I don't think any conclusive results have been reached yet.

Ugh. I just went 8 years without seeing the sun. I need to get my levels checked.

Would you be willing to elaborate how that happened?

Incarceration per other comments iirc

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