Vitamin D is not a vitamin, but a secosteroid. There are Vitamin D receptors throughout the human body which affect the transcription of genes and other functions. Innate immunity, the body's first line of defense against pathogens, is tied to Vitamin D and the Vitamin D Receptor (VDR). Dosing with Vitamin D is not a good idea as it is a tightly regulated steroid in your body.Higgenbotham wrote: ↑Thu Dec 31, 2020 9:56 amI don't know the precise levels, but let's say, as an example, that Vitamin D levels were measured in the US population and the blood levels were found to average 20 (I can't remember the units) with a "normal" range of 15-32, where 2.5% of the population exceeds 32 and 2.5% is below 15 (and I don't know how "normal" is defined in terms of percentages that fall outside this type of a range). It's my understanding that this is how "normal" blood levels of various parameters are defined in a population - whether the individual's levels conform to some average of the levels in the population. Further, it's arbitrarily defined that "normal" equates to "healthy", as I believe is the actual practice in the US today. But in a hunter-gatherer population, Vitamin D levels are typically in the range of 40-50. I would argue that healthy Vitamin D levels for Americans would be closer to the range of 40-50 than the range of 15-32 of most sunlight deprived Americans.
Then there's the question of what is able to be diagnosed using standard methods. It's said that the processes for many diseases of Western civilization begin long before they are able to be clinically diagnosed using standard methods. So, for example, heart disease that appears decades later begins in childhood (I read that once and the culprit if I remember correctly is fast food) and the processes that lead to cancer begin decades before cancer appears.
I'm quite sure that the CDC would define an American whose blood levels are in the normal range by American standards and who is in the early stages of cancer, heart disease, or something else as being healthy. I would argue that they are not.
It would be my best guess that the majority of the "healthy" individuals who died of covid-19 were not truly healthy. As an example, I read about a robust man in his 40s (he looked like a bodybuilder) who nearly died of the virus. He was touted by the media as being healthy. Buried somewhere in all the information was the fact that he owned an auto body shop. And my thought was how much particulate did he get into his lungs from spraying paint, not to mention all the VOC in his blood? Then there's the question of whether he had a history of steroid use for his bodybuilding - judging from his appearance, very likely.
The two Vitamin D metabolites are 1,25-D (active) and 25-D (inactive). The metabolites bind to the Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) and either activate or inactivate the receptor. When you get a blood test done to check your vitamin D level they are probably looking at 25-D, the inactive form, the one that inactivates the VDR. Sunshine on the skin allows the body to produce 1,25-D, the active form that activates the Vitamin D Receptor (VDR).
So a Vitamin D blood test showing low 25-D is your body downregulating the inactive form of Vitamin D, in an attempt to activate the VDR and wake up the immune system. When you supplement with Vitamin D it becomes 25-D, further causing harm by keeping the immune system from turning on. This is why you feel better in the short term when supplementing with Vitamin D (just like taking prednisone) but in the long run it is unable to cure any disease. Long enough supplementation will get you sick as the pathogens in your body proliferate.
https://mpkb.org/home/pathogenesis/vitamind
Yet, observational studies show that populations which avoid vitamin D consumption have naturally low levels of 25-D and remain healthy with such levels.
healthy Chilean women – A study which tested the level of 25-D in 90 “healthy, ambulatory Chilean women” showed that 27% of the premenopausal and 60% of the postmenopausal women had 25-D levels under 20 ng/ml.26)
healthy Saudi medical students – A 2012 study collected data from 95 male and 103 female students with an average age of 19.5 years old. In 100% of the students, the vitamin D level was considered low. The mean 25-D level was 26.83 nmol/L in males and 16.03 nmol/L in females.
healthy Bangladeshi women – A study on healthy Bangladeshi women found that approximately 80% of the women had a level of 25-D under 16 ng/ml.27) A separate study of premenopausal Bangladeshi women came to a similar conclusion.28)
healthy Chinese infants – In a 1992 study, healthy full-term infants from China had serum concentrations of 25-D ranging from an average of 5 ng/ml to 14 ng/ml.29)
healthy Omani women – A 2011 study of 41 apparently healthy women (ages 18-45 years) working at the Royal Hospital, Muscat, Oman found that all study subjects had 25-D levels below 50 nmol/L.30)
young healthy adults in western India – Among young healthy adults from the western part of India, the average serum level of 25-D indicated vitamin D “deficiency”: 17.4 ng/ml.31)
healthy Saudi Arabians – Severe hypovitaminosis D is widespread and more common in non-diabetics than diabetics in Saudi adults.32) Nevertheless, this 2010 study's authors conclude a bit bizarrely, “The study further underscores the need for vitamin D fortification of the Saudi diet, and the promotion of vitamin D supplementation in both groups.”
healthy lactating mothers – Even when lactating mothers take all but exceedingly high levels of vitamin D – 6,000 IU which is 15 times the United States' Recommended Daily Intake – the vitamin D content in breast milk remains very low.33) This is confusing for advocates of vitamin D supplementation who would think that breastfeeding mothers would give their infant extra levels of vitamin D during formative stages of growth.
The Vitamin D Council, an organization that advocates vitamin D supplementation, stated:
One of the great mysteries in human biology is the fact that most human breast milk is deficient in vitamin D. How could Nature overlook such an important nutrient in the “perfect food”?
Vitamin D Council
One research team, studying patients with xeroderma pigmentosum, a genetic disorder in which patients are unable to repair damage caused by ultraviolet light, found that vitamin D levels are maintained even when patients practice at least six years of rigorous photoprotection and not supplementing with vitamin D. More importantly, the researchers also concluded that the clinical manifestations of vitamin D “deficiency” were absent.