Horowitz: Studies show vitamin D campaign could've prevented nearly all COVID deaths

[Mountain Man]

I eat healthy, take vitamin C and D supplements, and ride my bike as often as I can (even now with freezing temps; just gotta bundle up), and I can't remember the last time I was seriously ill -- as in laid up with a fever and unable to reasonably function.

[Bill the Cat]

I'm T2 diabetic and I take 250 mcg of Vitamin D every morning with my Jardiance. Like Mossy, I'm not an habitual milk drinker, so I need supplements. I get my levels checked every 3-4 months with my A1C and it's been well within the normal parameters. I got over COVID fairly quickly - about 4 days. No idea if it was because of the Vitamin D or not.

[Gondwanaland]

I often supplement vitamin D because I am probably naturally low on it and it's a helpful vitamin, but these kinds of studies about it possibly helping with covid have inspired me to make sure I keep taking it regularly.

That said, these scientific findings so far on vitamin D and covid are still fairly weak and subject to other issues. Vitamin D supplementation is incredibly common in many northern european countries, and most people in tropical regions should be getting plenty of vitamin D naturally, and yet in both kinds of countries we've still seen plenty of covid deaths.

What I suspect is really happening in these studies is that a person who is often inside doesn't get much vitamin D and a person who is often outside does. We know covid transfers well indoors and badly outdoors. Also typically the elderly and sick tend to stay inside, while the fit and healthy get outside a lot. So it's not surprising that there's a correlation between covid sickness and death and amount of time spent indoors vs outdoors. The vitamin D blood measure is probably acting as a proxy measure for time spent inside and out. If so, taking vitamin D supplements isn't going to do anything at all to help against covid. We would need a randomized controlled study that tested the effect of vitamin D supplementation as a preventative for serious covid outcomes.

Ahem, best to read the article:

Studies have shown that almost anyone hospitalized with low levels but given the active form of D did not progress to the ICU thereafter.

A new study from Turkish researchers found that even a rapid regimen of regular vitamin D3 with the aim of getting people’s levels over 30 was wildly successful compared to people without supplementation. They found that those who used their treatment protocol to get their levels over 30 — even if they had comorbidities — were much better off than those without comorbidities who didn’t supplement. “Our treatment protocol increased the serum 25OHD levels significantly to above 30 ng/mL within two weeks,” concluded the authors. “COVID-19 cases (no comorbidities, no vitamin D treatment, 25OHD <30 ng/mL) had 1.9-fold increased risk of having hospitalization longer than 8 days compared with the cases with comorbidities and vitamin D treatment.”

And as also noted in the article (which I'm guessing you at best skimmed), vitamin D during the winter in much of the US and Europe (or anywhere above 35 degrees latitude - or below said latitude during the southern hemisphere winter) is not particularly obtainable by being outside and active. You just can't get enough UVB during several months of the winter at that latitude, to make sufficient Vitamin D. So that suggestion of it being a proxy for time outside doesn't particularly hold up either.

I mean, certainly there can be more studies, go have at it, but the information is pretty dang clear on a direct correlation between Vitamin D LEVELS as well as supplementation to boost your levels, and survival of covid. I don't see why we should sit on our hands and wait for a complicated control study to come forth at this point. That's, IMO, very harmful and dumb advice, especially given the amount of people that are deficient, and how easy it is to obtain.