
Ask HN: Resources on vitamin D supplements and studies - caio1982
Hi there, would you share your experience with taking vitamin D supplements and resources &amp; studies you found about the subject? The only good summary of research I&#x27;ve found is from several years ago: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC2908269&#x2F;<p>What did you take it for? Did it work or improve your condition? Any regrets (&quot;not taking it sooner&quot; counts)?
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repsak
Examine.com is a good starting point
[https://examine.com/supplements/vitamin-d/](https://examine.com/supplements/vitamin-d/)

If you scroll down to human effect matrix you can find links to studies based
on results found.

The summary at the bottom is also pretty good.

~~~
repsak
To add some anecdotal evidence... We basically get no sun for half of the year
where I live. I find my subjective wellbeing has increased somewhat,
especially during the winter months, since I started supplementing with 5000UI
D3.

Other potential benefits are harder to measure, but the cost in terms of money
and likelihood of adverse effects is so low I feel I might as well continue.

To add another data point, gwern has done some more rigorous self experiments
[https://www.gwern.net/zeo/Vitamin-D](https://www.gwern.net/zeo/Vitamin-D)

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otakucode
There was a bit of research just recently that I believe was posted here about
the RDA values for vitamin D being far lower than they ought to be due to
statistical errors in past studies. The errors resulted in underestimating the
levels of vitamin D necessary to avoid negative health effects pretty
dramatically, and they recommended changes to health and diet recommendations
ASAP. I believe that they estimated that most people should probably be taking
10,000 IU/day supplementally.

Personally I was diagnosed as vitamin D deficient a few years ago and my
doctor prescribed gelcaps that were 50,000 IU to be taken twice a week. Upon
switching doctors, my new doctor noted the deficiency in my records and said
that she recommends everyone in my state (West Virginia) take vitamin D
supplements as nearly everyone is deficient. And that was by the older, lower,
standard. She didn't renew my prescription but I have begun taking 10,000
IU/day OTC supplements, especially after reading that research I've been
considering doubling up.

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jeffshek
I always shrill about my passion project whenever I see this, but I suffered a
lot of issues of quantifying supplements and habits to improvement so I wrote
[https://betterself.io](https://betterself.io) (open-sourced)

It proxies a lot of improvement to productivity and sleep, (which are somewhat
flawed as metrics).

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open-source-ux
_"...resources & studies you found about the subject"_

The UK's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (a body that advises the
UK government on health matters) published a review on vitamin D and health in
2016.

They recommend that everyone over one year of age should consume 10 micrograms
of vitamin D daily.

The full report is 304 pages (PDF, 4.2MB)

[https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/537616/SACN_Vitamin_D_and_Health_report.pdf)

The NHS website has an excellent summary of the findings:

[https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/the-new-guidelines-
on-...](https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/the-new-guidelines-on-vitamin-d-
what-you-need-to-know/)

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mhkool
Dr David Perlmutter is a neurologist who pratices "functional medicine" and
makes a lot of articles and videos. The articles on his website often refer to
scientific literature and you get get a list of articles by doing a search on
his site:
[https://www.drperlmutter.com/?s=vitamin+d](https://www.drperlmutter.com/?s=vitamin+d)

You will see a list of articles what Vitamin D does to prevent and heal
diseases.

I am taking 15.000 IU/day and have regular blood tests to make sure it stays
below 150. I take a lot of other vitamins and minerals and the nodules in my
thyroid went from stage 4 to stage 3.

I went to see 2 doctors and they had different opinions: one said it is better
to take 30.000 IU every 2 days for better absorption and the other one said it
is better to have a stable level. I prefer a stable level.

~~~
DanBC
> Dr David Perlmutter

He doesn't seem reliable. [http://nutsci.org/2015/08/03/fact-checking-a-
perlmutter-inte...](http://nutsci.org/2015/08/03/fact-checking-a-perlmutter-
interview/)

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ddorian43
Do a search and see a thread from several days ago. Just started, first 6K and
later on 10K/day. No conclusions for me yet.

Edit:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16062697](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16062697)

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corpMaverick
Vitamin D wiki

[https://www.vitamindwiki.com/VitaminDWiki](https://www.vitamindwiki.com/VitaminDWiki)

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DoreenMichele
Look up info on cod liver oil. It is high in vitamin D and is how we
discovered vitamin D. If you dig a bit, it is known to help a number of
conditions, though the Wikipedia article makes it sound like we have hand
wavy, vague guesses and nothing definitive. Search for inflammatory
conditions, like arthritis, and vitamin D or cod liver oil. Trying to dig up
what I saw recently also led me to a piece on PCOS and cod liver. The known
benefits of vitamin D seem to not be well advertised or well understood.

The Wikipedia article makes no mention of the fact that people with cystic
fibrosis are generally deficient. It is a fat soluble vitamin. People with CF
are typically deficient in all fat soluble vitamins and are frequently
prescribed supplements for A, D, E and K because of it.

In a nutshell, CF predisposes people to chronic infection and average life
expectancy in the US is currently around age 37. Most scholarly articles do
not blame the symptoms on things like vitamin deficiency. They basically say
having CF causes deficiencies, not that deficiencies cause the symptoms of CF.
Which seems pretty dumb to me.

Your bone marrow is an important part of your immune system. Vitamin D plays
an important role in bone health. It really shouldn't come as a surprise that
a deficiency would undermine your immune system.

It interacts with a bunch of stuff, like calcium and magnesium. Taking a lot
of one thing in isolation probably won't have an optimal effect, though there
are a lot of confounding factors because if you start eating calcium rich
foods because you crave them, you may not realize that you are getting more of
other things. Most people don't think of diet that way.

Anyway, if you have reason to think you need this, you should also read up on
the other nutrients it is known to significantly interact with. If you need
one of them, you like need all of them. If a vitamin D deficiency exists, you
likely aren't really on solid ground for things like calcium and magnesium
either.

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ngrilly
A lot of interesting research and opinions has been published during the last
ten years. Here are a few links:

"Vitamin D deficiency in undifferentiated connective tissue disease".
[https://arthritis-
research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.118...](https://arthritis-
research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/ar2533)

"The Big Vitamin D Mistake".
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541280/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541280/)

"For health professionals: Position statement on supplementation, blood levels
and sun exposure". [https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/for-health-professionals-
pos...](https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/for-health-professionals-position-
statement-on-supplementation-blood-levels-and-sun-exposure/)

"The effect of vitamin D supplement on the score and quality of sleep in 20-50
year-old people with sleep disorders compared with control group".
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28475473](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28475473)

"A Statistical Error in the Estimation of the Recommended Dietary Allowance
for Vitamin D".
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4210929/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4210929/)

"Dosage of Vitamin D Needed To Achieve 35 to 40 ng/ml (90-100 nmol/L)".
[https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/589256_8](https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/589256_8)
(open in an incognito window to avoid the login screen)

"Vitamin D Status and Acute Respiratory Infection: Cross Sectional Results
from the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey,
2001–2006".
[http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/7/3/1933/htm](http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/7/3/1933/htm)

"Additional 4 ng of vitamin D reduced chance of infection by 7 percent".
[https://www.vitamindwiki.com/Additional+4+ng+of+vitamin+D+re...](https://www.vitamindwiki.com/Additional+4+ng+of+vitamin+D+reduced+chance+of+infection+by+7+percent+%E2%80%93+June+2011)

"Vitamin D supplementation to patients with frequent respiratory tract
infections: a post hoc analysis of a randomized and placebo-controlled trial".
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4553208/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4553208/)

I have more links to relevant material, but I have to stop somewhere ;-) As
you can see, the body of evidence is growing.

~~~
caio1982
Wow that was helpful!

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corpMaverick
Cluster headaches. (CH)

[https://www.clusterheadaches.com.au/forum_posts.php?id=2985](https://www.clusterheadaches.com.au/forum_posts.php?id=2985)

It worked after two or three days.

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pwman
Have you had your levels checked by your doctor? My doctor said I was low for
a year, as they came up I started sleeping much better -- can't see many other
differences.

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fillskills
Two of my family members take Vit D3. It has really helped them a LOT. Going
from continuous pain in the legs to negligible pain.

