Vitamin D supplements lower risk of autoimmune disease, researchers say
news.harvard.edu
news.harvard.edu
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-...
It's particularly important if you have dark skin and live in the northern hemisphere. Several of my family were diagnosed with Vitamin D deficiency and had a tangible increase in quality of life from supplements.
Our Doctor diagnosed Vitamin D deficiency.
Post supplementation (and D levels returning to normal), sick far less often with lower severity + increase in energy levels [to normal]
EDIT: Clarified energy increase is to normal.
I've been so deficient that I literally hurt. I had trouble sleeping due to the back/neck pain and had to take breaks while cooking food. Supplements took care of the pain and the extreme lack of energy, but I've never been "energetic".
The best way to describe this, really, is that if I had taken supplements before, I'd have prevented undue lethargy and tiredness. What actually made me get sick less often was not working with the public nor with children, and I never really had trouble shaking off disease when I did get sick. (I ended up deficient due to moving to a northern climate).
At best, supplements help me keep a level of normal.
When I said 'lethargic'->'increase in energy levels', I didn't mean increase above the baseline. I meant 'lethargic'->'normal'.
I'm in Denmark. And health authorities have started recommending everyone to take supplements doing winter. And elderly all year around.
Can you share link if you have it? I would love to something from an authority like NHS about what vitamins are worthwhile.
There are links to other vitamins from there, but those pages all say you should be able to get all you need from a balanced diet.
I need to look for docs around this, but the message in the US (not sure about UK) is usually not that stark. Doctors usually say - "if you are eating a balanced diet, you dont need any supplements except Vitamin D".
Studies are emerging, so time will tell I guess.
supplements will destroy your liver
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-d2-vs-d3#TOC_TI...
1- mushrooms that have been exposed to ultraviolet light (11Trusted Source)
2- Take fish oil supplements such as cod liver oil
3- Eat fatty fish twice a week (12Trusted Source)
4- Choose milk or orange juice that’s been fortified with vitamin D
5- Eat some eggs and butter (13Trusted Source)
6- Spend at least half an hour in the sun daily, if possible
My thoughts on their recco:
Option 6 is the typical US doctor prescription before vitamin supplements and seems the most reasonable, though depends on your location.
Options 3 and 5 are legit options and worth noting. Not sure if the portion sizes would be a financial detriment to many though.
Option 2 and 4 essentially seem like taking Vitamin D supplements.
Option 1 is huh? Who has a UV gun for mushrooms? Do stores do this automatically?
Also it’s hard to expose skin to sun zero temperature.
I’m guessing northern ancestors ate organ meat for supplements in the past.
I read that years ago it's in my brain but no idea where it comes from.
But preferred when it is possible.
Also there are disintegrating strips/films. There’s one for Mecobalamin at least, that I was prescribed.
left hand, well same thing. i would get a gash in the palm and it would stay an open wound for 2-3 years, get better and then again on its own.
for the past 6-9 years the hands had been pretty much fine but this year i am seeing signs for skin getting "patches" like you get if you just burn the top skin layer, just a tad bit dark. it gets scratchy very easily and so is the urge.
for the first time in my life my right hand palm is showing "patches" which is totally new to me.
i was diagnosed with "hyperhidrosis" back in 2012, got that aluminum chloride or whatever antiperspirant but that never worked. it made my skin super dry and the base problem got worse with it...
they had told me that this is an autoimmune disease so "you gotta weather it out"...
i will definitely try VitD because improvement in my hands and feet would definitely be a quality of life improvement for me personally. its been to a point i have a slight tilt in my left foot because of all the tip toe i had to walk for years because i could not put my heel down in school/road/etc ...
There are now plenty of commercial machines available
The results are negative: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30415629/
What you see here is that combing through the data to see wether anything shows a publishable correlation. It’s better than a correlation in the general population, but can be also spurious.
Here is the article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35082139/ It’s important to observe that “omega 3 fatty acid supplementation with or without vitamin D reduced the autoimmune disease rate by 15% (not statistically significant)”. If vitamin D reduced autoimmune diseases you would expect omega 3 + vitamin D to have similar results than just vitamin D
There are two endpoints measured, and you chose to quote the statistically insignificant result, rather than the significant one. Though I agree, p-hacking is always an issue. OTOH, plenty of biological discoveries come from unintended observations. As long as they replicate, nothing's off limits -- you wouldn't disbelieve penicillin because it wasn't discovered in a pre-registered trial.
> If vitamin D reduced autoimmune diseases you would expect omega 3 + vitamin D to have similar results than just vitamin D
It did. D only hazard ratio: .68, D+omega3 hazard ratio .69
I've been taking a daily 5000IU Vit-D supplement combined with vitamin K2 for a few years, and my eczema has completely cleared up.
I live in Scotland, so I am unable to generate Vit-D naturally for a good part of the year.
* 2000 IU of D3 in the form of a softgel and [1] * 1 gram of Omega 3 [1]
But it's important to note that the the Omega 3 was in the form of prescription Omacor [1] which has been renamed to Lovaza [2]
The D3 supplement was donated by Pharmavite [1] which probably means that the brand name was Nature Made https://www.pharmavite.com/what-we-make/nature-made/
1 gram of Lovaza contains 465 mg EPA and 375 mg DHA [4] and note that "Prescription medications may contain up to 90% omega-3 fatty acids, whereas over-the-counter fish oil supplements contain roughly between 30% and 50% omega-3 fatty acids" [3] so you should look at the label on your Omega-3 supplement to see how much EPA and DHA it contains. And finally, note that the ratio of EPA to DHA might matter too [5].
[1] https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01169259 [2] http://www.ncbop.org/pdf/omacorbecomeslovazajuly2007.pdf [3] https://www.verywellhealth.com/prescription-and-supplement-o... [4] https://lovaza.com/ [5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33418065/
https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/atrial-fibrillation/news...
I still think 1G-2G of fish oil, with more of a lean to EPA, is probably beneficial over the long run. I, personally, take about 1-1.5G a day of a third-party tested brand but only do so 4 days a week. I give myself a break from supplements over Fri-Sun.
Here's a fantastic talk between Dr Rhonda Patrick and Dr. Bill Harris. From the YT Description, he is the author of more than 300 scientific papers on fatty acids and health. He is a professor in the Department of Medicine in the Samford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota, the co-inventor of the Omega-3 Index, founder of OmegaQuant Analytics, and president and founder of the Fatty Acid Research Institute.
Zinc creates copper imbalance.
Excessive b vitamins may contribute to insomnia and nervous excitability
Omega3s may cause heart arrhythmia but also prevent most cardiac issues, has positive impacts on mood, cognition and autoimmune status.
VitD may cause stones. Not enough raises infection and autoimmune risk.
All electrolytes and metals (copper iron, etc) can create problems when in excess or shortage.
D without adequate k2 (which is hard to get without supplements or natto) , magnesium or vit-a or even b2 can raise risk of kidney stones. Sun exposure is enough to raise stone risk, alone.
Everything needs to be in a balance that you don't have monthly insight into.
Maybe I'm falling back to a naturalistic fallacy, but in nature most early man would not be highly exposed to any supplement 365 days a year.
And maybe I'm falling back to aphorisms of "everything in moderation"
But I'm doing so to err on the side of caution.
I just do it most of the time if I find it to be a relatively positive addition.
I also find it better for my mental health. Having a neuroticism that I must do and take a list of things every day, I just feels produces stress. Especially if I feel like my routine is being broken by an outside force I can't control. And what better time for a break than a weekend.
I do a 18/6 or 20/4 fast M-Fri. I eat 3 meals a day Sat and sun.
I don't drink Sun-thurs
I sauna M-Fri.
I exercise M-Sat.
My supplements are m-Thurs, except anything meant for sleep. Even then I cycle between substances for 6 weeks on and 6 weeks off.
The only thing I do about 95% of the time or more is I go to bed at 9:30-10pm.
I have health anxiety/ocd and without boundaries and creating ebbs and flows in my behavior, I create problems for myself.
It is worth the time for everyone to read up about modern nutrition science.
Sounds logical to me that we have more and more problems with lack of vitamin D as we are more and more in the house and not in the sun due to how labour and our daily life changes.
At least for me that's a reminder to get out sometimes and get some light.
Plus intense sunlight carries the risk of cancer.
I can understand someone with a dark skin moving North gets problems, but otherwise, where do these issues come from?
For people who have light skin and still have deficiency: Office life probably means you must be proactively chasing sun in your free time, or get the damn supplements and be done with it :)
Me too. And I have a beard. Do I have to take that into account? Do bald men get more D-vitamin out of the sun? Studies never talk about hairiness.
So yeah, I maybe got 15 minutes of sun for entire January, but this is my generous guess.
Not the whole truth. Broad spectrum sun exposure is correlated with a decreased risk of death from melanoma. The presence of solar elastosis (basically sun damaged skin) was associated with a 60% lower hazard ratio for death from melanoma, with a 0.009 P value in a 5 year study of 500+ women: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15687362/ (cited almost 300 times)
On the flip side, avoiding sun exposure was found to double (!) the risk of all cause mortality in a 20 year (!) Swedish study of 29k people (!): https://doi.org/10.1111/joim.12251
Categorizing people from lowest to highest sun avoidance behavior (self reported), those who sought out sun exposure the most (sunbathing throughout the year) had a statistically significant 40-50% lower hazard ratio for all cause mortality.
I will still use sunscreen, but given that we evolved to be diurnal on a planet orbiting a sun, I would be more worried about not getting enough sun than getting too much sun.
Anyone know how long I'd need to stand in the sun to get the equivalent of this? I live in the tropics.
To answer your question, though, it depends on your skin tone and your location. It could be about 5 minutes if you're very fair skinned.
I'm in the tropics, so this shouldn't be a problem, should it?
The above is probably enough if you're caucasian, but add a bit of color and you'll need more time.
Also, UV-B rays needs to be able to penetrate the atmosphere, which is why the shadow part is there. I live at 56 degress north, and the shadow thing becomes a problem from around September to April. First of all, the sun doesn't rise above 50 degress until late april, and it also needs to be visible, which it usually isn't for long.
One other factor I didn't see mentioned (or I just missed it) is amount of skin area exposed to sunlight. Generally it's recommended to protect sensitive skin of face/neck. Exposed limbs, trunk are somewhat less vulnerable to sunlight injury (but varies with skin type). When sunlight has little penetration of layers of clothing it obviously doesn't cause Vit D synthesis in skin.
In northern US/Canada, European countries, vit D supplementation is more reliable, possibly safer re: cancer risk. However a lot about Vit D remains controversial. It's still unclear what the optimum target range is (as measure by blood level), and just how much Vit D is too much. As it is now, lots of expert opinions but no consensus in in sight.
Finally Vit D accumulates/declines gradually. High doses (50k units) are used in deficiency states, normalization of blood level typically takes a few months. Well worth doing for sake of bone health, and other body systems too. In Vit D insufficiency (low but not as low as deficiency) OTC Vit D is probably enough, but people should ask their healthcare providers about what form and dose are best.
“Sensible sun exposure” is the practice of obtaining the minimum sun exposure required for adequate vitamin D synthesis followed by application of sunscreen or clothing coverage; and is often characterized as sun exposure of 5–30 min, two–three times per week to the arms, legs and torso during 10:00 h to 15:00 h [2,30]. The specific duration required within this time frame is dependent on skin type, previous tanning, latitude, season and environmental conditions. The minimal erythemal dose (MED), or the minimum quantity of UVB that induces a slight erythema 16–24 h post exposure, is a common dosage employed for sensible sun exposure guidelines [31]. The standard erythemal dose (SED) is a standardized method for quantifying erythemal UV radiation (UVR) dose and is becoming more commonly used because the MED varies from person to person even within the same skin type. The SED is defined as 100 J/m2 [32]. For adults with a fair complexion, one MED is equal to about 10–12 min of full body exposure during peak summer sun for all skin types [33]. One MED may be considered equivalent to ~2.5 to 3.5 SEDs depending on skin type [34].
> Flavin-dependent monooxygenases and oxidoreductases are located at critical branch points in the biosynthesis and metabolism of cholesterol and vitamin D
An overlarge supplement of vitamin D will create kidney stones[1] and may be harmful to bones[0] - a rather unexpected result.
[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31454046/
[1] https://twitter.com/ashleygwinter/status/1388131214003826688
I've been suspecting low vitamin D for my quite some time. Felt very lethargic, and on the weekend without setting an alarm I just straight up slept 15+ hours. (and a few other issues, which I am not sure whether they are related to that, time will tell)
I've been complaining about that for some time, even mentioned the possibility of a deficit to my doctor, but he never agreed to look into that direction.
I finally went around my doctor and got a blood drawn and sent to a lab for a vitamin D test, and the results were what I expected: 4ng/ml (which is extremely low).
I went to my doctor with those results, they just told me to "go out more".
I called two other offices, both of which didnt take me as a patient and one even just told me to look at the internet.
I was infuriated by all those three offices. After some research I now ordered supplements myself and made a treatment plan and I am planning to get another blood test in 2 months to check in on my levels and adjust accordingly.
Why would you infuriated by a Dr telling you to go outside more to increase Vitamin? That's exactly what they should be suggesting in the first instance.
Secondly I working from home for over 2 years now, and during most months of the year it is already dark outside when I am done with work.
Thirdly, I already have symptoms which correlate to a deficit, so the doctor not even wanting to look into it baffled me. And well, I never managed to talk to a doctor with my actual test results, but from looking at papers/official resources, 4ng/ml seems to be extremely low as a vitamin d level.
Well in the end I obviously don't know if those symptoms are the result of my vitamin d deficit, but time will tell.
Working your network to find a better primary care physician in your insurer’s network (blind change tends to have poor results) may be worthwhile, but, yeah, this is a way too common problem.
A possible scenario: you get a test, take the supplement, take another test, see no difference, take a bigger dose, and the test after that shows the effect of the first dose. Then you decide to keep the bigger dose even though it's unnecessary.
The moderate dosages are safe according to most studies. However, I agree with what dragonwriter below wrote: people who think they need the bigger dosages better consult a doctor before making a decision.
VitD and k2 should always be paired.
Eat your natto while sunbathing. (Seriously, I prefer natto to k2 supplements - you get high dose of K2 through natto and you get nattokinase which lowers BP https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18971533/ )
Here's a great video about K2, well sources in the description:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaTsXMgS6RU
Here's another well sources video, in the description, regarding K2 and VitD:
Would be interesting to hear the results for their original research goal. Autoimmune diseases not being in that list kind of makes you wonder wether they didn’t get any results and then went hunting for any correlations they could find and publish.