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Comment by PragmaticPulp | Hacker News Reader

Dr. Anthony Fauci has been speaking about Vitamin D in interviews since the start of the pandemic and he talks about taking Vitamin D supplements himself:

> "If you're deficient in vitamin D, that does have an impact on your susceptibility to infection. I would not mind recommending, and I do it myself, taking vitamin D supplements," he said. "The other vitamin that people take is vitamin C because it's a good antioxidant, so if people want to take a gram or so of vitamin C, that would be fine."

Source: https://www.insider.com/fauci-takes-recommends-vitamin-d-and...

I don't understand why people assume Dr. Fauci is against Vitamin D. He's taking the most well-informed and realistic stance given the evidence, which is that mild Vitamin D supplementation to avoid deficiency can help, but it's nowhere near a solution or cure for COVID-19.

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This wasn't disseminated widely and it's not part of any formal preventative recommendation for doctors to implement.

Doctors know about Vitamin D. Not sure why you think they would need Dr. Fauci to tell them about it. I've also been hearing about Vitamin D from every angle on social media for the past 2 years.

I'm not sure how one of hottest COVID pop-culture prevention suggestions could be considered an underground concept at this point.

The misunderstanding might be in the magnitude of effect: Vitamin D moves the needle a little bit, but it's nowhere near a magic bullet against Vitamin D or a solution to the crisis (as many health and fitness influencers have tried to suggest).

> Doctors know about Vitamin D.

Don't be so sure about that. When I first heard about the connection of D3 with the immune system, I asked a friend, who happens to be a cardiologist, about it. He said vitamin D prevents rickets, that's all. And an overdose produces arrhythmia, so be careful with the supplements. Indeed, that's the conventional wisdom found in text books.

According to the internet, a healthy immune system needs much higher levels of vitamin D than those necessary for a functioning calcium metabolism, and a D3 overdose is only bad if you have insufficient levels of vitamin K2. I don't know what to think about all of that. After all, my representative study with a sample size of one and no controls yielded no significant results.

Maybe you shouldn’t talk to a cardiologist about preventive medicine not related to heart issues………we have primary care physicians for that. Every preventative care doctor out there knows the benefits of vitamin d. It’s such a silly anecdote to bring up. And you don’t know what to think? Go read the research and make your own conclusion. I would never trust random people on the internet who make up anecdotes. It’s been proven that Vitamin D is a healthy hormone that is important to your well being. Go get it tested and then at least you will have a reason to do research.

I went to med school 10 years ago (did not complete the programme) and I'm a biochemist. Doctors definitely know about vitamin D, and if they don't then there's something wrong with them.

The old-school, prevents rickets/400 in milk is enough, is what was taught for decades. The new-school, take a few thousand a day and it prevents winter respiratory infections is quite newer and less spread out.

Personally, I stopped having the vast majority of colds during the winter since starting D a decade ago. One or two colds since, and both were over in a day. Definitely a significant life improvement.

There are several dominant threads pushing back here on a professionally done study about the benefits. So no, the important information is not as widespread as you claim.

I was diagnosed with severe crohn's disease in the late 90s. Doctors started learning about Vitamin D and the immune system in the 2000s. My only specialist who knew about it in the 90s is now at an elite hospital. It was rare knowledge 20 years ago. Medicine is still pretty much stuck in the last century with nutrition knowledge. It's all about pushing pills for the most part. The synergistic study of different nutrients is still pretty lacking.

For example, most Drs now know about vitamin D. But do they know about A and K and the dosages and which minerals you should probably take with it when someone is extremely D deficient like in a lot of autoimmune patients? Probably not...

Do doctors know most patients with resections or digestive issues who are B12 deficient can absorb methylcobalamin sublingually? I've never met one that does.

I can go on. Most doctors understanding of B12 is still stuck in the 1970s along with most other aspects of nutrition.

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