Cutting down vitamin D tests could help lower carbon cost of healthcare
HT/David Archibald
More ridiculous counting of angels dancing on the head of pins from nitwits searching every corner of human activity for the dreaded carbon footprint.
Unnecessary vitamin D testing in Australia is costing our health care system up to $87 million and creating a significant carbon footprint which otherwise could be avoidable, says researchers.
Unnecessary vitamin D testing in Australia is costing our healthcare system up to $87 million and is contributing to the sector’s significant but avoidable carbon footprint, say researchers.
A study examining the climate impact of low-value healthcare activity in Australia has found that unnecessary vitamin D tests generated carbon emissions equivalent to a car driving from Sydney to Perth 59 times.
The researchers say in 2020 unnecessary vitamin D tests in Australia cost the healthcare system over $87 million (AUD) and had a carbon footprint of 28,000 to 42,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (kg CO2e).
The carbon footprint from vitamin D tests was calculated from the embedded emissions in the blood collection equipment such as needles, syringes and glass tubes. They have to be manufactured, distributed and disposed of, all of which generates carbon emissions.
Reducing unnecessary vitamin D tests could help lower the carbon footprint of healthcare in the country.
https://www.nationaltribune.com.au/cutting-down-vitamin-d-tests-could-help-lower-carbon-cost-of-healthcare/
David noted in his tip to WUWT:
Vitamin D blood tests in Australia produce 37 tonnes per annum of CO2. This is reason enough to reduce their environmental load. A 787 flying from Australia to London nonstop will produce 270 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
From the article. It’s worse than we thought/think/imagine
Carbon costs most likely an ‘underestimate’
The researchers say the estimate of carbon emissions and costs from unnecessary vitamin D tests in Australia is most likely an underestimation. The analysis used Medicare records, which means tests not covered by Medicare were not included in their calculations.
https://www.nationaltribune.com.au/cutting-down-vitamin-d-tests-could-help-lower-carbon-cost-of-healthcare/
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Why so many Vitamin D tests anyhow? If you live above or below 35 degrees latitude you are deficient in vitamin D. That’s pretty much a given.
And the amount of Vitamin D one gets with a multivitamin is next to useless. A stand alone Vitamin D capsule is needed.
Every country has their own pharmacological mins & maximums, so you wont be able to buy anything harmful over the counter where you live.
youd be surprised. while recommended govt amt of vitamins exist theyre the barest MINIMUM/traces usually( why docs say they dont work, theyre not intended to!unless youre in serious deficit when anything is a bonus)
recent ramp up of scares of excess vit D and B intakes
when you look further the people took highdose daily OR used multiple supplements that had 50mg or more EACH of B12 for example
and in excess that CAN cause issues
massive vit D can do that too but it requires a BIGGER dose of stupid to manage to do that
This is really dumb. Over half the population is deficient in vit D and worrying about harmless CO2 would make it worse. Deficient usually means less than 30 ng/ml but even that might be lower than optimum. After taking 7000 IU/day for a long time I tested 65 ng/ml but I’m really old and don’t get out much. Some suggest 2000 IU/day for most people, but should check, too much can also be bad. Here is result of one study: https://www.grassrootshealth.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/disease-incidence-prev-chart-051317.pdf
My wife and daughter take 10,000 IU gelcaps daily. Wife takes 50,000 weekly and daughter takes 70,000 weekly. Both now test well within normal ranges. Supplements are wonderful things
Wife has been taking them because of osteoporosis.
Daughter because of gastric bypass surgery
That is a lot of Vitamin D supplements for a typical woman
That can harm kidneys, and that’s not good
“…half the population…” Let’s face reality, 95% of the population is “healthy” so the 50% vitamin deficiency meme is just good salesmanship by the UMI, the useless meds industry….
Uh, no. Not true. Vitamin D3 can be bought in many stores. The UMI has nothing to do with it.
Multiple studies have proven the benefits of Vitamin D3 supplements, especially, with Covid.
We know dark-skinned people have a difficult time getting enough Vitamin D. Dark-skinned people died from Covid at a higher rate. The CDC blamed, of course, “racism”. They never ever told dark-skinned people to take Vitamin D3 which would have saved lives. Who is the racist?
I am not into the details of pathology but I believe Vitamin D testing is one of an array of blood chemistry tests done from a single sample. That means the sampling syringe was not only for the Vitamin D sample.
Since 2015, it has not been recommended that Vitamin D be included in the standard suite of blood tests. This was due to the cost and the accumulated knowledge that the majority of Australians have a Vitamin D deficiency due to the very effective messaging on slip.slop slap over the decades.
It would probably work out lower cost to provide everyone who were concerned with Vitamin D supplements than doing blood tests with a high probability of the known outcome. That said I had my level tested this year in order to determine if I needed supplements. I do not need much sunshine to maintain an adequate blood level.
You have to ask for the optional vitamin D test
Recommended once a year if you take Vitamin D supplements.
And berate your doctor when it does not show up
No extra cost, or a tiny upcharge, from a standard array of blood tests.
I am on prednisone to control an autoimmune problem, so have regular blood tests to check if I an developing diabetes from this. A Vitamin D test is included.
In south east Queensland I spend a couple of hours a day in shorts gardening, watering & on the ride on mower, which gives me a higher Vitamin D level than most. It is still not as high as recommended to assist in preventing Covid. I would change doctors immediately if mine resisted including the D test
I have my vitamin D tested periodically here in the States because it has been chronically low in the past. The test is one of several tests run on a single blood sample. It does not require a separate sample as the article suggests is the case in Australia. Perhaps the Australian medical establishment needs to update their testing method?
multiple tests usually require multiple vials each is colour coded for the labs to grab for specifics some WILL use one vial for a series but specifics like VitD do require a separate vial, kept away from all light sources for a proper result.
Ive just had a series of tests for obscure bloodbugs done 12 tests listed 5 vials used
I dunno. I had my D levels checked during a routine blood test. They did not use five vials, just one.
This is another Big Lie like climate change.
My doctor would not sign for a Vitamin D test unless I had some medical problem like Thyroid.
So what he and other doctors have missed is determining that MANY people are Vitamin D and Zinc deficient. In 2020 it was noted that many of those who died from “Covid” were significantly deficient in Vitamin D and Zinc.
Now if these two problems would have been attended to, the deaths attributed to Covid would have decreased significantly.
We did not need to waste millions or billions on injections that are now killing more people than Covid.
Of course my doctor said there is no relationship between Vitamin D and Covid so I stopped the discussion.
After doing research and reading weblogs from competent doctors like Dr. Ryan Cole and the FLCCC, I decided to increase my intake of Vitamin D and Zinc and add Quercetin. I have had no problem with Covid.
These measures would have made the fake “vaccines” unnecessary and of course the carbon footprint would have been lowered more than by cutting D tests. Of course the carbon footprint is one of the two biggest scams. The other is Fauci and Covid.
Zinc needs an ionophore. Red veggies (onions) and fruits help, or
get a supplement –> Quercetin.
Skip the onions — tale quercetin to help assimilate zinc,
?many of those who died from “Covid” were significantly deficient in Vitamin D”
Many elderly in nursing homes do not get much sunlight.
Based on experience with the in-laws
The wife visited her Mother every day and took her outside
in the wheelchair for sunlight when the weather allowed.
People… Persons of Carbon (PoC), abort, sequester, divest (SAD).
Election Circus: Meta-Analyses Confirm Vitamin D Defends Against Covid, by Dr. Joseph Mercola
A ‘doctor type’ went past on my computer screen recently.
He was of 35 years experience/practice working in Florida.
He had made a point of testing myriad things including Vit D over all that time and only once did he come upon someone who had, his opinion, adequate D levels
It was an 80 year female who spent 10 hours per week in/on a sunbed.
Despite her been being a resident of Florida for some considerable time.
As many say, Vit D is all about Calcium but especially for girls and Osteoporosis, it’s important if not vital that the Calcium gets into bones and not deposited inside arterial walls
And to do that, any Vit D supplement should come with some Vitamin K2
Especially important because, similar to the slip slop slap campaign, a similar camapaign has been waged getting people to consume Calcium.
And so they do, far and away too much and hence why Vitamin K2 is needed. To get into into bones and then excrete what’s not needed.
(It’s pretty well everywhere, especially in green vegetables, darker the green the better)
The problem with excess Calcium is that it displaces Magnesium – with the upshot that anything between 25% and 80% of US adults are deficient in Mg
And Magnesium is an epic neurotransmitter, second only to Sodium.
Without sufficient transmitters, your cognitive skills fall off a cliff, followed by your mood, your memory, your GSOH, then you get leg/muscle cramps and ultimately, The Biggest Cramp of them all = Heart Attack
Now do we see why Vitamin D is the Sunshine Vitamin or particularly, that it seemingly improves your mood? By controlling Calcium better and thus letting Magnesium get in and ‘do its thing’
Also why ‘taking the waters’ and visiting spa was so popular. Why putting Epsom Salt in your bath is good – it actually absorbs through your skin
Enter Fish Oil and Oily Fish
Not only does the oil there contain Vitamin D (450IU per 5ml teaspoon) – hence doing all the things listed above, but the oil, being A Fat, displaces some modicum of sugar from your bloodstream.
Bingo when that happens, your brain wakes up from the slumber that sugar induces in it.
What about that for a cause of ‘Climate Change’…………..
Remember, the human animal cannot lie – some of us would assert that that is why this particular story surfaced here, of all places.
…..we instinctually ‘know’…
But it takes a very brave man to trust that instinct, rather than slavishly ‘following the science’
anything more than 600mg of calcium was found to make heart failure risk Higher especially for women. I avoid it except for small amt in multivitamins, magnesium intake upped and its helped stop cramps AND so far..my AFib events recently too
Carbon, carbon, carbon….Carbon isn’t the problem, stupidity seems to be the main issue.
this follows ONE just ONE doctype person stating Vit D tests were a waste of time and medicare
the fact thousands of oldies locked into rooms with ZERO access to sunshine to make Melanin/vit D and severely depressed anyway due to lockdowns, and there IS proof Vit D as a hormone does assist depressed people.
for the majority of the populace low vit D is likely due to the scares over melanoma and the rest and crazy sunscreen/covering up.
Ive been taking 3,000iu every second day or so for years and yet when tested I am JUST above the baseline .-50
my rheumatologist supplied a powder form in capsules of 20k iu per once a week for RArthritis and I do notice more pain when i dont keep it up.
it also had me pondering if they WANT people to keel over from covid as data suggested that LOW vitD patients died or were worse for longer
Are they saying that in Australia, doctors are ordering vitamin D tests alone?
I get a Vitamin D test every time I do my 6 month check up, but it’s part of the normal blood panel they do every time, so since that “carbon footprint” number for the vitamin D test is based on the medical equipment used to draw, store and test the blood, it makes no difference whether they’re adding a Vitamin D test to the panel or not.
The added test makes it a little more expensive, I’m sure, but as far as carbon footprint, that’s a moot point. Maybe in Australia doctors regularly order special blood draws just for Vitamin D testing, but I’d be surprised if that’s so.
Interestingly, they claim the Vitamin D test is low value, but Vitamin D is vital to the body’s immune system. I have an inside job so my Vitamin D is typically low. I take supplements to keep it in the normal range. I also have a job where I travel to customer sites, fly in planes, wander through crowded airports, sit in rooms full of people for days at a time. As far as I know, I have yet to contract COVID-19. Coincidence that I take a vitamin D supplement to strengthen my immune system? I can’t prove it obviously, but I suspect not.
It just seems odd to me that they single out Vitamin D testing when it isn’t the actual test that’s the “culprit” in carbon footprint at all, it’s the manufacture of the medical equipment required to conduct any blood test, so why focus on that particular test? I’m not a conspiracy theorist but that just seems weird to me that they focused so specifically on that one test. Do they want Australians to have weak immune systems? Why?
I’d spend some time wondering about the definition of “unnecessary” and the quality of supporting data for this article, but it’s about CO2.
How much of that nasty “carbon” is put into the air with each Davos enclave? Maybe start there before going after our medical care?
“A study examining the climate impact of” <insert anything here>
They’ll eventually find that EVERYTHING contributes so just sit at home and do nothing. Then they’ll find that even that contributes.
Breaking News: Climate change killed my goldfish !
No idea on the planet is as laughably absurd or mind-numbingly asinine as the idea of a “carbon footprint”. It doesn’t surprise me in the least though that stuff is done in the healthcare industry which is wasteful and unnecessary, and not just vitamin D tests.
“Greens” arent green in the least.
Every activity these Marxists….er….Greens manage to block in Western Countries “pops up” as far more environmentally devastating activity in China or Africa…where little to no environmental precautions are taken to minimize damage to the global Environment. They damage the Environment MASSIVELY with every little thing they “accomplish”.
Where is the ACCOUNTING for the God-Awful Environmental Damage our “Greens” actually produce?? We’ll never know because NONE of the “Greenie” activity is really about the Enviroment…all of their actions…ALL OF THEIR ACTIONS…results in more environmental devastation than if they’d done nothing and allowed those Economic Activities happen where people actually give a damn and spend money to reduce environmental impacts.
All “Green” activity is Economic AND Environmental Destruction. Vandalism on a grand scale.
From any fair accounting… the Green New Deal will be an Environmental Disaster…while wasting ~$100 Trillion in lost Opportunity Costs. Enough to give every soul on earth free Education K – Grad School….FOREVER… Plus feeding every soul in Africa… Forever.
Grand Theft on the Most Massive Scale Imaginable. And we’re supposed to suck it up and go along WITHOUT ANY CROSS EXAMINATION of Climate Activist’s fraudulent Claims?
Stop UNNECCESARY testing. Whether or not it’s necessary comes to a doctor’s knowledge.
Without major systems they will only prescribe a few hundred milligrams. Common sense requires using higher levels if there are other sysmtpoms.
Penny wise and pound foolish. Vit D is an important part of your immune system. A lot of people have lower than necessary levels of D and people with low levels of D are more prone to infectious diseases. This is a real danger for dark skinned people – one of the reasons why blacks seemed to be more prone to the Covid virus.
Vitamin D is really cheap. Unless someone looks like they are in desperate need of a test or to help diagnosing other problems, just give everyone 10 bucks worth of free tablets. Problem gone.
The latest medical research on nutrition and vitamin supplementation has shown that testing for Vitamin D blood level is almost always unnecessary, particularly in the absence of symptoms of deficiency.
Vit D testing is suspected of simply being medical fad….encouraged by health care interests far beyond reasonable demands of patient care.