Thread by @rootcausePT

Master Deep Dive: Vitamin D

What Is It? What Does The Research Say?

See How You Can Help Fight COVID-19 With This Vitamin.

// A Thread //

Vit D is a fat-soluble vitamin that promotes the absorption of calcium, regulates bone growth, and plays a role in immune function.

The “sunshine vitamin” is considered essential.

There is also research linking Vit D to the prevention of autism, dementia, stroke, depression.

Some Benefits:

• Building muscles and bones
• Improves immune function
• Providing anti-inflammatory effects
• Makes vitamin K-dependent proteins = bone health, heart health
• Helping create proteins and enzymes for disease prevention
• Affecting the aging process

Vitamin D deficiency (hypovitaminosis D) is an undeclared worldwide pandemic: studies estimate 64% of Americans don’t get enough Vitamin D.

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, asthma, autism, depression, cancer, and diabetes.

Working and living indoors in our modern world contributes to this problem. Your skin produces vitamin D when it’s exposed to sunlight. However, if you spend most of your time indoors or live at a high latitude, you’ll need to get this vitamin from your diet.

The preferred way of getting Vit D is by exposing your skin to the sun.

But the color of your skin will affect the synthesis of this vitamin. Lighter skin may require 45 minutes of exposure 3-times per week. Dark skin may require up to 3-hours of exposure 3-times per week.

The term vitamin D is kind of a misnomer because you will not find anything labeled simply as “Vitamin D” in a pharmacy vitamin aisle. Rather, your choices typically are:

Vitamin D2
Vitamin D3

The two forms of vitamin D differ depending on their food sources.

D2 comes from plant sources, such as mushrooms, or fortified foods, such as milk/cereal.

D3 comes from animal sources such as fish oil, liver, egg yolks. When your skin is exposed to the sun it produces D3.

D3 is preferred since it's the form your body synthesizes naturally.

Toxicity is possible but not common. Studies reveal that vitamin D toxicity is obtained at doses higher than 10,000 IU.

Toxic doses of vitamin D can result in exceedingly high serum levels of calcium, known as hypercalcemia.

COVID:

Let’s be clear: the fight against COVID includes combinations of dietary, lifestyle, and behavioral factors. There are no silver bullets.

However, there are studies that show low Vit D levels are associated with higher risks of contracting COVID or becoming seriously ill

Symptoms in COVID, have parallels in Vit D deficiency: higher risk with age, race – darker skin affected more, BMI.

COVID patients with lower vitamin D levels are more likely to have advanced symptoms, need hospitalization, need ventilators, and have higher rates of mortality.

Habitual use of vitamin D supplements was associated with a 34% lower risk of COVID-19 infection independent of lifestyle, socioeconomic status, and presence of chronic diseases.

However don't take it from me, check out this thread by @foundmyfitness

https://twitter.com/foundmyfitness/status/1357435560529330177?s=20

A study of 780 COVID, found that 98.9% of patients who died of COVIDwere deficient in Vitamin D.

Meanwhile, only 4.1% of cases with normal Vitamin D levels died (normal = above 30 ng/mL).

emerginnova.com/patterns-of-co…

A study was conducted at LSU, on their COVID patients in the ICU.

84% were Vitamin D insufficient. Let that sink in.

What's more? Of those patients who were under 75, 100% were Vitamin D insufficient.

medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

We can’t say Vitamin D is the single antidote for COVID-19 but it’s fair to say we should all stay vitamin D sufficient.

Get a test to measure vitamin D levels and supplement accordingly.

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Sources:
podcastnotes.org/found-my-fitne…
healthline.com/nutrition/vita…
nootropicsexpert.com/vitamin-d/
uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/coro…