The Big Vitamin D Mistake (2017)

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5541280/

by busymom0 • 12 months ago

24 14 12 months ago

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

gmane4• 12 months ago

This paper cites 10 other papers, two of which are essentially the same paper. The author also has additional papers claiming that Vitamin D helps prevent COVID mortality using a "ecological integrative approach." His papers also all seem to be lacking concrete meta-analysis and discussion of other approaches and clinical data.

Seems... like a quack.

its-summertime4• 12 months ago

Do you have a link to said COVID paper? And which two papers did you consider the same?

gmane4• 12 months ago

Here you go: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34079693/

Edit: You can also click on his name in the original post (or the link above) and see all the papers in pubmed authored by him.

Edit 2: These two papers:

Veugelers PJ, Ekwaru JP. A statistical error in the estimation of the recommended dietary allowance for vitamin D. Nutrients. 2014;6(10):4472–4475. - PMC - PubMed Veugelers PJ, Ekwaru JP. A statistical error in the estimation of the recommended dietary allowance for vitamin D. Nutrients. 2014;6(10):4472–4475. - PMC - PubMed

and

Heaney R, Garland C, Baggerly C, French C, Gorham E. Letter to Veugelers, P.J. and Ekwaru, J.P., A statistical error in the estimation of the recommended dietary allowance for vitamin D. Nutrients 2014, 6, 4472-4475; doi:10.3390/nu6104472. Nutrients. 2015;7(3):1688–1690. - PMC - PubMed

Supermancho• 12 months ago

Since the pandemic, there was certainly noise about Vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 death correlation that the NIH decried as unsubstantiated. Fair enough. Since then, quite a bit of data has been collected.

There are a few hundred PHDs^1 that agree that Vitamin D deficiency increases COVID 19 mortality (nowhere is prevention mentioned) in the US, with no EU overlap that I could see from casual review.

Maybe I'm taking sides here, but I think the data is supported, even if the NIH papers are flawed. Funding what many people assume to be a null hypothesis, is not popular so there may never be research that is convincing, for most.

^1 The signatories are not a comprehensive list, but one list among others: https://www.onedaymd.com/2020/12/vitamin-D-COVID19.html

seec• 12 months ago

It's probably just a confounding variable.

Having more Vitamin D probably means that you are getting more outside activity and/or have a better diet. Both things have a protective effect against things like Covid in the way of better cardio and immune system.

So, I would say that the link is very weak at best and probably not related to vitamin D directly.

criley2• 12 months ago

I had ChatGPT o3 judge the paper, interesting results https://chatgpt.com/s/t_68876055374c81918960920665a4c87b

"The Big Vitamin D Mistake is a concise advocacy editorial, not a definitive study. Its central thesis—that we all need ~10× more vitamin D than current RDAs—is not supported by subsequent large randomized trials or by regulatory reviews. Use it, if at all, as a conversation starter about DRI methodology, not as a basis for clinical dosing."

aBioGuy• 12 months ago

I would like to point out (as I have seen this confused by many non-scientists) that the NIH (National Library of Medicine) provides a service called "PubMed" which collates peer-reviewed (and many pre-print) scientific papers into one database / website. This particular paper (like 99% of the papers on PubMed) was not published by a NIH scientist or by the NIH itself.

its-summertime4• 12 months ago

The crux of the title is from the following

In Finland, the recommendation for daily vitamin D supplementation was gradually reduced from 4000-5000 IU in 1964 to 400 IU in 1992.

And from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4210929/ which has

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) issues dietary recommendations on the request of the U.S. and Canadian governments. One of these recommendations is the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). The RDA is the nutrient intake considered to be sufficient to meet the requirements of 97.5% of healthy individuals. The RDA for vitamin D is 600 IU per day for individuals 1 to 70 years of age and is assumed to achieve serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels of 50 nmol/L or more in 97.5% of healthy individuals.

DigiEggz• 12 months ago

Off topic, but I know someone who was able to narrow down the source of their kidney stones to vitamin D supplement pills, and they were taking them at suggested doses. Wanted to put that here in case it helps someone avoid agony.

ChrisArchitect• 12 months ago

(2017)

Some discussion then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15867918

The Big Vitamin D Mistake (2017)

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