HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - Coronavirus - is low vitamin D a factor

R.B. · 04-25-2020, 02:48 PM

https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1548/rr-6

'COVID-19 ’ICU’ risk – 20-fold greater in the Vitamin D Deficient. BAME, African Americans, the Older, Institutionalised and Obese, are at greatest risk. Sun and ‘D’-supplementation – Game-changers? Research urgently required.

Pleased to share another letter to the BMJ (The English equivalent of the NEJM) this time coauthored with 30 others, and structured around a pre-print examining vitamin D levels in hospital COVID-19 patients in relation to seriousness of condition.

Still, with others, trying to get more such studies looking at vitamin D levels in COVID patients and outcomes. Cheap inexpensive and easy and relatively quick to do . . . but requires the will and funding . . .

Acceptance of simple solutions, that may involve a little embarrassment have historically always taken many years

Hopefully in a more connected world we can do better, and take the necessary steps to determine if Vitamin D deficiency is indeed a significant factor in COVID-19.

An example - washing of hands for infection spread control took more than 20 years to gain acceptance and the proposer Semmelweis got put in a mental asylum for his attempts to get the message out

E.g. Washing hands before delivery of babies
https://www.upworthy.com/women-were-...igured-out-why
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

"Women were dying from childbirth at hospitals. This 19th-century doctor figured out why. "

Doctors were doing autopsies and then attending births without washing hands or instruments. Semmelweis worked out that this was the problem and order washing with chlorine based disinfection and it worked - mortality was greatly reduced but . . .

"Unfortunately, the Semmelweis' colleagues did not embrace his findings — they were outraged at the suggestion that they were the cause of their patients' deaths. Semmelweis was fired from the hospital and eventually committed to an asylum. He died at the asylum two weeks later. (Several historians believe that he died, after being beaten at the asylum, from sepsis — an infection in the bloodstream caused by germs.)

"It would take about 20 years before his ideas would start to be accepted by the medical community. And even then, it was "germ theory" — and the work of Louis Pasteur in the late-1860s — that really convinced anyone of the importance of hygiene and handwashing."

04-25-2020, 02:48 PM	#13
R.B. Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 1,843	Re: Coronavirus - is low vitamin D a factor - vitamin D and respiratory conditions https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1548/rr-6 'COVID-19 ’ICU’ risk – 20-fold greater in the Vitamin D Deficient. BAME, African Americans, the Older, Institutionalised and Obese, are at greatest risk. Sun and ‘D’-supplementation – Game-changers? Research urgently required. Pleased to share another letter to the BMJ (The English equivalent of the NEJM) this time coauthored with 30 others, and structured around a pre-print examining vitamin D levels in hospital COVID-19 patients in relation to seriousness of condition. Still, with others, trying to get more such studies looking at vitamin D levels in COVID patients and outcomes. Cheap inexpensive and easy and relatively quick to do . . . but requires the will and funding . . . Acceptance of simple solutions, that may involve a little embarrassment have historically always taken many years Hopefully in a more connected world we can do better, and take the necessary steps to determine if Vitamin D deficiency is indeed a significant factor in COVID-19. An example - washing of hands for infection spread control took more than 20 years to gain acceptance and the proposer Semmelweis got put in a mental asylum for his attempts to get the message out E.g. Washing hands before delivery of babies https://www.upworthy.com/women-were-...igured-out-why https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis "Women were dying from childbirth at hospitals. This 19th-century doctor figured out why. " Doctors were doing autopsies and then attending births without washing hands or instruments. Semmelweis worked out that this was the problem and order washing with chlorine based disinfection and it worked - mortality was greatly reduced but . . . "Unfortunately, the Semmelweis' colleagues did not embrace his findings — they were outraged at the suggestion that they were the cause of their patients' deaths. Semmelweis was fired from the hospital and eventually committed to an asylum. He died at the asylum two weeks later. (Several historians believe that he died, after being beaten at the asylum, from sepsis — an infection in the bloodstream caused by germs.) "It would take about 20 years before his ideas would start to be accepted by the medical community. And even then, it was "germ theory" — and the work of Louis Pasteur in the late-1860s — that really convinced anyone of the importance of hygiene and handwashing." Last edited by R.B.; 04-25-2020 at 02:56 PM..