wuhan - coronavirus

[maize]

5 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Worldometer is showing 37,000 new cases for the US today.  BNO haven’t updated for a bit and I haven’t been following worldometer to know their reporting times etc but that seems like a bigger jump than previous days?  I thought it was going up by around 20,000 per days.

Maybe more states are finally able to ramp up testing?

In my state, positive test numbers reported keeps increasing but the number of new hospitalizations has been decreasing, suggesting that actual infections are likely decreasing but more mild cases are being documented because of increased testing.

[Arcadia]

5 minutes ago, square_25 said:

 

We were in SF in early January, as we usually are, but I can't say I remember what the weather was like then. Also, I've just discovered that "early January" feels like half a lifetime ago :-/. Like someone else did it.  

I am about an hour south of SF. SF 9th street area was warm for sure in February/March when we went there to shop around noon. Daly City on the other hand was still chilly. 

[Ausmumof3]

3 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

@Pen@ElizabethB

If you look at the foreign workers in construction in Singapore, they are mostly from Bangladesh. The infected numbers are high now that testing has rapidly expanded on workers dormitories but their fatality rate has been thankfully low. Bangladesh construction workers in Singapore are about as dark skin as African Americans (not intending to offend anyone).

So would that be indicative of a big outbreak in Bangladesh?  Or just one or two people coming in and then it spreading due to the dorms.  I guess if they are testing everyone it might be presenting a more realistic fatality rate.  Construction workers here tend to be somewhat fitter than the average population.  Not everyone obviously but overall because they are doing physical labour etc. 

[Ausmumof3]

2 minutes ago, StellaM said:

Dd (nurse) has sore throat/fatigue/headache 😞 

 

Really hope she just has a cold!

[Pen]

6 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

@Pen@ElizabethB

If you look at the foreign workers in construction in Singapore, they are mostly from Bangladesh. The infected numbers are high now that testing has rapidly expanded on workers dormitories but their fatality rate has been thankfully low. Bangladesh construction workers in Singapore are about as dark skin as African Americans (not intending to offend anyone).

 

The dormitory living is very apt to lead to rapid spread.  

But I expect they are relatively young—not like elders in close quarters nursing homes

And if latitude and Vitamin D is relevant Singapore is in a great area for that!

 

plus advanced health care

 

[Arcadia]

2 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

So would that be indicative of a big outbreak in Bangladesh?  Or just one or two people coming in and then it spreading due to the dorms.  I guess if they are testing everyone it might be presenting a more realistic fatality rate.  Construction workers here tend to be somewhat fitter than the average population.  Not everyone obviously but overall because they are doing physical labour etc. 

Majority of the workers has been in Singapore for years. They probably were infected locally and dormitory conditions made spreading the infection easier. They aim to eventually test everyone in the dormitories but going for the dormitories with high number of positive cases first. 

[Ausmumof3]

8 minutes ago, square_25 said:

Maybe there was a backlog of tests somewhere? 

Yes probably likely.  I think California had cleared its bottleneck?  Maybe that’s why there’s a seeming spike.

It looks like you have close to 1,000,000 and have run around 5,000,000 tests.  Meaning slightly less than 1 in 5 are positive. 

 

[ElizabethB]

Just now, square_25 said:

Huh, interesting. Was this true for younger people as well? 

I was having a lot of trouble reading that page, lol -- my browser keeps giving up on it. So many tables... 

I have no idea about younger people's D levels, older people are more impacted by Coronavirus anyway, the article is kind of annoying with all the tables.

I just looked up Portugal, much lower death rate than Spain, similar location, geography.  Politico has a variety of guesses, my educated guess is Vitamin D!

https://eje.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/eje/180/4/EJE-18-0736.xml

[Ausmumof3]

1 minute ago, Arcadia said:

Majority of the workers has been in Singapore for years. They probably were infected locally and dormitory conditions made spreading the infection easier. They aim to eventually test everyone in the dormitories but going for the dormitories with high number of positive cases first. 

Oh I see so not a FIFO situation like I was imagining.

[Arcadia]

3 minutes ago, square_25 said:

 

I was having a lot of trouble reading that page, lol -- my browser keeps giving up on it. So many tables... 

PDF https://eje.bioscientifica.com/downloadpdf/journals/eje/180/4/EJE-18-0736.pdf

I have not read. I just find pdf version easier to read.

[ElizabethB]

1 minute ago, square_25 said:

Want to make a scatter plot of mean serum Vitamin D versus deaths/million? 😛 We can see if there's a relationship... 

Someone already did a plot with latitude that shows why D could help.  I've actually been looking for the link, it's embedded in a tweet I repost sometimes.  There is a huge correlation.  The D levels could be a good one, though.  I can't find enough prison data to graph that yet, I could do a rough plot of D vs. Death in the interim.

Edited April 24, 2020 by ElizabethB

[Ausmumof3]

2 minutes ago, StellaM said:

 

Me too. 

She has to stay off work till she gets tested and gets the results back, so hopefully we will know one way or the other soon. 

Hopefully it doesn’t take long.  They are texting negative results often on the same day here.  

[Ausmumof3]

Ecuador posted 11,000 today which doubled their reported cases.  I’m assuming they are catching up on testing as well.

[Jean in Newcastle]

27 minutes ago, square_25 said:

Maybe there was a backlog of tests somewhere? 

Or we are seeing the result of Easter weekend.  Which should hit around now.  (the results I mean)

[Pen]

11 hours ago, ElizabethB said:

New vitamin D study!

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3571484#.XqNy-JjBiB0.twitter

Mean serum 25(OH)D level was 23.8 ng/ml. Serum 25(OH)D level of cases with mild outcome was 31.2 ng/ml, 27.4 ng/ml for ordinary, 21.2 ng/ml for severe, and 17.1 ng/ml for critical. Serum 25(OH)D levels were statistically significant among clinical outcomes (p<0.001). A total of 55 (25.9%) cases had normal Vitamin D status, majority of which (85.5%) were identified mild. A total of 80 (37.7%) cases had insufficient Vitamin D status, majority of which (43.8%) were ordinary. Cases identified as Vitamin D-deficient were 77 (36.3%), majority of which were severe (40.3%). Vitamin D status is significantly associated with clinical outcomes (p<0.001). 

 

Thanks!

  I’m adding this graph again.  Not really for you, just taking your post as a jumping off point to note: At 4,000 IU  per day (a dose many people are afraid to take), it can take over 18 months of consistent daily taking it to reach an excellent blood level. 

Note that at 1,000 IU day, a dose that many people would think of as taking “a lot” of Vitamin D, it is actually probably inadequate from an ng/ml POV.    (Which May affect a lot of studies that find vitamin D supplementation unhelpful.) 

•  

Infant-Child 

Edited April 25, 2020 by Pen

17 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Thanks!

  I’m adding this graph again.  Not really for you, just taking your post as a jumping off point to note: At 4000IU per day (a dose many people are afraid to take), it can take over 18 months of consistent daily taking it to reach an excellent blood level. 

Note that at 1000IU day, a dose that many people would think of as taking “a lot” of Vitamin D, it is actually probably inadequate from an ng/ml POV.    (Which May affect a lot of studies that find vitamin D supplementation unhelpful.) 

•  

Infant-Child 

Am I reading this wrong?  I don’t understand your comment about 10000 IU/day as insufficient.  I live in a state without a lot of sunshine all winter and I am not really into sitting out in the sun so my guess is I am low in vitamin d.  Do you know if there is a way to test vitamin d at home? Oh, and when is the best time to take vitamin d?

Edited April 25, 2020 by Mom2mthj

[73349]

NC schools are closed for the remainder of school year, statewide grading rules adopted (no grades for elementary, pass/fail for middle, optional traditional grades for high school): https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article242262376.html

[Ausmumof3]

Reuters

In a stunning reversal, the Navy's top leaders have recommended that fired Navy captain Brett Crozier be reinstated reut.rs/2S2HGYL

@Sneezyone

[Ausmumof3]

Reuters: China sends team including medical experts to North Korea to advise on Kim Jong Un amid conflicting reports about his health reut.rs/2VAlaJb

[Pen]

3 hours ago, Mom2mthj said:

Am I reading this wrong?  I don’t understand your comment about 10000 IU/day as insufficient.

 

******UPDATE CORRECTION— I had written 1000IU and didn’t see the extra 0 in your question above.   My comments below relate to 1000 IU (one thousand IU), not ten thousand (10,000) IU .  *******   

Well, it is plenty sufficient not to have rickets, which some time ago was all that was understood.  

It isn’t enough (without sun or some other factors to give someone a high level) to be in the ranges usually (in my reading) found to help immunity, mood, etc.  — various other things D has been found help with beyond the severe bone etc problems of rickets.  

60ng/ml is recommended by Dr von Helden in the video here (which even though the German is a bit difficult, I highly recommend!) 

https://www.vitamindservice.de/coronavirus-e

 

Quote

 I live in a state without a lot of sunshine all winter and I am not really into sitting out in the sun so my guess is I am low in vitamin d.  Do you know if there is a way to test vitamin d at home? Oh, and when is the best time to take vitamin d?

 

I don’t know of any way to accurately test D levels from home (or even inaccurately ). 

Lab Corp IME is a good lab to test them (aside from current CV19 issues) and a test through Lab Corp can be bought via Life Extension if a Doctor isn’t available to go to ...   but I am personally not inclined to do any extra medical stuff in current circumstances.

Personally I usually take my vitamin D3 in the morning or at least usually earlier than later and separate from my vitamin K1 and K2.    But I don’t think the daily time is critical.  My son switched to a weekly dosing system, which is also possible.

http://Vitamindwiki.com can be a very useful source for things related to Vitamin D as is the German Vitamin D service site where the video is - posted above 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2020 by Pen

[Sneezyone]

1 hour ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Reuters

In a stunning reversal, the Navy's top leaders have recommended that fired Navy captain Brett Crozier be reinstated reut.rs/2S2HGYL

@Sneezyone

 

This is a well-deserved reversal/change. It remains to be seen what the impact will be on his career. If we get a new admin in November, he'll come out like a hero. If not, he may still be quietly pushed out once the spotlight fades. Given what is also known (FTR, publicly) about other ships, it would not surprise me to see the 'quarantine' of all personnel prior to deployments with, as I mentioned before, no one on without quarantine and/or testing while underway. This has ALWAYS been the sensible course and where this was headed to preserve force projection capabilities.

Edited April 25, 2020 by Sneezyone

[Pen]

42 minutes ago, square_25 said:

So, the question with Vitamin D studies or observational studies in general is always whether something you're measuring is correlated with other risk factors. Is that true of Vitamin D, do you know? 

 

There have been enough tests done that I feel convinced it is not merely correlated, but is actually beneficial.

 

That said, yes, older people in nursing homes tend to be quite low in Vitamin D.  

People with darker skin tend to be low D status when at non equatorial latitudes and when not getting good skin sun exposure even if at equatorial latitudes.

People with various health issues do tend to be low in vitamin D.

 

... but now, ask this again, from another view point, is low vitamin D just an accidental correlate with various conditions like diabetes? Or might it be that having higher D status decreases diabetes risk?

 

 

 

42 minutes ago, square_25 said:

When I look at the death rate per capita, it looks a lot like the US graph, in the sense that it looks "connected" -- the places with lots of deaths are simply next to each other. 

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-covid-deaths-per-million

 

[Corraleno]

58 minutes ago, Mom2mthj said:

Am I reading this wrong?  I don’t understand your comment about 10000 IU/day as insufficient.  I live in a state without a lot of sunshine all winter and I am not really into sitting out in the sun so my guess is I am low in vitamin d.  Do you know if there is a way to test vitamin d at home? Oh, and when is the best time to take vitamin d?

Not sure if you mistyped the number in your post or misread Pen's post, but you've got an extra zero in there. She said that 1,000 IU/day was inadequate, not 10,000 IU. Most D3 supplements are sold in doses of 1000 IU or 5000 IU. I have very low D levels for genetic reasons, so I need to supplement, but very few doctors understand what the optimal level should be (as opposed to minimum level needed to prevent rickets). I've tested as low as 12 (which is really bad) and had a doctor tell me I was "a little low" and I should consider taking 400 IU daily — which is way too low to have any real impact. I take around 25,000 IU per week.

[sbgrace]

23 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Well, it is plenty sufficient not to have rickets, which some time ago was all that was understood.  

It isn’t enough (without sun or some other factors to give someone a high level) to be in the ranges usually (in my reading) found to help immunity, mood, etc.  — various other things D has been found help with beyond the severe bone etc problems of rickets.  

60ng/ml is recommended by Dr von Helden in the video here (which even though the German is a bit difficult, I highly recommend!) 

https://www.vitamindservice.de/coronavirus-e

 

 

I don’t know of any way to accurately test D levels from home (or even inaccurately ). 

Lab Corp IME is a good lab to test them (aside from current CV19 issues) and a test through Lab Corp can be bought via Life Extension if a Doctor isn’t available to go to ...   but I am personally not inclined to do any extra medical stuff in current circumstances.

Personally I usually take my vitamin D3 in the morning or at least usually earlier than later and separate from my vitamin K1 and K2.    But I don’t think the daily time is critical.  My son switched to a weekly dosing system, which is also possible.

http://Vitamindwiki.com can be a very useful source for things related to Vitamin D as is the German Vitamin D service site where the video is - posted above 

 

 

Why do you take it separate from your K? I thought they worked together. One of my K2's has 5000 IU of D with it. 

[Pen]

1 minute ago, square_25 said:

That's where you can't do with an observational study and need to do randomized trials. Otherwise, there's simply no way to tell which way the causation goes. 

 

I have seen a number of studies. I don’t know if you can be convinced, but I think from what I know of you so far that if you do your own research, and whichever way you find it I think you will feel more satisfied than if I try to convince you of anything. 😊

 

447 articles (most  pro Vitamin D some against) related to Vitamin D and diabetes.  https://vitamindwiki.com/Diabetes

many more for lung and cardiovascular issues.... 

(I expect if you do a bunch of reading you may join me and @ElizabethB as a D proponent, but I may be wrong, and that’s okay too.) 

[ElizabethB]

No strong correlation between average vitamin D levels and Covid deaths.  There were many countries where it was hard to find vitamin D levels.  It does seem like a few of the very low level countries fared the worst.

[Matryoshka]

39 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Well, it is plenty sufficient not to have rickets, which some time ago was all that was understood.  

It isn’t enough (without sun or some other factors to give someone a high level) to be in the ranges usually (in my reading) found to help immunity, mood, etc.  — various other things D has been found help with beyond the severe bone etc problems of rickets.  

60ng/ml is recommended by Dr von Helden in the video here (which even though the German is a bit difficult, I highly recommend!) 

https://www.vitamindservice.de/coronavirus-e

 

 

I don’t know of any way to accurately test D levels from home (or even inaccurately ). 

Lab Corp IME is a good lab to test them (aside from current CV19 issues) and a test through Lab Corp can be bought via Life Extension if a Doctor isn’t available to go to ...   but I am personally not inclined to do any extra medical stuff in current circumstances.

Personally I usually take my vitamin D3 in the morning or at least usually earlier than later and separate from my vitamin K1 and K2.    But I don’t think the daily time is critical.  My son switched to a weekly dosing system, which is also possible.

http://Vitamindwiki.com can be a very useful source for things related to Vitamin D as is the German Vitamin D service site where the video is - posted above 

Why do you take the K separate from the D?

[caayenne]

36 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

There have been enough tests done that I feel convinced it is not merely correlated, but is actually beneficial.

 

That said, yes, older people in nursing homes tend to be quite low in Vitamin D.  

People with darker skin tend to be low D status when at non equatorial latitudes and when not getting good skin sun exposure even if at equatorial latitudes.

People with various health issues do tend to be low in vitamin D.

 

... but now, ask this again, from another view point, is low vitamin D just an accidental correlate with various conditions like diabetes? Or might it be that having higher D status decreases diabetes risk?

 

 

 

 

So I have been wanting to jump in with my thoughts on this, as it has been eating my brain for 2 days, but I don't usually have time to both read here and post. So here goes...

When you first started talking about Vitamin D and Covid, I was mostly interested from a preventative standpoint, as my younger son is Type-1 diabetic, and I was quite desperate for anything that might help him ward off the virus. I was especially interested in how (in the influenza study) it seemed to keep the virus from getting into the cells in the first place. One of my primary concerns with my son is that if he gets a high fever, like most diabetics, his blood sugar gets very high very quickly. The idea of him having a fever for days and days is quite frightening. But you also talked about Vitamin D potentially helping to balance the immune system, thus potentially helping to keep the cytokine storm at bay. And as Type-1 is an autoimmune disease, this also sounded promising. I started all of us on Vitamin D3 supplements that day. I am considering raising the amount we are taking based on what you have posted above.

But when I read an article the other night talking about many Covid patients who have died having mysterious severe blood clots, something clicked in my brain. And I went and looked it up, and sure enough, Vitamin D deficiency is a leading cause of blood clots....and high blood pressure...and heart disease.  And as you said, obese people often have low levels due to fat absorption issues. And people with darker skin have trouble making D. And older people have absorption issues and don't tend to go outside.  And children tend to have good levels due to the fact that they do go outside.

There is also a connection with diabetes, at least with Type-1! I wish I could find it, and I will look, but I read this like 30-page study a couple of weeks ago about how they have looked into the connection with autoimmune diseases in general, and that there was a major correlation with Type-1. In fact, there are researchers who now believe that Vitamin D deficiency might also be a major cause of Type-1 diabetes, like a direct cause. They are studying that more with the hopes of keeping children from developing it in the first place. The study did say that there was evidence that Type-2 might also be connected.

And people with Type-2 tend to have at least one other Covid risk factor, like high blood pressure or heart disease, so there might be a connection there either way. 

I will try to find some of the studies that I found, especially the diabetes one, because my brain is telling me, this might be the key. Maybe the people who are getting severely ill from this horrible virus are Vitamin D deficient, and the level of D in any given person might be the (or at least one) determining factor in the degree of illness that develops.

Edited April 25, 2020 by caayenne
typo

[Corraleno]

@square_25 Here is a basic article that summarizes some of the ways that Vit D is correlated with many factors that are associated with higher risk for CV19 (obesity, diabetes, CVD, etc.):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6513299/

You can use that as a jumping off point to follow rabbit trails in various directions. I've done a lot of research on Vit D after discovering that I had a genetic predisposition to Vit D insufficiency, and unfortunately DS has inherited the same issue (we discovered his level was in single digits when he had Lyme disease ☹️ ). Low D is also strongly correlated with anxiety and depression, and I can definitely feel the difference when I'm not taking it. From everything I've read,  it makes perfect sense to me that there would be a strong correlation between low D and severity of CV19, and I am making sure that DS and I are are keeping our levels up.

[caayenne]

24 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

I have seen a number of studies. I don’t know if you can be convinced, but I think from what I know of you so far that if you do your own research, and whichever way you find it I think you will feel more satisfied than if I try to convince you of anything. 😊

 

447 articles (most  pro Vitamin D some against) related to Vitamin D and diabetes.  https://vitamindwiki.com/Diabetes

many more for lung and cardiovascular issues.... 

(I expect if you do a bunch of reading you may join me and @ElizabethB as a D proponent, but I may be wrong, and that’s okay too.) 

I see you have read many studies on this. 😊 So at least you won't think I'm crazy! 😂

And for the record, I think you and @ElizabethB are on to something!

[Pen]

2 hours ago, sbgrace said:

Why do you take it separate from your K? I thought they worked together. One of my K2's has 5000 IU of D with it. 

 

And @Matryoshka

There’s a very complicated K1, K2, A, and E interplay.

After a lot of personal research which I cannot recall all the details of now, I decided to take my D3 at a time separate from my K1/K2 and A dose when possible/convenient. It’s not a hill for me to die on if I don’t manage that. And it’s better imo to take both at same time than to miss out components of ADEK entirely . 

 (I think it might have been that K1 absorption was limited with D, but don’t recall for certain).    K2 is very, very important along with D3 for making sure that calcium ends up in bones and teeth where it belongs and not forming calcium deposits in soft tissues.  But it did not seem to be needed at literally the same moment as they are both fat soluble and don’t quickly get excreted. 

Vitamin K2 And The Calcium Paradox: How a Little-Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D5TSMAS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_5Z5OEbPKW1103

I read a very good book on vitamin K but can’t recall if it is the one above or not.  If so it had suggestions for how to balance the fat soluble ADEK group of vitamins. 

Edited April 25, 2020 by Pen

[Pen]

24 minutes ago, ElizabethB said:

No strong correlation between average vitamin D levels and Covid deaths.  There were many countries where it was hard to find vitamin D levels.  It does seem like a few of the very low level countries fared the worst.

 

Or maybe there is?   Most places with levels above 60 have death rate per 1M in one or two digits? 

France on the chart is confusing btw — in  two spots 43 and 60.

Clearly it is not the only factor, and not going to be a magic bullet as Sweden shows, but it may contribute.

Edited April 25, 2020 by Pen

[ElizabethB]

1 minute ago, Pen said:

 

Or maybe there is?   Most places with levels above 60 have death rate per thousand in one or two digits? 

France on the chart is confusing btw — in  two spots 43 and 60.

Clearly it is not the only factor, and not going to be a magic bullet as Sweden shows, but it may contribute.

Yes, I just posted a quick rush of my data, and I was getting things from a variety of sources, I must have ended up with 2 France data points somehow.  I would have cleaned it up and double checked it if I planned on publishing an article or spreading it widely.  Different things online had different vitamin D level averages depending on the study and the year.  The US data was very hard to find, strangely enough.  A ton of articles about what percentage of people were deficient but very few with average D levels.  Even with increased awareness of the importance of D, with more people inside and more people using sunscreen, US vitamin D levels have dropped lately, especially among teens.

[ElizabethB]

5 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Or maybe there is?   Most places with levels above 60 have death rate per thousand in one or two digits? 

France on the chart is confusing btw — in  two spots 43 and 60.

Clearly it is not the only factor, and not going to be a magic bullet as Sweden shows, but it may contribute.

Sweden is also not on lockdown compared to the rest of Europe.

[Pen]

33 minutes ago, caayenne said:

So I have been wanting to jump in with my thoughts on this, as it has been eating my brain for 2 days, but I don't usually have time to both read here and post. So here goes...

When you first started talking about Vitamin D and Covid, I was mostly interested from a preventative standpoint, as my younger son is Type-1 diabetic, and I was quite desperate for anything that might help him ward off the virus. I was especially interested in how (in the influenza study) it seemed to keep the virus from getting into the cells in the first place. One of my primary concerns with my son is that if he gets a high fever, like most diabetics, his blood sugar gets very high very quickly. The idea of him having a fever for days and days is quite frightening. But you also talked about Vitamin D potentially helping to balance the immune system, thus potentially helping to keep the cytokine storm at bay. And as Type-1 is an autoimmune disease, this also sounded promising. I started all of us on Vitamin D3 supplements that day. I am considering raising the amount we are taking based on what you have posted above.

But when I read an article the other night talking about many Covid patients who have died having mysterious severe blood clots, something clicked in my brain. And I went and looked it up, and sure enough, Vitamin D deficiency is a leading cause of blood clots....and high blood pressure...and heart disease.  And as you said, obese people often have low levels due to fat absorption issues. And people with darker skin have trouble making D. And older people have absorption issues and don't tend to go outside.  And children tend to have good levels due to the fact that they do go outside.

There is also a connection with diabetes, at least with Type-1! I wish I could find it, and I will look, but I read this like 30-page study a couple of weeks ago about how they have looked into the connection with autoimmune diseases in general, and that there was a major correlation with Type-1. In fact, there are researchers who now believe that Vitamin D deficiency might also be a major cause of Type-1 diabetes, like a direct cause. They are studying that more with the hopes of keeping children from developing it in the first place. The study did say that there was evidence that Type-2 might also be connected.

And people with Type-2 tend to have at least one other Covid risk factor, like high blood pressure or heart disease, so there might be a connection there either way. 

I will try to find some of the studies that I found, especially the diabetes one, because my brain is telling me, this might be the key. Maybe the people who are getting severely ill from this horrible virus are Vitamin D deficient, and the level of D in any given person might be the (or at least one) determining factor in the degree of illness that develops.

 

There are a lot of autoimmune related conditions that seem to improve with better D levels (keeping in mind need to balance the fat soluble whole ADEK group, and also magnesium seems to play in).  Diabetes 1 may relate to this.

The VitaminDWiki has a lot of articles that can be a start in such research. 

Some problems like ? Some infant cardiovascular issues? Can be fixed with a D injection apparently. 

[Pen]

15 minutes ago, ElizabethB said:

Sweden is also not on lockdown compared to the rest of Europe.

 

Right.  But Switzerland is.  So perhaps both lockdown and D play a role. And probably a lot of other factors too!

[ElizabethB]

21 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Or maybe there is?   Most places with levels above 60 have death rate per 1M in one or two digits? 

France on the chart is confusing btw — in  two spots 43 and 60.

Clearly it is not the only factor, and not going to be a magic bullet as Sweden shows, but it may contribute.

France has widely different D levels in the Northern part of France vs. Southern France.  The 43 was a more northern survey, a southern survey was 80.  They must have averaged the two to get 60.  I wonder if most of the French deaths were in northern France?

[Pen]

2 minutes ago, ElizabethB said:

France has widely different D levels in the Northern part of France vs. Southern France.  The 43 was a more northern survey, a southern survey was 80.  They must have averaged the two to get 60.  I wonder if most of the French deaths were in northern France?

 

I think Paris was a main hotspot (?) —which is northern, but also has urban issues.  

[LoveMyBeautifulGift]

23 hours ago, Arcadia said:

California https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Coronavirus-live-updates-news-bay-area-15192855.php

“7:09 p.m. California has cleared its pending backlog of coronavirus tests: The California Department of Public Health said Thursday that all 482,097 coronavirus tests that have been conducted in the state have reported results. It is the first time since the department began sharing daily testing figures in mid-March that it has reported no testing backlog. At its worst, California had nearly 60,000 pending tests because of a backlog at labs processing the tests. As of yesterday, there were 7,200 pending tests. The agency did not immediately respond to a question about how it was able to clear the backlog. But there is often a lag time between when labs process tests and when they report them to the state. Labs have been steadily increasing their capacity, and testing supplies have become more available in recent days.”

 

Wonder if this is why we're finally getting drive through testing in Contra Costa County. If anyone is interested in charts, we've got lots of numbers over here. I only wish they would indicate how many are recovered. They recently added this dashboard , too, which I think might be more informative than any of the other stats in terms of monitoring how hard its hitting in our area. There are two sites being set up as covid hospitals (a pavillion, the county fairgrounds) and possibly a third? (a county clinic that used to be a hospital). They set up sanitation stations near homeless camps, masks are now required in public stores/work/etc. Cleaning supplies/tp are still hard to find in stores (as in, you must be there in line at opening if you hope to get some), but the grocery stores seem to be fully stocked (except for yeast). It feels like we're taking a deep breath between one wave and the next. Particularly because I'm starting to see posts on local groups about the "empty" hospitals and people complaining about a possible delay to the start of the school year-our end of the county starts in July, and takes a break in October, December and Spring. People don't want to give up that fall break (where are they planning on going?) or keep their kids home until September. 

[Pen]

@square_25 I thought Portugal has better D levels than the list suggests.   And Ecuador only has 33 deaths per 1M ? I thought it was way worse.  

[Terabith]

Why does Slovakia have such a high vitamin D level?

[ElizabethB]

Just now, Terabith said:

Why does Slovakia have such a high vitamin D level?

Maybe they supplement? No idea.  Some of the average country levels were very surprising.  It is not well correlated with sunlight and latitude as I would have expected.

[ElizabethB]

3 minutes ago, Pen said:

@square_25 I thought Portugal has better D levels than the list suggests.   And Ecuador only has 33 deaths per 1M ? I thought it was way worse.  

Ecuador is likely doing a poor job of reporting.  I should delete them as a data point.

[ElizabethB]

Wow, look at this case count map of France, almost all of the cases in the North, vitamin D levels twice as high in the south as the north.  I'm going to use 43 in my France data and see how the correlation turns out since almost all the cases are in the area were levels were 43, not 80. (80 in south.)

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/europe/france-coronavirus-cases.html

[Pen]

11 minutes ago, ElizabethB said:

Ecuador is likely doing a poor job of reporting.  I should delete them as a data point.

 

Check Ireland:  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18274816/

another consideration may be that summer versus winter levels in some places may be different 

 

[ElizabethB]

11 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Check Ireland:  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18274816/

another consideration may be that summer versus winter levels in some places may be different 

 

People are staying inside more, and like France, the northern vs. southern levels may are different.  I'll see what recent levels are, they may be lower than the 56 I have from the older study.  The US levels have declined in the last few years.  Also, you're right, winter vs. summer levels may be quite different.

Edited April 25, 2020 by ElizabethB

[ElizabethB]

11 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Check Ireland:  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18274816/

another consideration may be that summer versus winter levels in some places may be different 

 

I'm not getting different average numbers, but Dublin looks bad for vitamin D, I wonder if many of the Ireland cases were from Dublin?

Edited April 25, 2020 by ElizabethB

1 hour ago, Corraleno said:

Not sure if you mistyped the number in your post or misread Pen's post, but you've got an extra zero in there. She said that 1,000 IU/day was inadequate, not 10,000 IU. Most D3 supplements are sold in doses of 1000 IU or 5000 IU. I have very low D levels for genetic reasons, so I need to supplement, but very few doctors understand what the optimal level should be (as opposed to minimum level needed to prevent rickets). I've tested as low as 12 (which is really bad) and had a doctor tell me I was "a little low" and I should consider taking 400 IU daily — which is way too low to have any real impact. I take around 25,000 IU per week.

Thanks...1000 makes much more sense.  The original had IU with no space and I misread it.  Thinking it may be close to time for new reading glasses.

[Ausmumof3]

29 minutes ago, Pen said:

@square_25 I thought Portugal has better D levels than the list suggests.   And Ecuador only has 33 deaths per 1M ? I thought it was way worse.  

Ecuador has a very low level of reported deaths not reflected in what appears to be the situation on the ground (videos of bodies left outside houses and the streets)

They literally doubled the number of reported cases from 11000 to 22,000 overnight.

and this is the biggest problem with doing this kind of thing on a country comparison - some countries are testing and reporting accurately and some aren’t.  It’s interesting to do but you really need a study on individuals.  

[BeachGal]

3 hours ago, Mom2mthj said:

Am I reading this wrong?  I don’t understand your comment about 10000 IU/day as insufficient.  I live in a state without a lot of sunshine all winter and I am not really into sitting out in the sun so my guess is I am low in vitamin d.  Do you know if there is a way to test vitamin d at home? Oh, and when is the best time to take vitamin d?

 

You can order finger prick test kits that you can do at home. You order a test and poke your finger with an enclosed poke-a-rooni (that is the scientific name. LOL). The $65 test I've used also asks you to fill out a kind of longish online questionnaire about your sun exposure, supplements and general health -- all tied to a number, not name. They use this information for research on Vitamin D.

One thing to ask about if you order one, is how long to get test results online. They might be short staffed, or maybe they're okay. I've had to wait several weeks before to get results.

Another point -- read instructions very carefully and multiple times. Watch the short video showing how to get the right sized drop of blood. The drop of blood must fill the dot on the enclosed blotter paper just so. You get multiple tries but to get an accurate result, you need that drop of blood to fill the entire dot.

https://daction.grassrootshealth.net/tests/

Pen has some good info but here are some more studies for you to read if you're so inclined:

https://www.grassrootshealth.net

Researcher Rhonda Patrick has some info about vitamin D and Covid if you want to understand some of the technical stuff:

https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/covid-19-episode-1:

https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/vitamin-d-covid-19

Edited April 25, 2020 by BeachGal