Watch on YouTube here > Recent paper in the BMJ concluded that vitamin D supplementation is not of benefit to prevent COVID-19. In this video, the research is reviewed with the aim to clarify important points around vitamin D supplementation. The UK study also found no significant differences in "severity of acute covid-19 or prolonged symptoms of covid-19...between those randomized to either the lower or the higher dose offer group compared with the no offer group." For example, 1.4% of the no-supplement control group was admitted to the hospital for COVID, compared to 1.6% of those receiving 800 IU, and 1.9% those receiving 3200 IU.
This paper seems just but one more way to attack and dismiss people who have known for years and years that vitamin D, robust serum levels of it, do indeed improve overall immune health, bone health and general wellbeing. Notice they are now into demonizing vitamin D, vitamin C, NAC, melatonin, and literally everything else that helps mitigate severe Covid-19 disease. It’s astounding and deeply disturbing. People, don’t be fooled by these charlatans and the truly “snake oil” salesmen in academic medicine, Big Pharma, and sadly, your own primary care providers (many of them). There IS “a better way” to health. Take control of your health. Keep skepticism alive for so many of these people do not want “A Better Way” for humanity, and instead, profit on sickness and disease.
1st thought... The message should be - make sure your Vit D levels are within normal range BEFORE you get sick. The key is NOT GETTING SICK.. the focus has continuously been on AFTER illness.. instead of optimizing your health status to AVOID severe illness.
I’d like to add that when I was a practicing internal med NP, if my patient’s serum D levels were low (and I saw levels of 6-20 ng/ml REGULARLY in the Pacific Northwest, it would take me prescribing 50,000 units of D3 once weekly for 3-5 months to get serum levels where they needed to be, which in my opinion and the opinion of many other practitioners, was roughly between 60-80 ng/ml. Even though our assay said that anything “above 30ng/ml was normal,” those in the know never treated to that low level, but instead made our patients’ levels robust to get the full effects of optimum health for this amazing ‘vitamin’ which is really a pro-hormone. This study really stinks on so many levels. It is also important to have robust serum levels of D BEFORE you come down with Covid-19, which is yet another reason why it’s so important to replete people before they get sick. My gosh, the perfidy and subterfuge in academic medicine never ceases to amaze me. Thank you, Dr. McMillan for another short piece of wisdom. You are appreciated beyond measure.
Thanks for the explanation. The video points out to a correct pathophysiology that D helps to prevent. But next to LinkedIn posts by James Lundeen you will find hardly any peer reviewed study (e.g. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.868542) that supports the claim that D supplementation reduces micro-clot formation in lung alveoli during Covid-19. Nevertheless, your claim shall gain a support, including mine.
To understand this controversy 3 concepts have to be elaborated:
1) Modulation vs mediation
2) Correlation vs causation
3) In vitro results vs in vivo results
Mediation explains relationship between X and Y, while modulation affect the magnitude of the effect of X to Y. In terms of molecular biology let us take vitamin C and vitamin D.
Vitamin C is a mediator with regard Covid-19 because C converts free radicals to hydrogen peroxide and then water, directly inhibiting cellular damage. However, neither D2, nor D3, nor 25(OH)D, nor 1,25(OH)D directly interact with interleukins, virus, or reactive oxygen species. Vitamin D modulates biological processes. And with regard to alveoli microclots D inhibits fibrinogen clot formation by 1,25(OH)D binding to vitamin D receptor (VDR) that downregulates fibrinogen gene expression (https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1755.1998.00152.x). In absence of 1,25(OH)D the VDR is not activated, and cytokines activate fibrinogen gene expression (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187712).
The point is that C shows a causal relation between its administration and Covid-19 symptom resolution, while D may only show a correlation. However, the correlation between D administration and Covid-19 symptom resolution shall be weak. The distinction stems from the fact that C is organic compound that cannot be synthesised by the body, while 1,25(OH)D is hormone secreted by body upon uptake of its precursors (D2 and D3).
Even though in vitro and animal studies have demonstrated that 1,25(OH)D in cell cultures induced autophagy in monocytes and macrophages, activated B and T cells and reduced proinflammatory cytokine secretion, there are a lot of studies that show that intake of D3 does not automatically increase 25(OH)D. Further 25(OH)D does not ultimately lead to increase of 1,25(OH)D. And a lot of recent D/Covid-19 studies are actually experiments on absorption of D in the digestive tract (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362303875). Therefore, first it is necessary to determine how to ensure D3 intake leads to 1,25(OH)D increase, and only then clinical trials will be able to demonstrate any credible effect of D3 intake and Covid-19 symptom prevention.
For some unknown reason your videos constantly stop and start making it very difficult to listen to, and I end up not listening to them. This problem is only when I watch your video's. I would love to watch your video's without the constantly stopping as I regard them as important. Claire
we examined integrated miRNA and mRNA expression profiles that mediate the biological effects of Vitamin D during macrophage differentiation. Such a comprehensive analysis allowed us to uncover transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory strategies controlling gene expression in Vitamin D differentiated monocyte-derived macrophages (D3-MDMs). We identified differentially expressed genes related to inflammation, host defense against pathogens, cellular stress through respiratory burst, and T-cell activation.
Vitamin D has been shown to be involved in regulating immune responses. (that sunlight correlates to disease) because inflammatory or demyelinating diseases are more common in the colder regions where vitamin D has more limits.
Vitamin D deficiency can be a problem for a variety of reasons such as excessive time spent indoors, reduced appetite and malabsorption of nutrients. In addition, our skin becomes thinner as we age, affecting the body’s ability to synthesize vitamin D.
This paper seems just but one more way to attack and dismiss people who have known for years and years that vitamin D, robust serum levels of it, do indeed improve overall immune health, bone health and general wellbeing. Notice they are now into demonizing vitamin D, vitamin C, NAC, melatonin, and literally everything else that helps mitigate severe Covid-19 disease. It’s astounding and deeply disturbing. People, don’t be fooled by these charlatans and the truly “snake oil” salesmen in academic medicine, Big Pharma, and sadly, your own primary care providers (many of them). There IS “a better way” to health. Take control of your health. Keep skepticism alive for so many of these people do not want “A Better Way” for humanity, and instead, profit on sickness and disease.
1st thought... The message should be - make sure your Vit D levels are within normal range BEFORE you get sick. The key is NOT GETTING SICK.. the focus has continuously been on AFTER illness.. instead of optimizing your health status to AVOID severe illness.
I’d like to add that when I was a practicing internal med NP, if my patient’s serum D levels were low (and I saw levels of 6-20 ng/ml REGULARLY in the Pacific Northwest, it would take me prescribing 50,000 units of D3 once weekly for 3-5 months to get serum levels where they needed to be, which in my opinion and the opinion of many other practitioners, was roughly between 60-80 ng/ml. Even though our assay said that anything “above 30ng/ml was normal,” those in the know never treated to that low level, but instead made our patients’ levels robust to get the full effects of optimum health for this amazing ‘vitamin’ which is really a pro-hormone. This study really stinks on so many levels. It is also important to have robust serum levels of D BEFORE you come down with Covid-19, which is yet another reason why it’s so important to replete people before they get sick. My gosh, the perfidy and subterfuge in academic medicine never ceases to amaze me. Thank you, Dr. McMillan for another short piece of wisdom. You are appreciated beyond measure.
Thanks for the explanation. The video points out to a correct pathophysiology that D helps to prevent. But next to LinkedIn posts by James Lundeen you will find hardly any peer reviewed study (e.g. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.868542) that supports the claim that D supplementation reduces micro-clot formation in lung alveoli during Covid-19. Nevertheless, your claim shall gain a support, including mine.
To understand this controversy 3 concepts have to be elaborated:
1) Modulation vs mediation
2) Correlation vs causation
3) In vitro results vs in vivo results
Mediation explains relationship between X and Y, while modulation affect the magnitude of the effect of X to Y. In terms of molecular biology let us take vitamin C and vitamin D.
Vitamin C is a mediator with regard Covid-19 because C converts free radicals to hydrogen peroxide and then water, directly inhibiting cellular damage. However, neither D2, nor D3, nor 25(OH)D, nor 1,25(OH)D directly interact with interleukins, virus, or reactive oxygen species. Vitamin D modulates biological processes. And with regard to alveoli microclots D inhibits fibrinogen clot formation by 1,25(OH)D binding to vitamin D receptor (VDR) that downregulates fibrinogen gene expression (https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1755.1998.00152.x). In absence of 1,25(OH)D the VDR is not activated, and cytokines activate fibrinogen gene expression (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187712).
The point is that C shows a causal relation between its administration and Covid-19 symptom resolution, while D may only show a correlation. However, the correlation between D administration and Covid-19 symptom resolution shall be weak. The distinction stems from the fact that C is organic compound that cannot be synthesised by the body, while 1,25(OH)D is hormone secreted by body upon uptake of its precursors (D2 and D3).
Even though in vitro and animal studies have demonstrated that 1,25(OH)D in cell cultures induced autophagy in monocytes and macrophages, activated B and T cells and reduced proinflammatory cytokine secretion, there are a lot of studies that show that intake of D3 does not automatically increase 25(OH)D. Further 25(OH)D does not ultimately lead to increase of 1,25(OH)D. And a lot of recent D/Covid-19 studies are actually experiments on absorption of D in the digestive tract (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362303875). Therefore, first it is necessary to determine how to ensure D3 intake leads to 1,25(OH)D increase, and only then clinical trials will be able to demonstrate any credible effect of D3 intake and Covid-19 symptom prevention.
For some unknown reason your videos constantly stop and start making it very difficult to listen to, and I end up not listening to them. This problem is only when I watch your video's. I would love to watch your video's without the constantly stopping as I regard them as important. Claire
Does the upgrade remove the buffering problem?
The research in BMJ is a perfect example on how to lie with numbers! Now we know what side of history the BMJ is.
we examined integrated miRNA and mRNA expression profiles that mediate the biological effects of Vitamin D during macrophage differentiation. Such a comprehensive analysis allowed us to uncover transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory strategies controlling gene expression in Vitamin D differentiated monocyte-derived macrophages (D3-MDMs). We identified differentially expressed genes related to inflammation, host defense against pathogens, cellular stress through respiratory burst, and T-cell activation.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955286322001735
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1521690X11000637
Vitamin D receptor (VDR)-mediated actions of 1α,25(OH)2vitamin D3: Genomic and non-genomic mechanisms
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpendo.00174.2021
Vitamin D and lumisterol novel metabolites can inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication machinery enzymes
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.29.498158v1
Vitamin D and the ability to produce 1,25(OH)2D are critical for protection from viral infection of the lungs
Measurement of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) is the best test to determine vitamin D status. Levels of 25(OH)D are interpreted as follows
21-29 ng/mL (52.5-72.5 nmol/L): Vitamin D insufficiency
< 20 ng/mL (< 50 nmol/L): Vitamin D deficiency
Vitamin D has been shown to be involved in regulating immune responses. (that sunlight correlates to disease) because inflammatory or demyelinating diseases are more common in the colder regions where vitamin D has more limits.
Vitamin D deficiency can be a problem for a variety of reasons such as excessive time spent indoors, reduced appetite and malabsorption of nutrients. In addition, our skin becomes thinner as we age, affecting the body’s ability to synthesize vitamin D.
Thanks Dr McMillan much appreciated this data
The use of supplements?
The only true natural healing mechanism stimulated in the body is from daylight & sun on as much of our skin as possible.
The exposure time varies with the seasons obviously.
There is no way any supplement can replace the natural light & the sunshine on skin.
If you delve deeply into the history of Vitamin D. You will discover it was another FDA scam labelled as a vitamin.
The initial bloodwork & analysis was done on Crete towards the end of the second world war.
A US ship's surgeon was intrigued & horrified by the Cretans appearance. They were very thin almost skeletal. They were close to complete starvation.
Despite their physical appearance. They were actually very very healthy. Zero overweight people for sure.
Looking for an explanation from the bloodworks. There were certain markers pointing to the reason for their good health.
As work progressed in isolating the various factors. A spike in a certain enzyme that wasn't apparent in non sun exposed populations was identified.
This was & is a major component of the body's natural healing mechanism's enzyme spectrum.
Megapharma in it's infancy at that time. But already with it's greedy eyes fixed on profit before ethics.
Came across this research. One of the greedy things. Then corruptly had the enzyme labelled as vitamin D by the FDA.
Interesting to note that all vitamin D available over the counter, is vegetable based.