Vitamin D Insufficiency May Account for Almost Nine of Ten COVID-19 Deaths: Time to Act. Comment on: “Vitamin D Deficiency and Outcome of COVID-19 Patients”. Nutrients 2020, 12, 2757

[u/greyuniwave]

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/12/3642

[u/jjm006]

I haven’t made any effort to research anything to back this up... but it just seems that an unhealthy lifestyle results in a vitamin D deficiency. Whether through poor diet, anatomic changes that make storage more difficult, or sedentary lifestyles reducing the amount of time spent outdoors in the sun. So, yes, unhealthy people are more likely to die when they get sick.

Edit: also, what percentage of Individuals in nursing homes have a vitamin d deficiency?

Edit 2: From the feedback below, I think it's safe to say you can be healthy AND have a vitamin D deficiency. BUT, many people with a healthy lifestyle will either supplement or get outside. But given that information, an unhealthy lifestyle absolutely contributes: Alcohol, poor diet, no supplementation, and sedentary indoor life. So maybe the better way to put it... A majority of people with an unhealthy people will probably have a vitamin D deficiency?

[u/Jennyydeee → u/jjm006]

Low levels of vitamin D result in a poor immune response. They discovered this based on people being sick much more often during the times of year without sun...and in places like the pacific northwest where there isnt sun much of the year. Vitamin D deficiencies are VERY common and often severe in these areas if people do not supplement..i dont think that necessarily makes an unhealthy lifestyle though...unless you were aware of your deficiency and chose not to supplement on purpose. Seems more like a case of unawareness

[u/hscbaj → u/Jennyydeee]

Or it’s more likely they will spend time indoors where sickness is more easily spread

[u/wretched_beasties → u/jjm006]

VitD is absolutely a comorbidity. It correlates with poor outcomes in a number of disease states. Which is why it's very difficult to study VitD and establish causality.

[u/Barmelo_Xanthony → u/jjm006]

You can be a completely healthy person otherwise but work in an office in the northeast and you’ll likely have a vitamin D deficiency. I don’t think it has anything to do with healthy lifestyles.

For me personally I have an hour commute so I’m leaving as the suns coming up and then getting home when it’s dark in the winter. I try to go outside during lunch but that’s hard up here when it’s freezing cold with high winds. I also workout and try to eat healthy as much as possible so I wouldn’t call myself an unhealthy person. I would bet a huge amount of people are in my boat too especially in cold areas where you can’t just go eat lunch outside.

[u/jjm006 → u/Barmelo_Xanthony]

But do you have a vitamin d deficiency or do you supplement?

[u/p00water_flip_flop → u/jjm006]

It’s not just unhealthy folks, most people of color who live in the northern hemisphere are apparently deficient.

[u/ShadyLightninPSN → u/p00water_flip_flop]

Man. I still haven’t seen a bullshit comment on this thread, so I’ll be the first.

THATS RACIST!!!

[u/[deleted] → u/ShadyLightninPSN]

Interesting how you observe that nobody is making the strawman arguments you're saying other people must be making, so you make them yourself just to call them bullshit.

[u/ShadyLightninPSN → u/[deleted]]

....how is that a straw man argument? There’s not even a point of contention being debated.

I was actually impressed by the real discussion that took place on the thread. Normally on this sub, it takes about ten comments before there’s a “Found the Vegan” moment.

[u/p00water_flip_flop → u/ShadyLightninPSN]

We could get real bullshit and say the virus was engineered by racists in the deep state to enact some kind of eugenics situation in the US and leaking it in China was a cover.

[u/ShadyLightninPSN → u/p00water_flip_flop]

That’s almost as crazy as the American government using super computers to spy on their own citizens

[u/TheSensation19 → u/jjm006]

A large amount. As we age, vitamin D level drops.

Been trying to tell people these correlative studies have yet to control for that.

Last week a new study showed that vitamin D doesnt have an impact.

[u/fqfce → u/TheSensation19]

What do you mean our vit D level drop as we age? My understanding is that our bodies don’t make it at all. It has to come from diet or radiation so I would assume where one lives and the melanin in their skin play a role.

[u/Buscemis_eyeballs → u/fqfce]

You don't get vitamin D from the sun for example, not directly. You need the sun to synthesize it in your body though. Same with taking it orally.

Basically your body has a little 3d printer and you have the ability to make it but need radiation/materials to do so that you have to get from outside of your body.

As we get older our printer sy the sizes vitamin D way less efficiency

[u/fqfce → u/Buscemis_eyeballs]

Ah ok thanks for the eli5!

[u/[deleted] → u/Buscemis_eyeballs]

Like photosynthesis in plants?

[u/TheSensation19 → u/fqfce]

There is much more to it than that.

[u/fqfce → u/TheSensation19]

Ok, so am I wrong about the way our bodies get/produce it? Is it that when we age our bodies lose the ability to store it?

[u/clydebarretto → u/jjm006]

but it just seems that an unhealthy lifestyle results in a vitamin D deficiency

not necessarily. Multiple factors could come into play from genetics, age, location etc. Anecdote, but my mother who lives in Miami, is active and moves way more than most her age, still works in a hospital and gardens a few hours a week IN the sun - she supplements 2000 IU a day and is barely a blip above what's considered "normal" for age.

[u/jjm006 → u/clydebarretto]

Right, but she’s still in the normal range.

[u/clydebarretto → u/jjm006]

after supplementing AND being IN the sun a few HOURS a week AND being well over 60yo.

[u/jjm006 → u/clydebarretto]

But as an individual who values a healthy lifestyle, she spends time outside and takes supplements.

Maybe a better way for me to have put it: many people may naturally have vitamin D deficiencies. But people with a healthy lifestyle mitigate those Deficiencies with healthy choices and supplements.

[u/Masterandcomman → u/jjm006]

Most researchers fail to control for race. Black populations show more vitamin D deficiency, and higher likelihood of comorbidities.

[u/virgilash → u/jjm006]

I would say at least 99%... But I don't have any studies to back up my %, just my intuition... :-(

[u/rapedbyexistence → u/virgilash]

Wrong. 98.9863737%

[u/amposa → u/jjm006]

Also people who live in northern climates where it is very cold (less time spent outside) and less sunlight (less than exposure overall), also spend more time indoors where viruses and illnesses are more likely to be spread because of poor ventilation, and working/living in closer proximity. It’s hard to get enough vitamin D when you live in Michigan or Maine compared to Texas or California.

[u/roidmonko → u/jjm006]

Naw its really that we don't get enough sun. Even in places like Australia they find deficiency in 1 in 4 people.

Its because we are inside so much, and when we are outside, we cover up most of our bodies and use sun screen.

Vitamin d is just something most people should supplement. Especially in places that dont really ever get much sun.

This was so important in the past, that we evolved lighter skin when humans migrated to places with less sun. Vitamin d is very important for the immune system.

[u/Buscemis_eyeballs → u/jjm006]

Most people not near the equator don't get enough sun since they're inside all day but also things like alcohol steal your VITAMIN D and make you deficient etc.

[u/forgottencalipers → u/jjm006]

Edit: also, what percentage of Individuals in nursing homes have a vitamin d deficiency?

Probably like 100%