Comment · Fri, September 11, 2020 · Natrium Health & Nootropics Depot
Vitamin D and Covid-19
Original post in this thread
Metacognition · 671 points
From close to the beginning of this pandemic people have been speculating that vitamin D status could be helpful for combating Sars-CoV-2. It has been known for a long time that vitamin D plays a big role in immunity, both innate and adaptive and also inflammation.[[1]](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3738984/) The vitamin D receptor helps to regulate over 900 genes in the body, so it shouldn't be surprising to find out that deficiency can have health consequences. Interestingly, meta-analysis using of over 11,000 individual participants data from 25 RCTs found vitamin D supplementation decreased upper respiratory infections by 19%. [[2]](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28202713/) That was the basis for why vitamin D was being recommended early on.
Now that we're further along we've been getting more specific information about the relationship between vitamin D status and covid-19. I'll try to go over most of the main points.
Mechanisms by which vitamin D could help mitigate covid-19:
* Sars-CoV-2 uses ACE2 receptors to get into cells. In animal models ace2 receptors are downregulated after infection.[[3]](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7079827/)…
What they were answering
Symdj · 19 points
It's worth noting that if taking a vitamin D supplement it needs fats in order to make it bioavalaible and work as it should. You could take it with a high fat meal but personally I take it with coconut oil. You can actually get vitamin D supplements that contain coconut oil which is ideal. Although the price may vary seeing as now people will all be wanting this but I managed to get 365 capsules that contain 1000 micrograms of vitamin D and coconut oil for under $10 including shipping.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Natrium Health & Nootropics Depot
That is incorrect, actually.
Vitamin D Bioavailability: State of the Art
The main conclusions are: (i) ergocalciferol (vitamin D2), the form mostly used in supplements and fortified foods, is apparently absorbed with similar efficiency to cholecalciferol (vitamin D3, the main dietary form), (ii) 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), the metabolite produced in the liver, and which can be found in foods, is better absorbed than the nonhydroxy vitamin D forms cholecalciferol and ergocalciferol, (iii) the amount of fat with which vitamin D is ingested does not seem to significantly modify the bioavailability of vitamin D3, (iv) the food matrix has apparently little effect on vitamin D bioavailability, (v) sucrose polyesters (Olestra) and tetrahydrolipstatin (orlistat) probably diminish vitamin D absorption, and (vi) there is apparently no effect of aging on vitamin D absorption efficiency.
There is a lot of misinformation out there on bioavailability; especially surrounding the fat discussion. Vitamin D bioavailability is all about slowing stomach motility down to give it time to absorb. Eating food can slow stomach motility down, which can help give the D3 time to absorb. Now having D3 put into lipid micelles does seem to improve bioavailability a bit. However, it doesn't justify the cost. If you get 2-4X the levels, but it costs 10-20X as much, it just makes more sense to take a higher dose of normal D3.