Vitamin D & COVID 19 RCT

(Ian) #1

“Effect of Calcifediol Treatment and best Available Therapy versus best Available Therapy on Intensive Care Unit Admission and Mortality Among Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19: A Pilot Randomized Clinical study”:

Administration of calcifediol or 25-hydroxyvitamin D to hospitalized COVID-19 patients significantly reduced their need for Intensive Care United admission.

Calcifediol seems to be able to reduce severity of the disease.

This seems to be an incredibly important study the confirms previous studies. If hospitalizations could almost be eliminated, there would be little risk of overwhelming the medical system and no longer a need to shut down economies and no go back to work or school.

I wonder if it will get any mainstream traction with the media? Not holdning my breath. Sigh :frowning:

(GINA ) #2

That isn’t the first study showing the benefit vit d.

I also noticed what the ‘best available therapy’ in hospitals in Spain is.

(Ian) #3

There have been many studies, but this is the first RCT that clearly demonstrated causality.

#4

Thanks for sharing the post Ian.

We also know that Vitamin D active forms don’t work optimally in a magnesium depleted physiology. I wonder if combining some chelated magnesium may be an added value?

(Jane Srygley) #5

This study also recommends Vitamin D and was super interesting. I posted it under the HCQ thread:

(Ian) #6

This is why I’m on 5000 iu Vit D and 150 mg/day magnesium.

Although I am a lot more metabolically healthy than I was 2 years ago, at 61 i’m not taking any chances.

(Ian) #7

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading US expert in infectious disease, said in a recent interview that he takes vitamin D and C supplements to keep a healthy immune system.

Dr Anthony Fauci, in an interview revealed that he consumes vitamin D and C supplements to reduce his susceptibility to infections.

He said he recommends that people should consume these supplements, especially with the flu season nearing.

Wait WAT?

So why is this not on mainstream media for everyone to follow. Still nothing in Canada.

(Bob M) #8

Note this says the following: " larger trials with groups properly matched will be required to show a definitive answer." Note the differences between patients on admission, left is the people who got vitamin D and right is the people who did not:

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That D-Dimer is particularly troubling, as that means the people who did not get vitamin D seemed to be way sicker.

You can’t tell much from this study. It’s too small and the people were not well matched.

Having said that, I still take vitamin d. Don’t take vitamin c though.

@Knnn You realize that Dr. Fauci has been muzzled, as has the rest of the CDC, correct?

(Stuart Young) #9

I have just purchased some magnesium citrate today! Some other posts on this forum have given some great insights to the benefits of magnesium supplements. I did some research of my own, and concluded the benefits are very good indeed.

As for the general thread, I have been absolutely stunned on the silence on the subject of Vitamin D supplements.

I researched this, and the effect of a deficiency on the immune system before our lockdown ended in the UK. It is meta-analysis science. The high grade robust science. And it also helps explain why members of the Bame community seem to suffer more with Covid-19. Pigmentation can lead to a natural Vitamin D deficiency in northern climates. Instead of good solid scientific advise, we get absolute political rubbish that Covid is racist/exposes racism.

This information is widely available. And what these studies did was to confirm what we already knew. I started vitamin D supplements before lockdown ended, and as of today will be adding magnesium supplements.

I cannot stress enough, I am seriously disturbed by the lack of real science advise being broadcast on the airwaves, either from their guest medical professionals, or the government itself.

If they genuinely wanted to save lives, ease the burden on the health system, and help to keep the economy open, basic information like this should be pumped out all the time. On the contrary though, it is never mentioned. Instead we get brow beaten into wearing masks, not to see friends/family, and to self isolate if you test positive for a Coronavirus (not exclusively Covid-19)

I feel the whole handling of the crisis has been a disgrace, and I actually feel the primary goal has NOT been to save lives. Rather it’s about control. Continual hit pieces on possible effective treatments, absolute silence on proven preventions, and feverent hammering on govt guidelines has forced me into this position. And all roads appear to lead to an enforcement of a curbing of our rights, and hard economic destruction until a vaccine is ready and widely distributed.

That appears to me to be the course they have set, and nothing, no quality science or evidence will change that. And to back that conclusion up, today in the UK new restrictions on leisure businesses and social gatherings have been put in place. Done while our death/hospitalisation rate is on the floor.

I almost feel like I am not living in reality anymore.

(Bob M) #10

It’s epidemiology, what I call crapidemiology. It’s the same analysis that caused the low fat debacle.

We need RCTs. Without those, there is only correlation, which does not show causation.

Say you take data on vitamin D levels in people who get admitted to the hospital with covid or even who have covid but don’t get admitted. You find that those with higher vitamin D get better results. What does this mean? NOTHING!

That’s right, nothing. It’s a correlation. Correlation does not mean causation.

Now, if you had a randomized trial with enough people and you gave half vitamin D and the other half a placebo, then saw what happened to them with respect to covid, and the half with vitamin D had a better result, that MIGHT mean vitamin D helps reduce the severity of covid.

And the same can be said for selenium, vitamin C, hydroxychloroquine (and the apparently multiple drugs you need to add to this), etc.

Until then, it’s all speculation.

And let me tell you how to run a meta-analysis: chose your outcome; (1) add and remove studies until you get your outcome; (2) back fill your criteria for choosing studies; (3) perform (1) and (2) until you get the result you want.

(Doug) #11

While I don’t know to what extent it matters, it’s somewhat a self-fulfilling prophecy. Vitamin D is definitely involved with immune response and operation, and it may be being depleted by the increased antiviral activity in people who get ‘sicker.’

(Stuart Young) #12

Well, all that seems very plausible. However, my general point is in regards to science we already knew in regards to the immune system.

Do we know Covid hits the immune compromised the hardest?

And do we know that vitamin D supplementation helps strengthen the immune system, and can prevent an inflammatory response?

The answers to them questions are both yes, as far as I am aware.

That’s my general issue. Covid is racist helps nobody. Vitamin D supplements will most likely save lives. Politics needs to keep its trap shut, and free science to help us.

#13

Why not?

I take Naturelo Vitamin C which is from oranges and acerola cherry. I noticed many benefits.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #14

Since the body makes vitamin D out of cholesterol, it might make sense not to try to lower cholesterol levels, for that reason alone.

#15

Vitamin C does lower LDL(low density lipoprotein) levels by promoting lipolysis but is required for cholesterol synthesis.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #16

That’s funny—I just ran through the Wikipedia article on cholesterol, and the description of the biosynthesis of cholesterol says it is formed by the mevalonate pathway, which so far as I know involves not a whit of vitamin C. Looking through the diagrams of the steps in the process of synthesis, I saw no mention of vitamin C, either. You should probably correct that article to make sure that the role of vitamin C is properly recorded.

(Ian) #17

While the numbers in the study I referenced were not high, it was a RCT and provides a causal link between high vitamin D and lower severity with respect to likelihood of needing ICU and potentially of mortality.

76 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19; of these 50 were treated with high levels of Vitamin D, the remaining 26 were not. Only 1 of the 50 required admission in the ICU (2%) compared to 13 of the 26 (50%).

It supports many studies that have indicated a strong correlation between COVID-19 severity/mortality and Vitamin D, or just being a healthy individual and elevated Vitamin D is only one aspect, but an important one, of the equation.

Considering how much effort is being out into advertisement and dire warnings regarding the need to wear masks, I would have thought an equal amount of effort (or more) would have been expended on educating the public on the impact of a healthy diet and vitamin D.

Like @Stuart_Young, I too am stunned and frustrated with the lack of messaging from our medical system here in Canada. At least in the UK they have Dr. Aseem Malhotra who appears to be getting the message across in major newspapers that the the best defense against Corona virus is optimizing metabolic health:

https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/editors-corner/dr-aseem-malhotra-the-best-vaccine-against-coronavirus-is-optimising-metabolic-health/

We need a similar, un-muzzled champion on this side of the ocean.

(bulkbiker) #18

The backlash against Aseem was pretty strong here though… not really helped by the fact he had a new book out about improving metabolic function… sometimes I wonder who advises him on his PR…

(Ian) #19

This is maybe why there appears to be a strong correlation between all cause mortality and high LDL in people over 55, particularly in women.

Death rate for women in countries with the lowest fat intake is 4.5 times higher than those with the highest saturate fat intake. For men it was only 3 times higher.

Similar picture with cholesterol, deaths per 100,000 decrease with increasing cholesterol with an r value of 0.74.

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from Zoe Harcombe at:

(Butter Withaspoon) #20

I watched a really good Dr Paul Mason lecture (on YouTube) where the applied message was to get sunlight on skin when your shadow is taller than you. Can’t remember recommendations on time. So that’s what I do, wearing shorts if it’s not too cold