Israeli study offers strongest proof yet of vitamin D’s power to fight COVID

Correlation is NOT causation. That's a well known fallacy.

The study concludes:

That clearly states that it is unknown whether supplementation would impact outcomes.

As Notme said, there could be something more complex going on. Vitamin D deficiency could be an indicator.

Low vitamin D can come from celiac disease, cystic fibrosis, and inflammatory bowel disease (i.e., Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). There are a good number of drugs that have Vitamin D deficiency as a side effect. Etc.

The vitamin D correlation could be coming from the diseases that CAUSE vitamin D deficiency, not BECAUSE of the deficiency.

 

Never said it was ... is this trivia day or something .trotting out little factoids for fun ?

 

Great job Sherlock! Look, do you think the scientists working on the study didn't take into consideration something obvious to a person of average Intelligence like you?
You do you but it's clear that taking a vitamin D supplement is a good idea. And before you bleat another strawman response, note that NO ONE said that vitamin D is a substitute for any other covid protective measure.

 

Good lord, what are you trying to argue? Are you just trying to be contrarian here?
Low vitamin D levels lead to higher serious Covid cases in patients.

 

NO!!

I think they studied the issue they intended to study using the methodology they clearly state.

A retrospective study like this is simply based on other studies. Individual cases are not the issue. And, they don't claim any sensitivity to the issue of why low vitamin D is reported.

MUCH more importantly, they state in their conclusion that their study does NOT suggest that taking vitamin D is a help.

They suggest that it be studied, but they didn't do that.

 

This press piece is an outstanding example of reporters failing to convey what a study says.

Our BS detectors need to recognize and know how to dodge that.

People are WAY to frequently saying some study says this or that when the study doesn't say that or when the study is crap.

 

As to that last paragraph, the study in question stated that there is a correlation between low vitamin D and worse COVID outcomes.

That could be because of diseases that cause low vitamin D AND cause worse COVID outcomes. I listed diseases such as that.

Beyond that, the study EXPLICITLY states that they did not study this issue beyond noting that there is a correlation.

I posted that part of the study conclusion.

 

General health and fitness, that's the difference.

Americans are notoriously unhealthy, and spend far too little time outdoors (and climate is no excuse - consider Japan/China etc).

 

That and diet have a whole lot to do with it - but, you have a category of people who are more succeptible than others .. obviously combining bad diet/fitness with succeptibilities is the worst ..

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/cov...le-hospitalized-were-overweight-or-obese.html

CDC study finds about 78% of people hospitalized for Covid were overweight or obese

 

Here is the link to the study in the OP. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0263069

If you want to believe this study is crap, knock yourself out.

 

If you have those diseases, you typically get your vitamin D levels checked along with other tests.

Did you read the study? Come on man.

Patients with vitamin D deficiency (<20 ng/mL) were 14 times more likely to have severe or critical disease than patients with 25(OH)D ≥40 ng/mL (odds ratio [OR], 14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4 to 51; p < 0.001).

 

You can work out regularly, have a healthy BMI, golf 6 days a week and still be Vitamin D deficient. China and Japan eat more fish/seafood than Americans, a great source of vitamin D.

 

Bad diet is an essential part of that general poor health.

You only need to compare American home cooking vlogs (via YT) to those from other countries, to see how bad that diet is. It's all meat and cheese, and very little in the way of fresh fruit and vegetables.

 

There is more to it than diet/fitness - but very important .. homeopathy as well .. and good genes.

Very few healthy people under the age of 80 died from covid -- mostly the old and the weak.

 

It could be a good idea to take extra vid D, but not according to this article of the OP.
We're discussing the article of the OP, not vitamin D in general.

And are you sure that no one said that vit D is a substitute for any other covid protective measure?
Some people took Hydroxychloroquine and even inhaled hydro peroxide as a substitute for covid protective measure.
Some people believe the world is flat. The insanity has no limits.

 

Yeah... and people can not work out. Eat fast food. Get fat, and end up with a low vitamin D level.
We know fat people die easier from Covid.
Fat people usually also have high blood pressure.

This doesn't mean curing their high blood pressure does a thing for Covid.
Same goes for vitamin D. The article acknowledge that the low level vit D could just by a symptom.

 

Yes it f***ing IS a good idea to take vit D according to this article.

“Because this study gets such a good picture of patients’ vitamin D levels, by looking at a wide timeframe instead of just the time around hospitalization, it offers much stronger support than anything seen so far emphasizing the importance of boosting vitamin D levels during the pandemic,”

and

“People should learn from this that studies pointing to the importance of taking vitamin D are very reliable, and aren’t based on skewed data,” he said. “And it emphasizes the value of everyone taking a vitamin D supplement during the pandemic, which, consumed in sensible amounts in accordance with official advice, doesn’t have any downside.”


Your intentionally narrow view of the application of the study results is annoying, and quite frankly, childish. Grow up.

Oh ffs, you know damn well that when I said NO ONE that I was referring to people in this thread! I couldn't possibly know if anyone anywhere is proposing vitamin D as a substitute for other covid measures. Again, grow up.

 

It's all 1 and the same study. Get it? He published it. And it received criticism, and the criticism is:
The possibility was raised that patients could have been suffering from conditions that both reduce vitamin D levels and increase vulnerability to serious illness from COVID-19, meaning the vitamin deficiency would be a symptom rather than a contributing factor in disease severity.

I see no reason to brush away the criticism, just because you do not like it.
The researcher replies to the criticism, but it's not as if the people who gave it are idiots and came up with it without looking at data.
That's not how peer review research works.

Grow up yourself.
Post 11 is one where "home elixers" is promoted, as well as to deworm yourself by using ivermectin, while the FDA says to do not do that.
As noted before... people have been swallowing whatever in thinking this is the answer against covid because of some post.
Don't go blame me for what goes on in the real world outside your basement.

 

You're veering off again. Focus. YOUR question was whether or not the OP supported taking vitamin D supplements. Does this look familiar?

"It could be a good idea to take extra vid D, but not according to this article of the OP."

It absolutely is a good idea according to the OP - the article explicitly states it and the study supports it.

Well then quote where someone is promoting taking vitamin D as a substitute for other treatments! I suppose that I could have missed it but I haven't had an impression that anyone was taking that position.
And I'm not blaming you for anything other than faulty reasoning. AFAIC this is a stupid straw man.

 

Great idea to post the study! I really like that.

The conclusion section with my bolding added:

This study does not recommend supplementation.

And, that makes sense. It doesn't study anything at all about supplementation or any other remedy. So, making claims concerning supplementation would be a serious problem with this paper.

More directly, low vitamin D could be a symptom of one of the several diseases or conditions that could be affecting COVID outcomes.

Retrospective studies such as this are always weaker than prospective studies. Retrospective studies are used to determine whether a serious study of a particular aspect is warranted.

The result of this retrospective study is the conclusion that there is enough of a correlation to justify serious attention.

 

I responded to that, noting that you are discussing the medical advice of a reporter for the Times of Israel - NOT from that study.

You shouldn't be taking medical advice from a reporter.

 

NO!! That quote was directly from one of the researchers who worked on the study. I think he's more cognizant of what conclusions can be drawn from the study than you are.

 

OK, now you have to point to that.

I posted the conclusions about. What sentence are you referencing?

The final wrap-up in the conclusion does NOT recommend supplementation. It recommends STUDYING the issue.

 

Did you conduct a critical analysis of the methodology and rigorous of the study?

 

No one has claimed in this thread about the supplementation. The study points to patients being low in Vitamin D resulting in more serious cases.

Not sure why you keep harping on this point.