alt Hacker NewsI have thoughts on this
1. Yes, vitamin D actually controls a lot of bodily functions it’s very easily set aside as not a “main” factor when in reality it actually controls a lot
2. This study was done on women in Denmark only which isn’t a great study subject considering Denmark doesn’t get a lot of sun to begin with so most of these women would already start at very low levels
3. This doesn’t directly correlate to women of color because WOC need higher dosage of vitamin D than white women do. The general range of “good” level of vitamin D that doctors tend to use is related to studies results gotten from white people when in reality brown and black people need way more for their range to be at a normal place.
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For point 2: I don't think there's really good or bad places to study it, it might not generalize to sunnier places but the reverse is also true. Presumably the scientists working on this can understand these things (I know in my field I'm aware that studies in the tropics will find different things than studies in Canada).
For my own point: in this study they have like 22 test values but still use the 95% confidence interval. Even on random data there will be a significant result like a third of the time so I think it's easy to interpret these result as more definitive than they are. Not that it's a bad study though (no study will be everything, baby steps like this are important in science).
> This study was done on women in Denmark only which isn’t a great study subject considering Denmark doesn’t get a lot of sun to begin with so most of these women would already start at very low levels
Generally, when a study is done in the US - no one will ever question the location. The moment the study is outside the US, "not US so not generalisable" questions always arise.
Correction in 2. Contrary to popular believe, sunnier countries in Europe have higher deficiency in vitamin d.
Spain have lower levels of vitamin d than Denmark.
Do they need more vitamin D? I thought they just needed more sun to get the same vitamin D
Women in the study weren't all starting from very low vitamin D levels
> Denmark doesn’t get a lot of sun to begin
First, that's only true for about 4 months of the year. Second, people cooped up in offices in China, India, and the US don't get a lot of light either. In fact I'd bet the better work-life balance in Denmark means people actually do get more light there because they spend more of their evenings and weekends outside instead of in the office. Office buildings in Denmark also tend to have much better sunlight by design.
2. Good for me as I live in Sweden. Started only in my 30s to take Vitamin D and multivitamin. My 20s where wasted really. I studied and worked but felt even more shit. Less shit now I guess.
2. Good for us who live in Northern Europe! Or does everything have to be tested in California or MENA or India?
You can probably have the same results in the New England area of the USA, no? Even NY with 10mil people?
3. Okay, and?
Study seem to have addressed point #2 in several ways.
1. They measured maternal vitamin D before supplementation began. They explicitly adjusted for these preintervention levels.
2. the two groups started at essentially the same vitamin D levels.
3. They specifically tested whether baseline vit D status changed the effect of supplementation