Why does every health topic on HN attract so much comment spam?
This was posted 2 hours ago, and right now it's the fearmongerers and pedants. I'm expecting the next wave of comments to be the promoters of bad supplement advice and personal blogs. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned peptides or whatever else yet. That's when you know the discussion has really gone to shit.
Nobody wants to honestly discuss vitamin deficiencies and their impact on quality of life? Most people do have deficiencies. Many of them have otherwise unexplained minor symptoms that are proven to be related to mental health. Vitamin D is at the top of the list. It's worth getting checked out in your routine bloodwork during a doctor visit.
The recommended amounts are what is optimal, but what is strictly necessary is usually far lower. That's why people aren't keeling over and why most of them don't care. Most people have suboptimal diets for a million tangential reasons not worth arguing about. Intake may not even be the problem if you have an undiagnosed endocrine or metabolic issue. Lots of people are prediabetic, drink too much, etc.
I don't think this short list of facts will help, but can we get back on track?