Aug 15, 2020 17:00:00

'Taking vitamin D does not prevent illness,' the doctor points out

Although a

research result was published in the past that a new type of coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is likely to become severe due to a lack of vitamin D, a new study ``ingests vitamin D There is no evidence that it is effective as'. Not only new coronavirus infections, but also cancer, hypertension, diabetes, etc. are said to be related to vitamin D deficiency, but 'We should not equate the correlation with the causal relationship. You need to know it properly,” says surgeon Deba Boone.

Vitamin D, part 1
https://www.devaboone.com/post/vitamin-d-part-1-back-to-basics

The main effects of Vitamin D are to promote calcium absorption and maintain blood calcium level. Therefore, it has been clarified that even if calcium is ingested, if the body has low vitamin D, calcium deficiency may result, and calcium deficiency due to vitamin D deficiency causes rickets and osteoporosis .

Vitamin D does not only affect the absorption of calcium, but various studies have suggested a relationship with cancer, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, heart failure, stroke, dementia, autoimmune diseases, etc. Many studies have investigated the association between disease and vitamin D by measuring vitamin D levels in certain diseased and healthy populations. People with the disease who have low vitamin D levels are often thought to be 'related to disease and vitamin D deficiency,' but 'correlation and causal relationship are different. The fact that there is one doesn't necessarily mean one is what caused the other,' Boone said.

For example, regarding vitamin D and diabetes, 'there may be a decrease in the vitamin D level in the body due to the onset of diabetes' and 'a possibility that diabetes was caused due to some lack of vitamin D' 'It will be considered. In fact,

it has been suggested that obesity , a risk factor that causes diabetes, may also be associated with vitamin D deficiency .

'Most researchers understand that correlation is not equal to causality, but there is a strong tendency to equate correlation with causation. Many papers say, 'Why vitamin D deficiency is a disease? Psychological explanations for “causes that cause illness.” When the correlation and causal conclusions leap forward, many patients should be advised to supplement vitamin D with unclear effects. 'To understand why vitamin D deficiency causes disease, we need to understand the role of vitamin D in the human body,' Boone said.

Studies to understand how humans use vitamin D include experiments in observing changes in the body using

knockout mice genetically engineered to abolish the vitamin D receptor. As a result of the experiment, mice in which the vitamin D receptor was disabled showed poor calcium absorption and had an adverse effect on bone growth. It is also reported that mice that do not have vitamin D receptors were unable to absorb calcium at all, and that a large amount of calcium improved bone growth. In addition, mice without vitamin D receptors had higher blood pressure on average than normal mice, and their heart function and immune function were also reduced.

Some humans have a congenital disorder in which the vitamin D receptors do not work properly. Similar to the experimental results of mice without vitamin D receptor, humans with abnormal vitamin D receptor also have severe growth disorders in bones, so it was determined that there is a causal relationship between vitamin D deficiency and bone growth disorders. It has been.

Boone speculates that vitamin D deficiency can lead to hypertension and decreased cardiac and immune functions, as humans develop bone growth disorders similar to mice. However, vitamin D receptor genetic deficiency in humans is a very rare case, and there are other leading studies showing a causal relationship between 'human vitamin D deficiency' and 'hypertension and decreased cardiac and immune functions'. Boone claims it does not exist.

'Unfortunately, there is no unified explanation of what diseases vitamin D deficiency specifically causes. There is a correlation between vitamin D and several diseases, and that vitamin D is found in multiple cells and organs. It has been shown in many studies to have an impact, but the relationship between vitamin D and disease is not as simple as the role of vitamin D in calcium and bone health,' Boone commented. I will.