Scott Adams: Is every risk factor for #COVID19 a Vitamin D deficiency in disguise?

Wordpress and Twitter ^ | May 8 and May 15, 2020 | Dan from Squirrel Hill commenting on comments by Scott Adams

[grundle]

Scott Adams: Is every risk factor for #COVID19 a Vitamin D deficiency in disguise?

Scott Adams: just brought up this really great point at Twitter. This is what he said:

Is every risk factor for #COVID19 a Vitamin D deficiency in disguise? Google it: old, overweight, black, diabetic, smog dwellers, nursing homes, prisons, shaded NYC streets, Chinese urban dwellers, covered body parts (Iran). All would have vitamin D issues.

Maybe we only think the heat and sunlight and humidity are what makes most viruses fade in summer. I believe science is not entirely sure why summer helps. All four variables seem promising, including Vitamin D. But the latter explains more observations.

Does the Vitamin D correlation work In reverse too? Who is doing unexpectedly well at keeping COVID19 at bay? Texas, Florida, other outdoorsy states. How about kids. Do your kids wear sunscreen every time they go in the backyard or street? Probably not.

Prisons are showing high infection rates but low deaths. Just learned that prison meals are engineered with vitamin D supplements. Makes sense.

I think each and every one of those points is excellent.

Is every risk factor for #COVID19 a Vitamin D deficiency in disguise? Google it: old, overweight, black, diabetic, smog dwellers, nursing homes, prisons, shaded NYC streets, Chinese urban dwellers, covered body parts (Iran). All would have vitamin D issues.

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) May 8, 2020

Maybe we only think the heat and sunlight and humidity are what makes most viruses fade in summer. I believe science is not entirely sure why summer helps. All four variables seem promising, including Vitamin D. But the latter explains more observations.

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) May 8, 2020

Does the Vitamin D correlation work In reverse too? Who is doing unexpectedly well at keeping COVID19 at bay? Texas, Florida, other outdoorsy states. How about kids. Do your kids wear sunscreen every time they go in the backyard or street? Probably not.

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) May 8, 2020

Update: Prisons are showing high infection rates but low deaths. Just learned that prison meals are engineered with vitamin D supplements. Makes sense.

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) May 8, 2020

[cdcdawg]

Going outside and getting a little bit of sun seems like a good idea. Oops! Outside is closed. Plus, any exposure to any sunlight immediately causes death by skin cancer. The experts know everything.

[Charles Martel]

Obesity is not caused lack of by Vit D.

True, but both can be related to thyroid problems.

[Ellendra]

Scott Adams usually has an interesting take on things. He has a knack for looking at a situation from all kinds of angles, including ones most people would never dream of.

I do wish he’d change his blog back to the written format instead of the podcast. Or at least get his podcasts transcribed. I prefer reading over listening.

[mewzilla]

Interesting abstract from a few years ago...

The Problems of Vitamin D Insuffinciency in Older Persons

NE nursing homes are really a perfect storm of problems: bad weather, high labor costs, regulations that create more problems than they solve, insane public health insurance policies that will cover sex changes but not decent dental care...

[Valpal1]

Obesity is not caused lack of by Vit D.

True, but obese people tend to be inactive couch surfers rather than outdoor types so it's the other way around, obesity may lead to low vitamin D levels.

[Robert DeLong]

It may play a role

[nonliberal]

Obesity is caused by shoveling food down your gullet.

[savedbygrace]

I take 5,000 units of Vitamin D3 every day, for several years now.

[Ragnar54]

The "disinfectant" used by the body is Cathelicidin , which depends on sufficient vitamin D levels. "Decreased production of cathelicidin antimicrobial protein-18 (hCAP18) has been proposed to be a key mechanism linking decreased 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25D) levels with adverse outcomes among critically ill patients."

Cathelicidin antimicrobial protein, vitamin D, and risk of death in critically ill patients

People who are old, overweight, or dark skinned have lower vitamin D levels. This can be corrected with supplementation.

[rolling_stone]

google vitamin d cytokine storm
here is one hit
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.08.20058578v1.full.pdf

[cherry]

"No but heavy people have a higher propensity to be the indoor types."

because they can not do strenuous outdoor activities...

[an amused spectator]

But Vit D gets deposited in fat, so obese people need higher doses.

Thanks, I didn't know that.

[Ragnar54]

The important question is, "how much are you taking?". You need 5000-10000 IU per day of vitamin D for protection against the flu and kungflu.

There is an article on NIH by a Canadian physician (Dr. Gerry Schwalfenberg) who works in nursing homes. He has developed a protocol for reducing flu like illness among his patients. This should be tried against the corona virus in US nursing homes:

Vitamin D for influenza

"A colleague of mine and I have introduced vitamin D at doses that have achieved greater than 100 nmol/L in most of our patients for the past number of years, and we now see very few patients in our clinics with the flu or influenzalike illness. In those patients who do have influenza, we have treated them with the vitamin D hammer, as coined by my colleague. This is a 1-time 50 000 IU dose of vitamin D3 or 10 000 IU 3 times daily for 2 to 3 days. The results are dramatic, with complete resolution of symptoms in 48 to 72 hours. One-time doses of vitamin D at this level have been used safely and have never been shown to be toxic. We urgently need a study of this intervention. The cost of vitamin D is about a penny for 1000 IU, so this treatment costs less than a dollar."

There is a presentation by Dr. Robert P Heaney on the healthful effects of adequate vitamin D levels:

Vitamin D Sunshine Optimal Health: Putting it all Together

[Czech_Occidentalist]

But obese people are often vitamin D deficient. They need more vitamin D than people with normal weight. For example, see this article.

[Ragnar54]

Yes

[RayChuang88]

Look at this Harvard Health article from September 2008:

Time for more Vitamin D

Note that much of continental USA is above 37° North latitude. As such, many Americans don't get enough "natural" Vitamin D between the autumnal and vernal equinox. And that might explain the much of the high death rate from COVID-19 in New York City.

[trebb]

How sure are you about that?

Even if there weren't studies belying your comment, it would also make sense that being obese meant a propensity for less time playing in the sun ...resulting in lower Vitamin D.

[Ragnar54]

The obese have low blood levels of Vitamin D if for no other reason than their Vitamin D supply is diluted by extra mass.

[Valk Rider]

The Vitamin Industry’s Dirty Little Secret

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY1sIcTYN3I&list=PL_YaEEDeoAeWNMoAPF0oqbFtOS53amnun&index=3&t

[rarestia]

There are other explanations for lack of vitamin D among the obese. Morbidly obese people are often homebodies. The most bioavailable form of vitamin D comes from the body’s natural generation of it from sun exposure.

People up north are often sequestered in their homes for months on end during the winter. This might explain why infection rates are higher in states/countries north of the tropic of Cancer.