Report: Vitamin D Insufficiency is Prevalent in Severe COVID-19

Piollaire

Piollaire wrote: »

I got a blood test done and I was on the low end of the normal range and I was taking 2000iu a day. I've since boosted it to 4000iu.

This is the crowd I got my test done with if anyone is interested:
https://gastrolife.ie/vitamin-d/

It wasn't as easy to do as the blood spot tests that John Campbell did in his video It took me a while to 'milk' enough blood out of my finger to fill the small test tube I got.

Johnboy1951

Piollaire wrote: »

This is the crowd I got my test done with if anyone is interested:
https://gastrolife.ie/vitamin-d/

It wasn't as easy to do as the blood spot tests that John Campbell did in his video It took me a while to 'milk' enough blood out of my finger to fill the small test tube I got.

I was surprised at the cost, TBH.
€70 for a Vit D test, whereas I can visit my doctor, and maybe have other issues dealt with, plus get a full blood test done, for €80.
It appears the doc's visit is the better value ....

Piollaire

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I was surprised at the cost, TBH.
€70 for a Vit D test, whereas I can visit my doctor, and maybe have other issues dealt with, plus get a full blood test done, for €80.
It appears the doc's visit is the better value ....

Yes it is expensive. I went for it because I wanted to cut out the middleman (and the unventilated surgery) and I have no other health issues.

JJayoo

Vitamin D is soooooooo cheap

cnocbui

Especially on ebay.

ShineOn7

cnocbui wrote: »

Especially on ebay.

Buying vitamins on the most notorious online marketplace probably isn't a great idea

cnocbui

ShineOn7 wrote: »

Buying vitamins on the most notorious online marketplace probably isn't a great idea

I'm good thanks. It's not 2006 anymore. They were from a UK registered company that also sells on Amazon and they have a proper website and claim to buy from UK manufacturers with iso 9001 certification. The company has been around for a decade and since the UK Food Standards Agency hasn't closed them down yet, fingers crossed.

Paypal's buyer centric policies have weeded out most of the crooks that used to inhabit eBay.

I recently bought something non ingestable from an Irish supplier that turned out to be adulterated and not 100% as claimed. I have since bought the smae thing via ebay, from a supplier in India and got 3 times as much for the same price and it's the real deal.

Piollaire

cnocbui wrote: »

I'm good thanks. It's not 2006 anymore. They were from a UK registered company that also sells on Amazon and they have a proper website and claim to buy from UK manufacturers with iso 9001 certification. The company has been around for a decade and since the UK Food Standards Agency hasn't closed them down yet, fingers crossed.

Paypal's buyer centric policies have weeded out most of the crooks that used to inhabit eBay.

I recently bought something non ingestable from an Irish supplier that turned out to be adulterated and not 100% as claimed. I have since bought the smae thing via ebay, from a supplier in India and got 3 times as much for the same price and it's the real deal.

You had me until India

cnocbui

Piollaire wrote: »

You had me until India

Dreadful place, producer of 60% of the world's vaccines, 20% of the global total of pharmaceuticals and the world's largest producer of generics. Ignorance is bliss.

Piollaire

cnocbui wrote: »

Dreadful place, producer of 60% of the world's vaccines, 20% of the global total of pharmaceuticals and the world's largest producer of generics. Ignorance is bliss.

I met this dude at a party once who proclaimed that "India is a river". I hadn't a clue what he was on about. It is however a river of counterfeit medicines.

"20 per cent ($4.3 billion in 2013-14) of India’s drug market comprised of counterfeit drugs....It is estimated that three quarters of counterfeit medicines produced globally originate from India"

https://blogs.deloitte.co.uk/health/2018/04/tackling-counterfeit-medicines-in-india.html

I hope your vitamin D is the real McCoy and that you live long and prosper.

c montgomery

cnocbui wrote: »

Dreadful place, producer of 60% of the world's vaccines, 20% of the global total of pharmaceuticals and the world's largest producer of generics. Ignorance is bliss.

I've worked for some Indian generics.
Let's just say I've never been so lost for words when it come to safety, compliance and traceability.

cnocbui

Piollaire wrote: »

I met this dude at a party once who proclaimed that "India is a river". I hadn't a clue what he was on about. It is however a river of counterfeit medicines.

"20 per cent ($4.3 billion in 2013-14) of India’s drug market comprised of counterfeit drugs....It is estimated that three quarters of counterfeit medicines produced globally originate from India"

https://blogs.deloitte.co.uk/health/2018/04/tackling-counterfeit-medicines-in-india.html

I hope your vitamin D is the real McCoy and that you live long and prosper.

My vitamin D was manufactured in the UK, what I bought from India was oil from a plant that is not going to be ingested. Thanks for you obviously sincere concerns.

cnocbui

Piollaire wrote: »

I met this dude at a party once who proclaimed that "India is a river". I hadn't a clue what he was on about. It is however a river of counterfeit medicines.

"20 per cent ($4.3 billion in 2013-14) of India’s drug market comprised of counterfeit drugs....It is estimated that three quarters of counterfeit medicines produced globally originate from India"

https://blogs.deloitte.co.uk/health/2018/04/tackling-counterfeit-medicines-in-india.html

I hope your vitamin D is the real McCoy and that you live long and prosper.

Actually what that link actually claims is:

However, counterfeiting is pervasive, with an estimated 20 per cent ($4.3 billion in 2013-14) of India’s drug market comprised of counterfeit drugs

So it is only an estimate. In this paper: http://www.ripublication.com/ijmibs-spl/ijmibsv4n2spl_04.pdf
Actual sampling and testing revealed that 7% of the samples were fake.

That is quite a discrepancy.

This all reminds me of a comment in another thread about whether or not a €7 Casio watch was a fake or not. As with that, I wonder where's the incentive for fake D3 when it's generally so cheap anyway?

Irish consumers have little to worry about cheap generics as they are denied access to them by the government/pharma/chemist cabal that ensures Irish consumers are safely insulated from lower drug costs. Ireland has the second lowest usage of generics in Europe out of 25 countries.

It never ceases to amaze me the anti single-market nonsense Ireland engages in that the EU puts up with.

Piollaire

Yes 7% is better than 20% but still doesn't make me want to put any Indian medicine in my mouth. Further down in the report it says vitamin supplements are being counterfeited.

I'm inclined to believe you that we are being ripped off in this country.

Away With The Fairies

I quite like cerascreen testing. It shows your progress. It has taken four months to get sufficient levels taking 10,000iu per day.

ShineOn7

There's possibly some medical tests I can't put off for too much longer and it might need a hospital visit. I'm dreading it

So I've doubled my dose from 2000 IUs a day to 4,000

It's still well within a safe range and the one I take has K2 built in, which I believe is essential to get it into your system safely

SouthWesterly

ShineOn7 wrote: »

There's possibly some medical tests I can't put off for too much longer and it might need a hospital visit. I'm dreading it

So I've doubled my dose from 2000 IUs a day to 4,000

It's still well within a safe range and the one I take has K2 built in, which I believe is essential to get it into your system safely

Magnesium is needed to improve uptake of vit d.

Not all vitamin D is equal. The ability to absorb it is down to the carrier oil used. Coconut or sunflower.

Johnboy1951

ShineOn7 wrote: »

There's possibly some medical tests I can't put off for too much longer and it might need a hospital visit. I'm dreading it

So I've doubled my dose from 2000 IUs a day to 4,000

It's still well within a safe range and the one I take has K2 built in, which I believe is essential to get it into your system safely

I am taking 6,000 IUs per day of D3 and 25 mg Zinc in a separate tab.

Over 6 weeks my D3 levels rose from way down low to 101 nmol/L and 6 weeks later it was 102 nmol/L without any change in amount dosed.
So I remain for the present on the same dose.

Piollaire

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

I quite like cerascreen testing. It shows your progress. It has taken four months to get sufficient levels taking 10,000iu per day.

Definitely switching my test provider!

Away With The Fairies

Piollaire wrote: »

Definitely switching my test provider!

It's a finger prick of blood on a card. Very easy test. Pop it in the post and it goes to a lab in Germany. But be warned, results are slow to come back. The first test took 3 weeks and the second took 4 weeks, because they were waiting for the test to arrive at the lab, so seems there's some delay in post. But once it reaches the lab, it's been done in two working days.

Away With The Fairies

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Magnesium is needed to improve uptake of vit d.

Not all vitamin D is equal. The ability to absorb it is down to the carrier oil used. Coconut or sunflower.

I like using coconut oil. It's got anti-viral properties.

Johnboy1951

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

I quite like cerascreen testing. It shows your progress. It has taken four months to get sufficient levels taking 10,000iu per day.

It is the levels specified for sufficiency and over dose that caught my attention.
They are much higher than specified by the hospital lab when my doc got the report back.
Of course the doc goes crazy if the levels go above those specified by the hospital as that is taken as poisonous.

For instance ..... taking ng/ml multiplied by 2.5 provides the numbers for nmol/L and 90ng/ml is listed as Very Good ....... that would seem to say that 225 nmol/L is the top end of Very Good.

Yet the range provided on my blood test from the hospital lab gives a suitable range of
50 - 125 nmol/L

That would equate to

20 ng/ml - 50 ng/ml

Your lab says those numbers should be

31 ng/ml - 90 ng/ml

Just about twice what is specified by the hospital lab here!

This is disconcerting, to say the least!

I found a paper on the subject and copied the relevant info - this is a pic of what I copied .......... but that has not really helped me either

This is an excerpt from that paper



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


I would like to read you and others' opinions on the above.
Have I misinterpreted the lot?

I came across another I had saved



This seems more in line with what the German lab report says.

.

Away With The Fairies

I'm going with German results because Ireland is so backwards.

Johnboy1951

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

I'm going with German results because Ireland is so backwards.

The first table I posted is from
https://eje.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/eje/180/4/EJE-18-0736.xml

I am inclined to raise my upper limit from 150nmol/L (60 ng/ml) to 200 nmol/L (80 ng/ml) on foot of your German lab list.

SouthWesterly

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

It's a finger prick of blood on a card. Very easy test. Pop it in the post and it goes to a lab in Germany. But be warned, results are slow to come back. The first test took 3 weeks and the second took 4 weeks, because they were waiting for the test to arrive at the lab, so seems there's some delay in post. But once it reaches the lab, it's been done in two working days.

I did it though Birmingham hospital. They have a research program. You pay online and they send you a kit and card.
Put a drop of blood on it, sent it off and got results by email.


I ask my GP now.

Martina1991

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

I quite like cerascreen testing. It shows your progress. It has taken four months to get sufficient levels taking 10,000iu per day.

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

It's a finger prick of blood on a card. Very easy test. Pop it in the post and it goes to a lab in Germany. But be warned, results are slow to come back. The first test took 3 weeks and the second took 4 weeks, because they were waiting for the test to arrive at the lab, so seems there's some delay in post. But once it reaches the lab, it's been done in two working days.

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

I'm going with German results because Ireland is so backwards.

I would be very wary of some private company selling expensive tests....and also supplements for vitamin D.
They appear to have poor reviews online.

The delay in tests getting to the lab is a major red flag. Sitting in a box or envelope for weeks before arriving to the lab will significantly compromise the integrity of the sample. The temperature at which it is stored would also not likely be appropriate for storage and transport.

I work in a hospital lab and any sample for vitamin D that is not centrifuged within 24 hours of being taken cannot be processed.
We receive control samples from abroad and will get poor results if they are more than a week in transit.

Going with the results from a private lab abroad instead of trusting results from Irish labs that are accredited is not a good idea.

My 2 cents

Away With The Fairies

Martina1991 wrote: »

I would be very wary of some private company selling expensive tests....and also supplements for vitamin D.
They appear to have poor reviews online.

The delay in tests getting to the lab is a major red flag. Sitting in a box or envelope for weeks before arriving to the lab will significantly compromise the integrity of the sample. The temperature at which it is stored would also not likely be appropriate for storage and transport.

I work in a hospital lab and any sample for vitamin D that is not centrifuged within 24 hours of being taken cannot be processed.
We receive control samples from abroad and will get poor results if they are more than a week in transit.

Going with the results from a private lab abroad instead of trusting results from Irish labs that are accredited is not a good idea.

My 2 cents

Thanks for the info. I used to work in a lab as well and this wasn't a tube of blood that needed the centrifuge.

It was drops of blood on a card. I'm not sure how the card works.

Dr John Campbell used a few of these vitamin D tests to see how they work and did the card test. I'm not sure what he thinks of it because he said he would update us on the results and that was a few weeks ago.

wadacrack

Have many here upped their dose to between 4,000-5,000 iu? Seems to be a good range based on all the evidence. Notice any benefits? Vitamin D seems to be getting studied recently alot more in different context than Covid.

Johnboy1951

I take 6,000 IU per day and have done since discovering my levels were dangerously low.
It rapidly brought my level to normal, and there has been no change despite continuing to take the same dose.
I take Zinc with it.

wadacrack

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I take 6,000 IU per day and have done since discovering my levels were dangerously low.
It rapidly brought my level to normal, and there has been no change despite continuing to take the same dose.
I take Zinc with it.

Have you noticed any physiological benefits? energy etc . Magnesium can help also with absorption btw