Vitamin D Archives

Vitamins and supplements: what you need to know before taking them

Posted 03 February 2023

If you were to open your medicine cabinet right now, there’s a fair chance that you’d find at least one bottle of vitamins alongside the painkillers, plasters and cough syrup.

After all, people are definitely buying vitamins: in 2020, the global market for complementary and alternative medicines, which includes multivitamin supplements, had an estimated value of US$82.27 billion. The use of natural health products such as minerals and amino acids has increased – and continues to rise, partly driven by consumers’ buying habits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

People sought out vitamins C and D, as well as zinc supplements, as potential preventive measures against the virus – even though the evidence for their efficacy was, and remains, inconclusive.

Multivitamins and mineral supplements are easily accessible to consumers. They are often marketed for their health claims and benefits – sometimes unsubstantiated. But their … Read the rest

No evidence that vitamin D prevents coronavirus, say experts

Posted 30 June 2020

Nice says topic is under review, but still advises taking supplements for bone health

Haroon Siddique Published on Mon 29 Jun 2020 18.12 BST

The Guardian

No evidence exists to support taking vitamin D supplements to prevent Covid-19, UK public health experts have found.

A rapid review of evidence for claims that the so-called sunshine vitamin could reduce the risk of coronavirus was launched amid concerns about the disproportionate number of black, Asian and minority ethnic people contracting and dying from the disease. Higher levels of melanin in the skin lead to less absorption of vitamin D from sunlight.

However, on Monday, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said that, having examined five studies, it had not found evidence to support any benefit from vitamin D with respect to Covid-19.

“While there are health benefits associated with vitamin D, our rapid evidence summary … Read the rest

Covid-19: Can ‘boosting’ your immune system protect you?

Posted 11 April 2020

By Zaria Gorvett

10th April 2020 BBC Future

Forget kombucha and trendy vitamin supplements – they are nothing more than magic potions for the modern age.

“Spanish Influenza – what it is and how it should be treated,” read the reassuringly factual headline to an advert for Vick’s VapoRub back in 1918. The text beneath included nuggets of wisdom such as “stay quiet” and “take a laxative”. Oh, and to apply their ointment liberally, of course.

The 1918 flu pandemic was the most lethal in recorded history, infecting up to 500 million people (a quarter of the world’s population at the time) and killing tens of millions worldwide.

But with crisis comes opportunity, and the – sometimes literal – snake oil salesmen were out in force. Vick’s VapoRub had stiff competition from a panoply of crackpot remedies, including Miller’s Antiseptic Snake Oil, Dr

… Read the rest

16 supplements are useless when it came to heart health and longevity — even vitamin D, iron, and multivitamins

Posted 16 July 2019

Scientists looked at 16 supplements and found most were useless when it came to heart health and longevity — even vitamin D, iron, and multivitamins

Julia Naftulin , Business Insider US

Jul 14, 2019, 12:22 PM

A new study, published June 8 in Annals of Internal Medicine, further suggests that investing in supplement pills and powders won’t reduce your risk of heart-related disease or lengthen your life.
Researchers looked at more than 100 prior studies including 16 kinds of supplements and found that only two types, folic acid and omega-3, helped reduce people’s heart-related disease risks.
Supplements that combined vitamin D and calcium were found to increase a person’s risk of stroke.

There’s plenty of evidence that suggests stocking up on vitamin supplements to stay healthy is a waste of money, if not harmful to health, and a robust new study adds even more weight to … Read the rest

A Man Got Kidney Failure From Taking Too Much of Vitamin D

Posted 22 May 2019

ScienceAlert

Too much of a good thing can be downright disastrous. After taking 8 to 12 drops of concentrated Vitamin D every day for two-and-a-half years, a 54-year-old man in Canada has inadvertently and permanently damaged his kidneys.

He used it as prescribed by a naturopath at a dose well above the recommended daily allowance, and now it has taken a year of treatment for the patient’s blood to return to normal, while some organs never will – he is ultimately burdened with stage 3B chronic kidney disease.

The physicians who published his case in a medical journal are worried that others might fall into the same innocent trap.

“Our experience informs us that patients and clinicians should be better informed about the risks regarding the unfettered use of vitamin D,” the authors suggest.

“Given new findings from the US Preventive Services Task Force, current Canadian … Read the rest

Vitamin D: Is Sunscreen the New Margarine?

Posted 17 January 2019

By Rowan Jacobsen – Published Jan 10, 2019 in OutsideOnline.com

Current guidelines for sun exposure are unhealthy and unscientific, controversial new research suggests-and quite possibly even racist. How did we get it so wrong?

These are dark days for supplements. Although they are a $30-plus billion market in the United States alone, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, beta-carotene, glucosamine, chondroitin, and fish oil have now flopped in study after study.

If there was one supplement that seemed sure to survive the rigorous tests, it was vitamin D. People with low levels of vitamin D in their blood have significantly higher rates of virtually every disease and disorder you can think of: cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, heart attack, stroke, depression, cognitive impairment, autoimmune conditions, and more. The vitamin is required for calcium absorption and is thus essential for bone health, but as evidence mounted that … Read the rest

Vitamin D: a pseudo-vitamin for a pseudo-disease

Posted 06 September 2018

This is an important and interesting perspective of Vitamin D supplementation. It is written by Prof Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, and published in The Conversation.

He concludes:

About half the population take vitamins daily, despite zero benefits, with increasing evidence of harm. The worldwide trend of adding unregulated vitamins to processed food has now to be seriously questioned.

While vitamin D treatment still has a rare medical role in severe deficiency, or those bed bound, the rest of us should avoid being “treated” with this steroid for this pseudo-disease and focus on having a healthy lifestyle, sunshine and importantly save your money and energy on eating a rich diversity of real food.

… Read the rest

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