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Key Words: vitamin D, innate immunity, respiratory infections, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, sunlight
Summary
Acute viral respiratory infections, including COVID-19, are strongly correlated with vitamin D insufficiency. They are also strongly seasonal, peaking in the winter, when the availability of the UVB component of sunlight is low. UVB is known for inducing production of vitamin D in the skin. However, vitamin D supplementation has shown little or no effect in the prevention of respiratory infections in adults. Thus, UVB light provides the immune system with essential benefits that are not produced by oral vitamin D supplements.
This paper posits that UVB light stimulates production of cathelicidin and other antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in the skin. These AMPs are carried by the blood to the respiratory tract and enhance innate respiratory immunity. AMPs are also referred to as “natural antibiotics,” because they protect not only against microbes but also enveloped viruses, including influenza and coronaviruses.
The skin and respiratory tract surfaces play a similar role in the body – acting as a barrier between the body and the external world. Many of the same AMPs, including cathelicidin, are produced and act in the skin, the respiratory tract surface, the intestines, and some blood cells. Cathelicidin is carried by the blood.
This paper provides additional evidence that exposure to UVB in sunlight or artificial UVB sources, in safe amounts, depending on skin phototype (dark skin might need 5-6 times more exposure than light skin), is necessary for maintaining normal innate immunity. Vitamin D supplements cannot replace UVB exposure.
Intro
Infection Seasonality
Currently (at the end of November 2020), the increase in COVID-19 infections, in the northern hemisphere, matches seasonality expectations. COVID-19 is not an exception among respiratory infections. Its seasonality has been observed in both hemispheres. The inverse correlation between sunlight UV and SARS-COV-2 positivity [1] has been reported. The increase in COVID cases is happening slightly ahead of the regular flu season. A significant part of the population has had less than usual sunlight exposure in the previous months, due to COVID-19 precautions.
The seasonal character of influenza has been noted for long time [2]. This seasonality is linked to low exposure to the UVB (wavelengths 280-320 nm) component in sunlight, which results in insufficient levels of vitamin D. Among other effects, vitamin D is required for AMPs production, so the increase in the respiratory infections in winter was linked to seasonal impairment of the AMPs production [3]. In the US, respiratory infections boom in the winter and almost disappear in the summer and the death rate is 25% higher in the winter than in the summer [4]. Many observational studies have shown that moderate UVB exposure led to sharp decrease in respiratory infections [5]. [6] reports weekly inverse correlation between sunlight and spread of 2009 H1N1 zoonotic influenza virus (“swine flu”).
The lack of UVB exposure and low levels of vitamin D are strongly associated with each other and with a susceptibility to respiratory infections. The hypothesis that UVB exposure can be replaced with vitamin D supplementation, in order to maintain innate respiratory immunity, has somehow become entrenched. This flawed belief continues to persist despite multiple studies in which oral supplementation with vitamin D has shown no or little respiratory immunity benefits [7].
Although common wisdom in mid latitudes of Europe held that moderate exposure to sunlight is beneficial [8], such research has not been encouraged [9].
Vitamin D
Vitamin D3 is produced by the skin when it is exposed to UVB light. It can also be also ingested with the food. Either way, it is inactive until metabolized in the liver to 25(OH)D (25-hydroxy-vitamin D). 25(OH)D then further metabolizes to 1,25(OH)2D3 (1.25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3) in the kidneys as well as many other organs, including the skin and epithelial cells of the respiratory tract.
Innate Immune System & AMPs
The human innate immune system responds to pathogens without the need to recognize them. This is in contrast to the adaptive immune system, which needs to recognize the particular pathogen, before counteracting it with antigens or T-cells.
This makes AMPs critically important in the defense against novel respiratory viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, which are not recognized by the body. Cathelicidins and other AMPs are the tools of the innate immune response. Cathelicidins dissolve viral and microbial membranes, and also alert the rest of the immune system to act [10], [11]. LL-37 (having precursor protein hCAP18) is the only known human cathelicidin. In the skin, cathelicidin serves as a chemical shield. Cathelicidins are produced from keratinocytes [17], in many tissues in the skin to epithelial cells of the lungs [12]. Some blood cells also produce AMPs.
Cathelicidin production in the skin is induced by UVB (as explained below), or by the local injury or infection [10].
Results
For a long time, it has been observed how rarely sunburns (severely damaging skin and suppressing adaptive immune system) lead to opportunistic infections.
When the skin is damaged, AMPs are produced. Their primary role is the local anti-microbial protection of the damaged skin, but they also travel in the blood [13] and can protect respiratory tract. LL-37 was shown to directly inhibit the influenza virus in humans [14].
In 2005, Mallibris et al. conducted a study, in which they exposed buttocks of eight volunteers to UVB [15]. The study summarized the results in the title “UVB Upregulates the Antimicrobial Protein hCAP18 mRNA in Human Skin.” One-time exposure of a single buttock to the minimal erythema dose of UVB led to 2.3x increase of hCAP18 level in the exposed skin, within 24 hours. This amount of UVB cannot significantly increase the body’s vitamin D levels. Thus, the production of extra hCAP18 was solely due to the UVB stimulation, not increased vitamin D levels.
Zasloff [16], concluded cautiously that sunlight “activates an arm of innate immunity within the skin.” In addition to hCPA18/LL-37 production, Zasloff suggested a few other mechanisms.
Other experiments [17] with UVB successfully induced defensins and other universal AMPs in keratinocytes. This lead to the conclusion that UVB exposure increases local production of AMPs and boosts innate immunity [18].
In hindsight, it is not that surprising that the skin reacts to ultraviolet irradiation similarly to how it reacts to other stimuli, such as physical injury or infection.
UVB light might increase production of AMPs in the skin through increased local production of 1.25‐dihydroxyvitamin D from 25(OH)D. Cathelicidin and other AMPs, produced in the skin, travel in the blood to other parts of the body, including the epithelial surfaces of respiratory system, boosting innate respiratory immunity. It is also possible that UVB activates blood cells, passing through the exposed skin and capable of producing AMPs (neutrophils, macrophages, lymphocytes, etc.), and they produce AMPs in other tissues as well.
Vitamin D Supplementation does not noticeably increase LL-37 levels in the blood [19], [20], even when it significantly increases 25(OH)D levels.
Discussion
[20] reported that a subgroup of the experiment subjects had ~20% increase of LL-37 concentrations, corresponding to 200% increase in 25(OH)D concentrations in the blood following ergocalciferol supplementation. This relation is insignificant, and might be explained by their initial deficiency of 25(OH)D and/or sunlight exposure, not known the to researchers
[19] demonstrated a decrease in sickness with supplementation. The supplementation was Vigantol – vitamin D3 dissolved in triglyceride. Multiple studies from 1930s demonstrated significant improvement of respiratory immunity from taking cod liver oil [5], which contained not only vitamin D, but also Omega-3 fatty acid, and vitamin A. The effect of combined vitamin D / Omega-3 supplementation is a promising avenue for research. A word of caution: some sources say that modern techniques of cod liver and other fish oil preparation remove most vitamin D.
[21] and [22] reported an inverse correlation between sunlight UV and COVID-19 mortality,. This might be due of the anti-inflammatory effect of vitamin D and is out of the scope of this paper.
Conclusions
Exposure to UVB in sunlight or artificial UVB sources, in proper amounts and adjusted by skin phototype (dark skin might need 5-6 times more exposure than light skin), is necessary for maintaining normal innate immunity. Vitamin D supplements do not produce the same benefits or immunity as UVB exposure. UVB stimulates production of cathelicidin and other AMPs in the skin and/or certain blood cells travelling through skin. These AMPs are carried by the blood to the respiratory tract surfaces and enhance innate respiratory immunity.
No Competing Interests
The author declares no competing interest.
No funding was provided for this work.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to AO for the contribution to this paper.
An author's remark
- I bent backward in order not to say that the ozone hoax is behind the suppression of the research on the UVB health benefits. Nevertheless, this article has been rejected by preprints.org.
- People who wear masks outside further decrease the amount of the beneficial UVB.
- The innate immunity is surprisingly rarely mentioned in the discussions of the response to COVID-19, but it is what protects most people from getting sick when from exposure to SARS-COV-2.
References
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[12] Bals R, Wang X, Zasloff M, Wilson JM. The peptide antibiotic LL-37/hCAP-18 is expressed in epithelia of the human lung where it has broad antimicrobial activity at the airway surface. Proc Natl Acad Sci 1998;95:9541. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.95.16.9541.
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[15] Mallbris L, Wiegleb Edström D, Sundblad L, Granath F, Ståhle M. UVB Upregulates the Antimicrobial Protein hCAP18 mRNA in Human Skin. J Invest Dermatol 2005;125:1072–4. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-202X.2005.23872.x.
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[17] Gläser R, Navid F, Schuller W, Jantschitsch C, Harder J, Schröder JM, et al. UV-B radiation induces the expression of antimicrobial peptides in human keratinocytes in vitro and in vivo. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2009;123:1117–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2009.01.043.
[18] Schwarz T. The Dark and the Sunny Sides of UVR-Induced Immunosuppression: Photoimmunology Revisited. J Invest Dermatol 2010;130:49–54. https://doi.org/10.1038/jid.2009.217.
[19] Bergman P, Norlin A-C, Hansen S, Rekha RS, Agerberth B, Björkhem-Bergman L, et al. Vitamin D3 supplementation in patients with frequent respiratory tract infections: a randomised and double-blind intervention study. BMJ Open 2012;2:e001663. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2012-001663.
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Some studies find that vitamin D supplementation does indeed boost elements of the immune system, but others, not so much:
https://www.thelancet.com/article/S2352-3964(18)30141-5/pdf
Without controlling test subjects’ sun exposure, finding statistical significance would be dicey.
During the southern winter, I took supplements, but now it’s nearing summer and I get out more and expose more skin.
As usual Dr Goldberg is sadly not reliable. All his claims need fact checking.
Where is the reference for that claim that COVID is seasonal ?
You read it wrong:
“Acute viral respiratory infections, including COVID-19, are strongly correlated … ”
It is not COVID-19 that is the subject here but VIRAL RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS in general. So yes, they are seasonal as a group.
John’s Hopkins Newsletter disappeared an article by Genevieve Briand, a brave data analyst, who found that the decline in other causes of death roughly balanced out mortality attributed to COVID. But other sites archived the story:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201126163323/https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
There were excess deaths back in the spring, and may be again during this flu season. But the conclusion is that overall, fatality from heart disease and other major causes has been “recategorized” as attributed to COVID.
Apostrophe in Johns from uncaught auto fill.
Another knock against the silly recommendation to always wear sunscreen. The official stance of the FDA is ALWAYS USE SUNSCREEN, EVERY DAY, ALL YEAR.
Yes, every day. Even winter. Even when it is cloudy out.
“Sun safety is always in season, and it’s important to protect your skin from sun damage throughout the year, no matter the weather.”
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/tips-stay-safe-sun-sunscreen-sunglasses
Can you imagine the harm it would do if people actually listened to these idiots?
Well, if we haven’t now learnt from Government health advice, we never will. It’s all office politics and vested interests, because it’s government.
OTOH The dermatologists in my sunny Nevada city are busier than one-armed paper hangers. I just went through Mohs surgery to remove skin cancer. I had to wait 5 weeks for an opening.
yeah a lot more skin cancers as people burn easily when not adapting with bare skin
and the toxic muck IN the sunscreens doesnt help
“I get out more and expose more skin.”
Sickeningly, in most Australian schools, you will find numerous posters about how dangerous the slightest bit of sunlight is. Expose a square centimetre of skin for even a minute and you’ll die of skin cancer. One of the most sunlight-plentiful places in the inhabited world, and children are actually suffering from rickets.
Perhaps UV exposure is best, but there have been studies suggesting that supplemental vitamin D boosts immunity and reduces severity of CV19. See one such example the study below.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7456194/
Not just suggesting, proving.
The 2008 Flu study over 3 years showed that Vitamin D prevented women from having any Flu like symptoms.
https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-422X-5-29
This one showed a reduction children.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20219962/
Also more effective than the Flu Vaccine.
https://www.europereloaded.com/study-vitamin-d-is-more-effective-than-the-flu-vaccine/
Good articles. Imagine that, a solar connection.
Loads of studies showing overwhelmingly beneficial effects here
https://c19vitamind.com/
The following trial – while I think should not pre-select on deficiency, and should be double blind split into placebo, low, medium, and high doses – so could decide on a recommended supplement for the whole population, does have a good takeaway comment at the end here
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(20)30183-2/fulltext
“there is no downside to speak of, and good reason to think there might be a benefit”
What should have happened is a simple blood test to check where you are compared to where you should be and if deficient that is the absolute minimum dose you should be given. But the same applies to vitamin B12 as well.
This is what I found in 15 seconds (granted, I’m looking at this stuff all the time).
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.27.20239087v1
CDC tracks national health & death statistics and their C-19 web site has a plethora of tables displaying age, gender, location of death, comorbidities, by states and counties, etc.
One such table tallies “C-19 deaths” and “deaths from ALL causes” side by side.
There are around 2.6 million US deaths from ALL causes every year. On average that’s 7,500 per day or 50,000 per week. This is the “normal” load for the medical system.
To gauge the impact that C-19 deaths had compared to the normal national deaths they are plotted together on a common graphic along with the percentage of C-19 to ALL deaths.
The first wave peaked the week of 4/18/20 with 17,088 deaths or 22.3% of ALL deaths.
The second ripple peaked the week of 8/1/20 with 8,227 deaths or 12.9% of ALL deaths.
The third ripple peaked the week of 11/7/20 with 6,175 deaths or 11.6% of ALL deaths.
Cases don’t count, they are a function of testing which has become a total can of worms.
Deaths count.
From other tables:
Globally the US, India, Brazil and France together have more C-19 deaths than the ENTIRE rest of the world. (WHO)
Nationally NYC, TX, CA, FL, NJ, NY, IL, and PA together have more C-19 deaths than the ENTIRE rest of the country.
In Colorado, Denver, Adams, Arapahoe and El Paso counties together have more C-19 deaths than the ENTIRE rest of the state.
85% of US C-19 cases are among those under 65.
80% of US C-19 deaths are among those over 65.
24% of US C-19 deaths occurred in elder care, nursing, hospice.
Half of the 250,000 deaths occurred before 6/30, 20% of them in NYC alone.
Hard to comprehend how Covid-19 qualifies as a wide-spread, highly contagious, lethal pandemic.
More like a scam-demic big lie foisted on the public by opportunistic liberals and the fake news MSM.
“Nationally NYC, TX, CA, FL, NJ, NY, IL, and PA together have more C-19 deaths than the ENTIRE rest of the country”
While there is a distinction about NYC, the generalization of the other large states without regard to WHERE those deaths occur is misleading and political. In Florida, the concentration of cases/deaths have been in the Miami, Orlando, and Tampa areas. I believe that it is the truth that most of the cases/deaths are in urban areas. I say it is political because more detailed numbers that show this would go against the agenda that everyone must be restricted and/or locked down. It would also expose the failure of large city governments to meet the needs of those living there.
Those locales tend to have higher populations of people with darker skin. This includes the areas N Schroeder mentioned within Colorado and you mentioned within Florida. All of this is consistent with the probable importance of UVB exposure.
Those folks over there are locked down so they come over here to shop. example
The context for the above link is that Kingston is about 150 miles from Toronto so it’s not that it’s right next door or anything like that.
It is highly likely that population density and therefore interpersonal contacts are playing a large role in the increased rates of infection found in large urban centres. Similarly this is likely one of the reasons New Zealand has so few cases. We keep focusing on what politicians and the health system can do to reduce covid cases when it may well be that almost all of the variation we see is largely due to factors such as seasonality, population density, preexisting partial immunity due to genetic factors and prior exposure to cross-reacting pathogens, environmental factors and behavioural trends.
I 100% agree that case counts are deceptive statistics for many reasons including how aggressive health agencies are on testing, what technology they use and the rates of both false negative and false positive tests which are likely to be substantial.
When you subtract co-morbidiites COVID is a near non factor. It is a cousin of the common cold. The common cold, by the way, a virus that when contracted by old people with pre-existiong medical problems often leads to bronchitus, pneumonia and therefore contributes to death. It is quite probable that many of the deaths being chalked up to COVID were nothing more than Common Cold contributions to weakened immune systems but there is no buyout from Uncle Sugar for death by Common Cold.
IF we tracked and If the propagandist in the media reported common cold contractions with the same level of hysteria, half our population would develop agoraphobia and demand that everyone move about in public wear lunar walking gear. It is time for everyone to recognize that lockdowns and mask requirements in the U.S. are Central Authoritarian Government exercise of their Power and Control muscles. It may already be too late for “Civil Disobedience.” It appears we as a country have rolled over and played dead for the Marxists.
“Nationally NYC, TX, CA, FL, NJ, NY, IL, and PA together have more C-19 deaths than the ENTIRE rest of the country.”
They also close to 50% of the population of the US. So it isn’t surprising.
Under 40%, although with illegal aliens, who knows?
So Nick when you look at the First Wave at the mid Spring and most of those Deaths were in the Northeastern States that was still quite cold. The Second Wave was mostly throughout the Lower States. Now the Third Wave is building more from the Northern States and Higher Elevations in States that are getting colder…as Autumn turns to Winter…that Third Wave has not even started. While mostly on Facebook I have been commenting how we can literally follow how the cases and deaths have moved around the USA and in other countries and I used the Influenza Data over a decade to show how the weather changes also have the waxes and wanes for the severities of peak seasons over decades, where warmer winters are less than colder winters. I wrote the following as my comment to post this article on Facebook.
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTICLE YOU WILL EVER READ – EVER – TO PROTECT YOU FROM ALL VIRUSES AND YOUR LIFE MAY DEPEND UPON IT.
For several months I have made comments that Vitamin D is essential to our Immune Systems to fight off ALL VIRUSES. While I have talked about the importance of Direct Sunlight Exposure is all you really need, over that of Vitamin D Supplements. Over the past decade more studies have been done on Vitamin D, because whenever people are Vitamin D Deficient, they are more susceptible to getting sick from Viruses. “This paper posits that UVB light stimulates production of cathelicidin and other antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in the skin.” that are highly essential to our Immune Systems THAT VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENTS CANNOT PROVIDE.
For decades the Medical Health Professionals have been pushing that Sunlight Causes Cancers and that we should limit our exposure to Sunlight, use UV Protection Creams, Lotions and Sunglasses. Our Environmentalist have pushed for Energy Efficiency Buildings/Homes/etc. that all Glass for decades is designed to Block Out Ultraviolet Radiation (UV) that even our vehicles are made with UV Reducing Glass. ALL OF THOSE THINGS HAVE CREATED THE MEANS FOR US TO BECOME VULNERABLE TO ALL VIRUSES.
For months I have also been saying that while we have started moving Indoors more since the 1800s and especially since the Industrial Age of the 1900s with Modern Conveniences of Climate Controlled Buildings and Transportation. Our Lifestyles are making us sicker. This article strengthens my points on this. How during the colder months more people spend less time in the Sunlight, they dress warmer exposing less skin whenever they are Outdoors and the numbers of cases and deaths increases for All Respiratory Viruses.
During this COVID-19 Pandemic and all these Health Organizations and Governors and Mayors creating “Stay At Home” protocols that people shut themselves Indoors for weeks and months has ADDED to the Increase of Cases and Deaths that are filling our Hospitals ICU Wards.
This Article makes the point that Artificial UVB Lights can be used daily for Indoors to increase our Vitamin D and the other essential Immune Boosters we all need and the benefits outweigh the scare tactics of what causes Cancer. How many of you go shirtless, sleeveless, wear shorts, wear swim wear, throughout the summer and get lots of Sunlight without a lot of Sunscreens to get a Tan? Adding just 20 minutes of Artificial UVB Light Everyday in winter is all that most Lighter Skinned people need, and as it says, darker skinned people may need 4 to 6 times the exposure as whiter skinned people.
The Article supplies links to support this information…read them too.
Reply to John Chism.
I agree with your post and I am sure that the fear of exposure of our skin to the sun is the cause of a lot of health problems.
The fear of skin cancer has stopped people from absorbing sunlight and vitamin D and a golden tan on white skinned people used to be good for health.
In times gone by babies were put out in the sun with out cloths to absorb vitamin D and children ran around out side with only a hat and minimal clothing during summer.
At a recent cross country race at a middle school 90% of the children competing had no tanning on their arms and legs .The message that sun is bad has gone to far and in fact sunlight is good for health .
New Zealand does have some of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world because of our bright sunlight due to lack of air pollution .
Here in New Zealand the Covid 19 never got a hold as our borders were shut quickly and our worse deaths were from a rest home in Christchurch that was visited by passengers from a visiting cruise ship.
The strange thing here is that there is very little influenza around in New Zealand this year.
I have many friends in their 70s and 80s who have regular skin cancer checks and bits cut out but they are generally healthy and fit and most have worked out in the open air all their lives .
The message should be that sun is good for health but try not to get sunburn .
Graham
Decent UVB light sources are neither common nor available without a sizeable money outlay, as far as I can find.
Schroeder Valve wrote:
“Hard to comprehend how Covid-19 qualifies as a wide-spread, highly contagious, lethal pandemic.
More like a scam-demic big lie foisted on the public by opportunistic liberals and the fake news MSM.”
I would agree that “lethal” is an exaggeration unless only applied to nursing homes.
But COVID019 is wide spread and highly contagiou, and is still in progress.
That is reality.
Your claim is nonsense.
For the CDC “statistics”
Flu deaths are only a rough guess.
No one dies from the flu alone.
They have other medical problems or genetic defects.
SARS1 and MERS may be exceptions.
They die from a major organ failure.
Usually the lungs — pneumonia.
How much a flu infection contributed to that death is a guess.
With the exception of April 2020, there are not enough flu “deaths” out of the 220.000 to 240,000 deaths per month to be certain COVID-19 was responsible for an unusual month rather than random variations. Not only is the wild guessed COVID death count suspiciously high, but the wild guessed seasonal influenza death count is unusually low. These numbers may be good enough for government work, but are not good enough for real science.
“Schroeder Valve wrote:”
Fail. Schrader (valve) is not spelled or pronounced the same way as “Schroeder”. “Schroeder” is NOT pronounced with a long “a” sound.
Jeff Alsperts
I realize that 47.6 percent of my jokes are not even recognized as jokes. You may have no sense of humor, Alsperts, but I’ll have you know my wife frequently compares me with the famous comedian Rodney Dangerfield: “You look a lot like Rodney Dangerfield.”
I’ve got a great sense of humor. However, humor has to be present for me to sense it.
You might find this interesting…no evidence that COVID-19 contributed to excess deaths. Rather, nearly all other causes of death have been recast.
https://web.archive.org/web/20201126163323/https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
Nick,
The DemoKKKrats needed the hysteria over the ChiCom-19 virus to add mail in voting as another arrow in their quiver for stealing the 2020 election! That is why they worked so hard to spread fear and panic while suppressing easy and inexpensive treatments like Vitamin D and the HCQ regimen! An easily controlled respiratory virus would have made voting in person too hard to discourage!
They have killed tens of thousands of Americans with their insane policies yet the lapdog press says nothing, and Big Ag and the pharmaceutical companies are making money hand over fist! Private citizens, small businesses and churches are being decimated while massive corporations are seeing record profits! Sounds like a win-win proposition for the crooks!
Hey Goldstein, the other snake oil you were hyping has more problems: https://www.politico.eu/article/drugs-hyped-as-coronavirus-treatment-linked-to-psychiatric-disorders-says-ema/
Goldstein is the guru of elixir-type cures.
Well that explains why the entire country of India is suffering from psychiatric disorders.
/sarc
When studies are done correctly, proper HCQ treatment exhibits positive benefits. In too many cases, like you are doing, CQ and HCQ are misconstrued and the synergy of zinc and other agents appear to be intentionally omitted.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924857920304258?fbclid=IwAR2ThVW8heoWpjCJNALqNZOklRcDarS9csetteKE_jpT8U0l3-SH6IeJDHg
What part of:
“six cases of mental disturbances linked to coronavirus patients who were given higher than authorized doses of the medicines” did you not understand?
Had the same exact thought, Bruce Cobb! Obviously bethan didn’t make it past the headline.
badEnglish
Hey bethan, 100s of millions of people have taken HCQ every day for an antimalarial (and since WWII). Its root precursor, chloroquine has been taken since the 17th Century by European colonizers in Africa and South America. The EUSSR (your article source) did some official testing but used massive doses (4+ times normal) that made people sick. The poisonous dosage was the point of the studies!
I and family took HCQ over several years working in Africa and Brazil and among friends and colleagues there was no sign of the psychiatric rubbish in the woke article you cite. Of course there are side effects known with every medicine, but HCQ is one demonstrating fewer and less frequent side effects than all other medications. A lethal dose of milk will kill you and many people are allergic to it in tiny quantities.
Before D. Trump opined on HCQ and alarmed the totality folk who didn’t want a quick cure to interfere with other plans they have for us, the literature had little of this nonsense. Did you know it is also prescribed for lupus and rheumatoid arthriris, the latter to take people off more dangerous pain killers. Now, had you argued that HCQ wasn’t effective for Covid, okay, there is a fair debate in that.
I hope you now have a more robust knowledge about HCQ. Citing selected literature and feeling that it ends the argument is a sign you haven’t transcended your recent schooling’s mind design. This isn’t good enough for the world’s number one science blog. Be a devil and disagree with at least something coming from the ‘ministry of truth’. If you don’t then your contribution isn’t yours.
Gary, please post a link to a double-blind randomized study that show HCQ is effective against the COVID virus.
HCQ is used to reduce disease caused inflammation in the body. HCQ is probably more effective against the conditions brought on by COVID 19 than the virus itself. Keeping inflammation under control is an important part of limiting the effects of a virus.
Typical leftist appeal to authority ding bat comment from the Bethany — a legend in her own mind !
HCQ is a cheap generic drug intended as a synthetic quinine for malaria and also used for lupus patients. No one is going to pay for a double blind study of COVID patients. And let half of them take only a sugar pill ! Doctors have reported that COVID cases have been low in nations where HCQ is regularly used in small doses to prevent malaria. A survey of lupus patients taking HCQ would be valuable too. A double blind study is expensive and takes a long time. You don’t have time in a pandemic, so you you survey doctors who use HCQ and get 1000’s of anecdotes. That is called a field study. But never mind the experience of doctors, we have Bethany the leftist ding bat to set us straight.
Have a nice day
R. Greene
Ph.D. in Ding bat Studies
” No one is going to pay for a double blind study of COVID patients.”
..
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2016638
…
(Funded by David Baszucki and Jan Ellison Baszucki and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04308668.)
Bethany provided a “study” (link below) from March 2020. The study is complete nonsense and that took me less than five minute to determine.
Subjects were NOT picked at random.
Strike one, two and three !
Subjects could include:
“people who lived with someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19”
— That SHOULD be someone who tested positive in at least two COVID tests.
“Diagnosed” is not specific. Nor is that a random selection.
— People who are not doctors were asked to judge whether they had COVID-19 symptoms … that could really be seasonal influenza symptoms, common cold symptom allergy symptoms, or something else.
FROM THE SO-CALLED “random” STUDY
that is OBVIOUSLY NOT RANDOM:
” ” If you are symptomatic with a positive COVID-19 test within the first 4 days of symptoms and are not hospitalized; OR
If you live with someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, with your last exposure within the last 4 days, and do not have any symptoms; OR
If you live with someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and your symptoms started within the last 4 days; OR
If you have had occupational exposure with known exposure to someone with lab-confirmed COVID-19 within the last 4 days and do not have symptoms; OR
If you have had occupational exposure with known exposure to someone with lab-confirmed COVID-19 within the last 4 days AND have compatible symptoms starting within the last 4 days;”
In addition, the early results of field studies in May 2020 were: People in nations with high malaria rates, where regular small doses of HCQ were taken, over long periods of time, to prevent malaria … also had extremely low rates of COVID-19 infections.
The so-called study I dismissed earlier did NOT test to see if that foreign field experience was useful information.
“Studies” are a typical leftist appeal to authority — they cite a study — without understanding it.
Richard Greene
Ph.D. in ding-bat studies
(dingo-bat for Australian readers)
HCQ has performed equally as Gilead’s expensive antiviral remdesivir.
Both effective if given very early in covid infection, both useless against late covid infection.
The establishment’s different reaction to the two equally performing drugs tells you how the establishment works.
HCQ is the Trump drug and any possible tortuous argument is endlessly used to discredit it.
Remdesivir is still the establishment’s darling.
The network of financial interests is such that it is in the interests of the left establishment to promote the expensive remdesivir. But obviously not HCQ.
As Michael Moore showed in “Planet of the Humans”, the interests of the left establishment are aligned with big business and giant corporations.
The crime of HCQ is that it is cheap and off patent.
The advantage of remdesivir is that it is expensive and keeps the gravy rolling through the well oiled establishment channels including the left wing science-media mafia.
As in the climate debate, the left can casually forget a mountain of data on HCQ used against malaria in hundreds of millions of people over hundreds of years, just disappear it all in an instant, and focus on a single bullshit study showing supposed deadly side effects that somehow have not been noticed before in all those billions of people-years taking HCQ.
It’s back to the dark ages with illiterate masses ruled by superstitious scare stories issuing endlessly from establishment-aligned monasteries.
“Both effective if given very early in covid infection, both useless against late covid infection.”
I wouldn’t say that.
There are lots of stories of people who claimed they were on Death’s door who took HCQ and recovered quite spectaclarly. I recall one man who appeared to be in his 40’s say he was to the point of saying his goodbye’s to all his friends via email, and one of his friends emailed him back and asked him if he had heard about HCQ (he had not), and told him to ask his doctor about it. His doctor agreed and gave him HCQ that night about 9pm and at about 5am the next morning the man rang his nurse who came in the room and was stunned to see the man sitting up with his legs hanging off the bed and telling her he was feeling much better. He recovered and attributed his recovery to HCQ.
Dr. Seigel, a Fox News medical consultant, said his 95-year old father had Wuhan virus and was in a bad way and they tried HCQ as a last resort and his father recovered. Dr. Seigel attributes his recovery to HCQ.
And wouldn’t you know it, someone asks for a double-blind HCQ test and I just read about one two days ago, but didn’t save the link. If I recall, they claimed they had an 84 percent success rate with the HCQ. I knew I should have saved that link!
The Regeneron cocktail Trump took looks like it might be a good treatment for the Wuhan virus. It’s not readily available at the moment, unfortunately. I don’t know how much it would cost.
With regard to HCQ double-blind studies, Taiwan is currently conducting HCQ double-blind tests for both prevention and treatment of the Wuhan virus. It just got started and I don’t know when results can be expected.
Humira has been a top selling drug for a number of years.
From Wiki:
” Humira is a medication used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativa, uveitis, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. ”
From Google
“Among all prescription drugs over the last 15 years, the biologics Humira and Enbrel are the most-cited in the FDA’s database, the Journal Sentinel review found. Humira was linked to 169,000 reported serious adverse events and 13,000 reports of deaths, followed by Enbrel with 135,000 serious events and 8,000 deaths.”
I assume Humira is more effective than HCQ for rheumatoid arthritis otherwise why would you risk dying?
humira and eare PUSHED as new and useful to the gps
HQ isnt
I had the docs pushing some truly nasty meds onto me and suffered the horrid side effects
sulphas skin peeling inside n out / hq- nearly blinded me/methotrexate made me wish i could just die,
then an older doc(specialist) tried gold imjections
oldfashioned off patent no bells n whistles from the pharmas
and it worked very well for me
celebrex was pushed heavily until the massive damages were eventually made public and it got blackboxed, under pressure.
I cant take any of the NSAID meds
Ive seen too many PETS killed BY the nsaid meds theyre given as pre and post op pain relief when theyre really bad for aged pets kidneys n liver function.meloxicams a favorite as it comes in liquid form.
the pill form of that? half a pill for 2 days has my gut hurting
animals cant speak out, they just suffer.
And if your overdose is more severe, it will kill you. Most drugs have that effect including many available at the supermarket. The pack size of analgesics here in the UK was reduced so that if you took the whole packet, you were more likely to survive if treated early enough.
Most studies show HCQ works well if given reasonably early.
https://c19study.com/
If you want to sound a little more informed and reverse your rectal-cranial inversion, I would recommend the white paper on HCQ published by the Economic Standard! They have compiled lots of information and studies about the widely prescribed drug and explain it for the hard of thinking!
Incidentally, lots of drugs get approved for use without double blind studies! I don’t think you want to discontinue the use of the tetanus vaccine, tetracycline or amoxicillin, but they were approved without RCTs!
Fake News based on corrupt proceedings of European Medicines Agency, the FDA’s twin.
Thanks, interesting. Tho I have to say my hatred of cold makes it near impossible for me to get much sun in the cold season.
The article gave you an alternative. You could use an UVB lamp indoors.
Thanks, I’ll look into it.
Interesting thesis. I have seen sufficient comments about UVB on skin producing good vitamin D that I regularly take off my shirt and sit in the sun. In the winter I find a protected corner with sunlight and enjoy the micro-climate. Sometimes I even double-down, and drink a glass of red wine while generating vitamin D.
This blog post looks at the epidemiology of Covi-19 as it relates to sun exposure according to latitude and season of the year.
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2020/07/09/here-is-a-coronavirus-puzzle-for-you-to-ponder-a-guest-article/
The statement “The hypothesis that UVB exposure can be replaced with vitamin D supplementation, in order to maintain innate respiratory immunity, has somehow become entrenched. This flawed belief continues to persist despite multiple studies in which oral supplementation with vitamin D has shown no or little respiratory immunity benefits [7].” seems to be at odds with the statement of the study referenced, “Conclusions Vitamin D supplementation was safe and it protected against acute respiratory tract infection overall.”
The bigger flaw is to talk of supplementation without reference to blood levels of 25-hydroxy D. The effect of supplementation on blood levels of 25-hydroxy D varies a great deal amongst individuals. Studies measuring 25-hydroxy D are more informative.
Very cloudy where I live. Because I like it I do eat a serving of wild caught salmon everyday-supposedly high in vitamin D and A, calcium and omega 3 from what I’ve read.
The article is confirming what my parents said in the 1960s: You kids, get out in the sun and play!
In the summertime we kids were mostly half naked, our parents would bathe in the ocean and we were eating our early breakfast outside when the sun shined from a clear sky.
Why are we making science out of what we have already learned from generation after generation?
“Why are we making science out of what we have already learned from generation after generation?”
Ironically, “science,” i.e., the medical community, has spent the last three decades warning new parents that they need to protect their young, and themselves, from the sun, and will apparently continue to do so regardless of the consequences.
As kid I got prescription for sunlamp in wintertime by our med.
Not only to prevent cold but also to prevent rachitis.
Krishna
Sunlamps are great skin cancer promoters.
And what is rachitis?
Sounds really bad.
Rachitis is deformation of bones because of missing vitamine D and it’s regulation of calcium in the body.
I got it because of several strong and bad bronchitis.
Got no skin cancer.
Maybe we call it rickets here in the USA
Never heard of rachitis.
As usual bad advice from politicians playing doctor and getting it wrong. And I didn’t mention tin horn dictators.
Hard to comprehend how Covid-19 qualifies as a wide-spread, highly contagious, lethal pandemic.
More like a scam-demic big lie foisted on the public by opportunistic liberals and the fake news MSM.
I am reminded of the “Do you know anyone who has contracted Covid-19?” survey here at WattUpWithThat a while back. I just can’t get too excited about a disease that most people survive and many of them don’t even know they have or had. And we’re all running around wearing masks that are reported by many including Dr. Fauci himself as having little effect. The obvious politicization of COvid-19 is illustrated by the pooh pooing of Hydroxychloroquine within hours of President Trumps news conference back in March. Which brings me to wonder if the benefits of sunshine and exposed skin are all they are cracked up to be. So far I haven’t seen the communists that run the news media pooh pooh the idea. I suppose there are all kinds of reasons one could come up with why they haven’t. I simply don’t know what to believe.
It is easy to find articles saying that Vitamin D supplements don’t work.
On the other hand …
There is compelling evidence that calcifediol, a Vitamin D metabolite, does work. Spanish study
As far as I can tell, and I’ve been looking, nobody has debunked the Spanish study. The best they can do is grump about the sample size. The effect size is so huge though that it makes the sample size irrelevant (p value X2 Fischer test p < 0.001). The only way this study could be wrong would be outright fraud and there's no evidence of that.
Some folks don’t like the idea that insufficient Vitamin D in your blood predisposes you to the Wuflu. That’s because they want to ascribe the increased incidence of Wuflu in black people to racism. Black skin makes it harder for your skin to make Vitamin D. Black people do suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. link Racism explains some things, but this isn’t one of them.
The racism of the lord our god Dr. Fauci is clearly evident. I can find no reference of him mentioning V D until Sept. 14th. If he had any desire to actually help, he would have mentioned the need for dark skinned people, especially older, to supplement with D very early in this whole scamdemic. V D deficiency is WELL KNOWN to to be an issue for unhealthy people of any hue of skin. Those with less melatonin are just less likely to have the issue of D deficiency.
Those who benefit from this “pandemic” are more interested in their selves then helping others.
As for studies showing low effectiveness of Vitamin D supplements: Were the supplements taken over enough time to reverse a Vitamin D deficiency with the dose of Vitamin D in the supplements that were used? Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin, and taking the usual recommend daily intake will take a while to reverse a Vitamin D deficiency, especially in people who are overweight.
So, you’re saying California’s relative success is more sun than governor? So hard to believe that the sun can be more powerful than the world’s best governor ever. (/utter disrespect)
Partly OT
Lawyers attempt to sue WHO for misleading the world over pandemic
That will start these days, and Drosten will be sued as will be Lothar Wieler, boss of RKI in Germany.
It will be based on the PCR test results and the wrong positive results.
Could be interesting.
I wish some lawyers would sue the IPCC for all the nonsense they spout.
Get outside more is good advice. We try to get a walk in, of at least 1/2 hour every day, however that can become more difficult in the winter months. The health benefits of exercising every day, outdoors, if possible, are well-known. The sun angle is lower then though, making it perhaps a bit more difficult to get good sun exposure. So, we supplement with D3/K2 in the winter months. Coincidentally, we also take a fish oil capsule (1 g), and I don’t think I was aware (or forgot) of the connection with Vitamin D, so good to know that.
“vitamin D supplementation has shown little or no effect in the prevention of respiratory infections in adults”
What level of supplementation are we talking about here, Dr Fauci reportedly takes 6000 IUs per day(150 micrograms)
https://vitamindwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Dr.%20Fauci%20takes%206%2C000%20IU%20of%20Vitamin%20D%20daily%20%E2%80%93%20Sept%202020
I’m not sure if anyone realises, forgive me if you do, but due to the angle of the sun here in the UK during winter, there is no UVB available from roughly the end of October until the beginning-mid March.
I guess this would be the same wherever the angle of the sun dips below that angle where no UVB is available.
NeverReady
Remember what Vitamin D suppliments do here in the UK. They help and top up the vitamin D you get in the summer (only really if you have pale/white skin in the UK sun) Our summer sun is too weak to help most people with darker skin but if you do get enough sun in the summer, then suppliments, including Cod Liver Oil, are a great way to keep your levels high enough to get to March/April when the sun gets stronger.
“Vitamin D & the Upper Respiratory Tract”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmDng_uMCnY
Human beings in their natural habitat have blood levels of 40-60 ng/ml(100-150nmol/ml)
From my understanding, it is the breakdown of mRNA of any virus by UV radiation which is the key point. Not the following production of Vitamin D.
Run around with an open mouth to let the sunshine in, wearing a face-mask ??? 😀
You are talking about the sterilizing effect of UV directly on microbes and that is used in labs and other processes to kill pathogens on surfaces and in the air. It is not a technique applicable to human treatments.
The genetic material destruction by UV is not accomplished much by UVB. UVC lamps are used for inactivating viruses and killing bacteria.
From the article:
In the following, let me state that I am not talking down to people dressing differently!
With reference to the quoted, it would be interesting to know if orthodox Muslim woman wearing vale outdoors contract CODID-19 more frequently after infection by SARS-CoV-2, than woman not wearing mask or vale outdoors.
Israel appears to have experience with different religious communities being covered up while intense sunlight is available. The muslim population appears to do worse with CONID-19 (particularly women), but so do the Orthodox Jews who wear broad-rimmed hats, and encompassing clothing. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200908/Vitamin-D-deficiency-can-increase-risk-of-COVID-19.aspx
In many sunny countries, the locals avoid the intense sumlight, so they suffer vit D deficiency, and we have the old saying “only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun”.
India has tested using cheap big dose Vit D as post-test intervention. Seems that standard treatment for deficiency there is a weekly 60,000 IU capsule followed by a maintenance dose of the same capsule monthly. Their trial used that dosage daily (costing about £1 total?) with good results.
https://pmj.bmj.com/content/early/2020/11/12/postgradmedj-2020-139065
Thanks Paul C,
it helps the idea that the Sun is your friend. It improves well being and general health as long as you don’t overdo it.
Dr John Campbell discusses the striking results of a clinical study of vitamin D conducted this year in Spain on COVID patients admitted to a hospital.
Thank you for this video.
Jack
Here is the link to the study he is discussing:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960076020302764
You know my favourite subject – Soil Erosion and the subsequent erosion of people
School grade inorganic chemistry will tell you that things such as the alkali metals are especially sensitive to acids. Also the metals in the group next to Sodium Potassium etc. i.e Calcium & Magnesium.
Farming types (AKA peasants) will tell you that nitrogen fertiliser is a very potent substance for acidifying farmland soil.
Put *those* 2 together, then add Vitamin D and #tada#
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180226122548.htm
Even worse, Magnesium is a *vital* neurotransmitter.
Those ‘in the know’ during the European Mad Cow epidemic could only smile when animals in France suffered and epidemic of ‘Grass Staggers’ while UK cows got Bovine Spongiform Encapalopcsdgsfwy (BSE)
The symptoms & presentation are *identical*
People also get BSE but its called new variant Creutzfeld Jakob Disease (nCJD)
CJD is ‘Dementia’ as know/love it and is presently enjoyed/endured by 12% of us in old age – expected to be 25% inside 20 years time
Makes you wonder don’t it
Off topic but scary.
A few minutes ago I received a voice message from the mother of a young person most of you already know. This is far too serious for me to reveal their names – sorry.
The message is in German. The mother who speaks is a lawyer. Message length is 1 minute 37 seconds published 2020/11/27 17:32 CET
The contents is a serious warning that an incident had occurred where she needed to assist her children as they were approached by the Geheimdienst/Secret-Service. She warns that the Secret-Service have begun to pursue people who speak contra to the consensus view. She further warns that we should be particular alert to woman as they are more often used as informers.
Her tone of voice today made it run cold down my spine. Only yesterday the same mother and daughter published a voice message and video celebrating the mother’s birthday. Yesterday both were ever so happy.
Consensus about COv-19 or CC ?
Maybe.
She was ordered to take some climate videos taken down some time ago.
But one or two days ago she published an index of papers under the title:
“DIE WICHTIGSTEN ARTIKEL ZU CORONA JETZT IN VERSCHIEDENEN SPRACHEN”
“The Most Important Articles regarding CORONA now in various languages”.
http://wissenschafftplus.de/cms/de/wichtige-texte
But I do not know the exact circumstances.
What the guys wantetd from her ?
THANKS for the very interesting paper !
For easy measurement of UVB from either sun or UV lamps… this meter will give results in µW/cm²:
https://www.solarmeter.com/product/model62/
For shortwave UVB, the erythemally weighted models 7.0 and 7.5 relate directly to D3 synthesis. And model 6.4 converts D3 effective UVB into IU-equivalent per minute of exposure.
Aside from Planned Parenthood et al, have there been excess deaths, attributable to Covid-19 and Planned Parent?
Government Lies Exposed By… Government
There has been no dislocation in government benefit payments. A separate post in the Johns Hopkins student paper, now removed, but archived, and restored, argues that there have been no statistically significant changes in year to year total deaths.
A closer look at U.S. deaths due to COVID-19
Editor’s Note: After The News-Letter published this article on Nov. 22, it was brought to our attention that our coverage of Genevieve Briand’s presentation “COVID-19 Deaths: A Look at U.S. Data” has been used to support dangerous inaccuracies that minimize the impact of the pandemic.
We decided on Nov. 26 to retract this article to stop the spread of misinformation, as we noted on social media. However, it is our responsibility as journalists to provide a historical record. We have chosen to take down the article from our website, but it is available here as a PDF.
Interesting.
“However, vitamin D supplementation has shown little or no effect in the prevention of respiratory infections in adults.”
I am not convinced that COVID-19 is really a respiratory infection. Several early reports found COVID to affect the lungs last. The first thing that was noticed was the bloods inability to carry oxygen. This would lead to organ damage and the bodies response to the organ damage lead to lung infections.
Wouldn’t a respiratory virus hit the lungs first?
With time I think medicine will have to admit how wrong they have been.
“…multiple studies in which oral supplementation with vitamin D has shown no or little respiratory immunity benefits [7].”
Huh? ‘
[7]…https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i6583
“…Vitamin D supplementation was safe and it protected against acute respiratory tract infection overall. Patients who were very vitamin D deficient and those not receiving bolus doses experienced the mostbenefit.”
This report offers the same conclusion:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960076020302764
Reports I’ve read that claim to prove the ineffectiveness of Vitamin D all used risibly low dosages, such as 2000iu, that are arguably insufficient to sustain even “adequate” blood levels in the absence of sunlight.
I am astonished that no mention has been made of a complementary zinc daily dose. At the onset of Coronavirus epidemic, our GP daughter delivered to us (deemed to be in a very vulnerable group) a tub of Vitamin D3, 25 microg, PLUS High Strength Zinc (Gluconate), 15 milligrams; with instructions to take one of each per day.
We have done that and continue to do so. Moreover, both of us are just emerging from having been positively tested with the virus. We have found the symptoms were barely that of a very mild dose of flu’, other than the tiresome loss of taste and smell which is now slowly beginning to recover. Certainly we have not had our daily activities curtailed in any way.
Given there has been published articles on this combination months ago I am not impressed with current standards of academia. Fearmongoring seems to be the driving pattern of their efforts as those of the elites both national and international, not truth.
In biology the more you look for the more you find.
But knowledge is not understanding.
By spinning an endless alphabet soup of new proteins and receptors and genes and pathways one creates the impression that knowledge is advancing but it is not.
A theory becomes popular or useful and it is incredibly easy to spin a bio-story with new alphabet soup of molecular players in a signalling cartoon, to wow the masses.
But it is easy for such decorated narrative to lead people down the garden path, for abundance of bio-information to be mistaken as knowledge.
It’s too easy to spin an alphabet soup argument to support whatever position you like.
Voluminous molecular-genetic research in big Pharma is NOT resulting in more new drugs, instead they complain of empty pipelines so they resort to finding new applications for old favourites.
And there have been colossal failures like the stomach ulcer story and the unsaturated fats fairy tale.
“The lack of UVB exposure and low levels of vitamin D are strongly associated with each other and with a susceptibility to respiratory infections. The hypothesis that UVB exposure can be replaced with vitamin D supplementation, in order to maintain innate respiratory immunity, has somehow become entrenched. This flawed belief continues to persist despite multiple studies in which oral supplementation with vitamin D has shown no or little respiratory immunity benefits [7]”
“[7] Martineau AR, Jolliffe DA, Hooper RL, Greenberg L, Aloia JF, Bergman P, et al. Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data. BMJ 2017;356:i6583. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i6583”
“Conclusions Vitamin D supplementation was safe and it protected against acute respiratory tract infection overall. Patients who were very vitamin D deficient and those not receiving bolus doses experienced the most benefit”
Did you ever read [7]?
Obviously not.
Leo Goldberg is a quack.
This article recommends UVB rays that cause aging , cataracts and skin cancer
That is the advice of a fool
Or a dermatologist who wants more business
This article should be deleted from this website
And quack Leo Goldberg should be permanently banned.
Unless promoting bad advice is a goal here.
You are quick to judge Richard, the effects you mention do not occur in populations with a sufficient intake of unmodified Omega 3 and Omega 6 fats. Highly processed seed sourced cooking oils make for poor cell membrane, and excess Omega 6 oils, common in the Western diet, are inflammatory, leading to weak blood vessels leading to many degenerative diseases.
I found by personal experience that a lifetime of sun exposure was causing the usual signs of skin ageing. A cancer diagnosis indicated a change to a healthy diet of mainly raw vegetables and fruit, including 45mls of Flaxseed oil, cold pressed, refrigerated and blended with high protein yogurt and ~40grams of freshly ground flax seed.
It was pleasantly surprising to find that after a few months of this, old moles dried up and fell off, so too skin- tags, and the crocodilian wrinkles of an 81 year old were replaced with a smooth skin and a sheen.
I still get plenty of sun, never use sunscreen but sensibly cover up on high UV days here at 32* S and 1000mtres altitude. At 88 now I get complimentary remarks about my skin and lack of wrinkles, a friend at lectures we both attend said she nearly fell off her chair when she heard how old I was. Castor oil applied regularly to any blemish that appears has meant no skin excisions either,
The cancer is still there, but I thank it for a change of lifestyle that keeps me flexible in joint, actively fit and thoroughly enjoying the life I have.
How much exposure is enough to per day to get the necessary dosage for protection?
Light brown to white skin tones.
What is the “proper amount” of exposure?
There are sensible, working, health professionals who may strongly disagree with this statement.
The guy, in the link below, is one such. He has produced many good videos on youtube, especially since Feb/March. This one is probably his first video on the efficacy of Vitamin D in respiratory infections and I recommend watching his later ones too. (As well as most of his videos).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5yVGmfivAk&t=1044s
Separately, and more generally, especially for male readers, I post another link about Vitamin D and treatments for prostate cancer and individuals with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH, enlarged prostate gland).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqblQNt-HIg
This is real medical-trial research by real doctors on real patients with real prostate cancer or real BPH).
I recommend watching it carefully.
If nothing else, it puts to bed most scare stories you may read about the likelihood of vitamin D overdose toxicity. In this video (and I recall he may have another one or two related ones available on the internet) he also makes the case for just how much more Vitamin D most humans should be taking.
Except for those spending a lot of time outdoors in sunny climates with little clothing, the likelihood is we would all mostly benefit from much higher vitamin D intake. It also makes sense from an evolutionary perspective.
Would the UVB lamps used in pet reptile cages be an appropriate artificial source?
This is a scientific paper preprint. It is not intended to cover anything but its narrow subject.
Vitamin D supplements have their place in prevention of diseases of bones and inflammatory conditions, and even ARDS in COVID-19.
Both excessive and insufficient sun exposure are harmful. Optimal amounts depend on the skin type, latitude, time of year and day. It is always better to expose a large part of the body for shorter time than a small part for longer time.
With 1/4 of the body, there is a broad range of exposures providing enough UVB for vitamin D but causing no skin redness.
Wearing short pants and sleeves == 1/4 of the body
Face only == 1/16 of the body
Face under mask outdoors == idiot
Hey Leo G,
Thanks for the paper and discussion.
I am having a hard time digesting some of the comments and sediments from some of the folks here on this subject from people who I thought were better than your average leftist “person”; they (some of the long time contributors and posters) have actually allowed themselves to fall for the leftist cancel culture.
We all need to look in the mirror to make sure we are questioning the idea and subject and not attacking the person for having an idea. A lot of you failed to do that this time around. Go back and read your own comments objectively. There’s a lot of vitriol embedded in them.
I will leave with what I hope is a useful contribution; and frankly with a good thumb poke in all the naysayers’ eye:
I do not have a link to this paper. Only a pdf:
S236 | Public Health Then and Now | Peer Reviewed | Hobday and Cason
American Journal of Public Health | Supplement 2, 2009, Vol 99, No. S2
“The Open-Air Treatment of Pandemic Influenza” – Richard A. Hobday, PhD, and John W. Cason, PhD
Maybe the sun facilitating higher production of Vitamin D and AMP, getting people out of breathing the same diseased air and thus lowering the invasive biological burden is the actual why of the better outcomes. Perhaps we need to re-examine why these outdoor or open-air treatment centers produce better outcomes given Leo Goldstein’s paper. I have many papers discussing the benefits of open-air treatments.
At the practical and pragmatic level I will continue to institute an active Sun healthy lifestyle. Being in Texas now I will have good strong Sunshine available more often through out the year.
Note to MODS: posting from my laptop; normally my mobile.