alt Hacker NewsThis is a refreshingly balanced and honest analysis of Vitamin D studies.
The strongest evidence for Vitamin D is in people who are severely deficient. Bumping up to a normal range can provide some improvements.
The health influencers started noticing that the Vitamin D studies coming out weren't matching their original hype for Vitamin D, so many pivoted to trying to make claims that most people are severely deficient and just don't know it, which provides a convenient out to dismiss the studies that didn't pre-filter for people who were severely deficient. You can find waves of people on social media repeating the idea that almost everyone is Vitamin D deficient and encouraging high dose supplementation still.
Speaking to a doctor who runs Vitamin D labs as part of her annual physical screening process, she's now actually seeing more people who have excess Vitamin D than too little Vitamin D. Upon followup she discovers that patients have listened to a podcast about Vitamin D and started taking it regularly, unaware that they're pushing their levels into the range where it can start doing more harm than good.
Vitamin D is tricky because it lasts for a very long time in the body, which means steady-state supplementation can take a very long time to stabilize. I suggest anyone supplementing for a long time get a blood test, which can be ordered without your doctor if you can't get your doctor on board.
On another topic: Fish oil has also gone through a similar cycle of being hyped up based on early results, with higher powered follow on studies showing much less interesting results.
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It's pretty safe to assume all hyped supplements are pointless. Being generally active and eating fruits/vegetables is like 80% of the work for being healthy.
> almost everyone is Vitamin D deficient
This was the red flag that made me realize it was BS early on. If everyone is deficient, then it must not be that important.
On a slight tangent, if people are unaware, you can pay for and get just about any lab test without a prescription in the United States.
Baby aspirin was overdone too. Interestingly, the fish oil hype cycle has a much longer timeline if you consider the popularity of cod liver oil once upon a time.
> The health influencers started noticing that the Vitamin D studies coming out weren't matching their original hype for Vitamin D, so many pivoted to trying to make claims that most people are severely deficient and just don't know it, which provides a convenient out
Not really. It isn't possible to be severely deficient in vitamin D without knowing it. By definition, if you are severely deficient in vitamin D, you have rickets.
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The moral of the story here is just to do bloodwork on a regular basis (absolute bare minimum once a year) and respond accordingly. I take some supplements like vitamin D, but I only take what is empirically measurable. If I can't quantitatively measure the outcome, then there is no value and it's a woo woo solution. This isn't always going to be the best advice, but a vast majority of times it will be.