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  1. Naked Science Forum
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  4. Could vitamin D kill viruses?
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Could vitamin D kill viruses?

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Offline Bored chemist

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #40 on: 23/06/2009 22:07:04 »
So, when it comes down to it the stuff is, as I said, teratogenic.
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Offline wolfekeeper

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #41 on: 23/06/2009 22:26:43 »
Absolutely not, it has no proven, nor practical human teratogenicity.
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Offline Bored chemist

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #42 on: 24/06/2009 06:53:46 »
Thankfully, proven human teratogens are rare. We try to avoid the experiments that proof would need.
The stuff is teratogenic in other animals.
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Offline rhade

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #43 on: 24/06/2009 10:12:42 »
I think the very short answer is, if vitamin D did kill viruses, surely it would be widely prescribed for the purpose.
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Offline wolfekeeper

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #44 on: 24/06/2009 14:02:20 »
I'm sure it has no direct attack on viruses or bacteria at any useful level. Vitamin D is a hormone that controls calcium and phosphate levels in higher organisms blood streams. Bacteria and viruses don't even have blood streams.
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Offline iko

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #45 on: 25/06/2009 10:28:28 »
Quote from: wolfekeeper on 24/06/2009 14:02:20
I'm sure it has no direct attack on viruses or bacteria at any useful level. Vitamin D is a hormone that controls calcium and phosphate levels in higher organisms blood streams. Bacteria and viruses don't even have blood streams.

...did anybody read about cathelicidin and other antibiotic peptides?   [???]
Interestingly enough, it is a rather recent discovery (less than 10yrs).
You might even enjoy some Michael Holick's paper or video:

Quote from: iko on 29/01/2008 16:04:04
Quote from: iko on 29/01/2008 13:29:51
It's never too late (sometimes)...
If you followed this thread so far,
you deserve to watch this free video:

"The Vitamin D Pandemic and its Health Consequences"

Presented by Michael Holick, PhD, MD, Professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics
and director of the General Clinical Research Center at Boston University Medical Center
Keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 34th European Symposium on Calcified Tissues, Copenhagen 5 May, 2007

http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/


   

http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/video/video/slides/slide413.jpg
« Last Edit: 26/06/2009 11:11:31 by iko »
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Offline iko

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #46 on: 25/06/2009 12:06:59 »

http://www.uvadvantage.org/portals/0/pres/video/video/slides/slide413.jpg
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Offline iko

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #47 on: 05/08/2009 11:30:57 »
Hey, something is 'moving' on D-vitamin-flu connection side...  [;)]

Health agency to test link between flu, vitamin D

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/health-agency-to-test-link-between-flu-vitamin-d/article1231852/
« Last Edit: 05/08/2009 11:42:52 by iko »
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Offline Kevan Gelling

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #48 on: 12/08/2009 13:10:31 »
Quote
Millions of U.S. Children Low In Vitamin D

CONCLUSIONS

The increasing numbers of reports of rickets in Western industrialized nations are related to the practice of exclusive breastfeeding without concomitant vitamin D supplementation in northern latitudes, decreased UV-B exposure (particularly in dark-skinned people), and the excessive use of sunscreen.

Recommendations for vitamin D supplementation in breastfed infants should take into account skin pigmentation and geography.

Recommendations for fortification of commonly used foods with vitamin D are necessary in keeping with various cultural norms of food intake and geography.

Current recommendations of sun exposure and vitamin D supplementation are limited because of a paucity of studies in children, nonuniformity of 25(OH)-D assays used in research studies, and lack of uniformity in the description of normal and abnormal ranges for 25(OH)-D levels in children.

More studies are necessary in children using standard assays to determine safe levels of sun exposure and resultant vitamin D levels, as well as the 25(OH)-D levels below which pathologic changes begin. A low threshold for assessing vitamin D sufficiency in infants, children, and adolescents is recommended given the growing knowledge about effects of vitamin D not only on bone mineral metabolism but also on the immune system and in preventing various kinds of cancer.

Data indicate greater health care costs from diseases related to vitamin D deficiency than from those caused by excessive exposure to UVR, indicating the need for a reexamination of recommendations for sun-avoidant behavior, including the use of sunscreens.
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Offline Kevan Gelling

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #49 on: 01/09/2009 13:16:22 »
Quote from: Kevan Gelling on 24/03/2009 14:22:25
Here are the new stories:
  • Diabetes + Virus
  • ...

Here are some Vitamin D research links:
  • Diabetes (PubMed - Vitamin D supplementation in early childhood and risk of type 1 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.)
  • ...


Quote

Seasonal variation of diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes mellitus in children worldwide

ABSTRACT

Aims To determine if there is a worldwide seasonal pattern in the clinical onset of Type 1 diabetes.

Methods Analysis of the seasonality in diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes was based on the incidence data in 0- to 14-year-old children collected by the World Health Organization Diabetes Mondiale (WHO DiaMond) Project over the period 1990–1999. One hundred and five centres from 53 countries worldwide provided enough data for the seasonality analysis. The incidence seasonality patterns were also determined for age- and sex-specific groups.

Results Forty-two out of 105 centres exhibited significant seasonality in the incidence of Type 1 diabetes (P < 0.05). The existence of significant seasonal patterns correlated with higher level of incidence and of the average yearly counts. The correlation disappeared after adjustment for latitude. Twenty-eight of those centres had peaks in October to January and 33 had troughs in June to August. Two out of the four centres with significant seasonality in the southern hemisphere demonstrated a different pattern with a peak in July to September and a trough in January to March.

Conclusions The seasonality of the incidence of Type 1 diabetes mellitus in children under 15 years of age is a real phenomenon, as was reported previously and as is now demonstrated by this large standardized study. The seasonality pattern appears to be dependent on the geographical position, at least as far as the northern/southern hemisphere dichotomy is concerned. However, more data are needed on the populations living below the 30th parallel north in order to complete the picture.


The research highlights a seasonal (winter is worse) and a geographical (further away from equator is worse) link to diabetes 1.  In other words when/where sunlight is weaker.

An analysis of the science can be found on the NHS's Behind The Headlines
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Offline Bored chemist

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #50 on: 01/09/2009 19:33:20 »
So Diabetes is related to the weather? That's interesing.
Of course, if it were caused by a virus it would be expected to occur in "outbreaks" like 'flu or chickenpox.
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Offline Kevan Gelling

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #51 on: 03/09/2009 14:46:20 »
I'm unable to access the research document in order to find out if any outbreaks were identified

The BBC News article on viruses and diabetes type 1 links diabetes to enteroviruses, although the researchers were unable to identify which type.

From the article:
Quote
... enteroviruses - a common family of viruses which cause symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhoea

Here some more information on enteroviruses from Wikipedia:
Quote
Human enteroviruses (family Picornaviridae) infect millions of people worldwide each year, resulting in a wide range of clinical outcomes ranging from unapparent infection to mild respiratory illness (common cold), hand, foot and mouth disease, acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, aseptic meningitis, myocarditis, severe neonatal sepsis-like disease, and acute flaccid paralysis.

From Wikipedia on hand, foot and mouth disease:
Quote
It typically occurs in small epidemics in nursery schools or kindergartens, usually during the summer and autumn months.

So maybe it does occur in outbreaks.  A statistician is needed to take the researchers' seasonal diabetes figures and quickly identify whether they have such a pattern or not.
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Offline Kevan Gelling

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #52 on: 08/09/2009 14:07:11 »
Another one, this time prostate cancer

From Science Daily - First Evidence Of Virus In Malignant Prostate Cells: XMRV Retrovirus Linked To More Aggressive Tumors

From Medline:
Quote
Life course sun exposure and risk of prostate cancer: population-based nested case-control study and meta-analysis

...

Our data and meta-analyses provide limited support for the hypothesis that increased exposure to sunlight may reduce prostate cancer risk. The findings warrant further investigation because of their implications for vitamin D chemoprevention trials.

2009 UICC
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Offline Bored chemist

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #53 on: 08/09/2009 19:27:47 »
"Our data and meta-analyses provide limited support "
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Offline Kevan Gelling

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #54 on: 15/09/2009 13:00:51 »
And another for multiple sclerosis

From Science Daily - Linking Epstein-Barr Virus To Multiple Sclerosis

From Times - Vitamin D is ray of sunshine for multiple sclerosis patients

From PubMed

Quote
Vitamin D and multiple sclerosis

Recently, it has been clearly demonstrated that exogenous 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, the hormonal form of vitamin D3, can completely prevent experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a widely accepted mouse model of human multiple sclerosis (MS).

This finding has focused attention on the possible relationship of this disease to vitamin D. Although genetic traits certainly contribute to MS susceptibility, an environmental factor is also clearly involved. It is our hypothesis that one crucial environmental factor is the degree of sunlight exposure catalyzing the production of vitamin D3 in skin, and, further, that the hormonal form of vitamin D3 is a selective immune system regulator inhibiting this autoimmune disease.

Thus, under low-sunlight conditions, insufficient vitamin D3 is produced, limiting production of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, providing a risk for MS. Although the evidence that vitamin D3 is a protective environmental factor against MS is circumstantial, it is compelling. This theory can explain the striking geographic distribution of MS, which is nearly zero in equatorial regions and increases dramatically with latitude in both hemispheres.

It can also explain two peculiar geographic anomalies, one in Switzerland with high MS rates at low altitudes and low MS rates at high altitudes, and one in Norway with a high MS prevalence inland and a lower MS prevalence along the coast. Ultraviolet (UV) light intensity is higher at high altitudes, resulting in a greater vitamin D3 synthetic rate, thereby accounting for low MS rates at higher altitudes. On the Norwegian coast, fish is consumed at high rates and fish oils are rich in vitamin D3.

Further, experimental work on EAE provides strong support for the importance of vitamin D3 in reducing the risk and susceptibility for MS. If this hypothesis is correct, then 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 or its analogs may have great therapeutic potential in patients with MS.

More importantly, current research together with data from migration studies opens the possibility that MS may be preventable in genetically susceptible individuals with early intervention strategies that provide adequate levels of hormonally active 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 or its analogs.

More MS research can be found here

« Last Edit: 15/09/2009 13:09:45 by Kevan Gelling »
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Offline Bored chemist

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #55 on: 15/09/2009 19:41:24 »
From time to time I get a cold- It's a viral infection.
I get a headache and a runny nose so I take one of the over-the-counter remedies that are on the market. The symptoms are reduced.
Nobody claims that the aspirin and decongestant are killing the cold virus.

Vitamin D may well cure the symptoms of MS and (at least some cases of) MS may be caused by a virus. (And if that's generally true then it's certainly interesting, in spite of the toxicity of vitamin D.)
That doesn't mean that vitamin D kills the virus.
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Offline rhade

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #56 on: 16/09/2009 15:50:52 »
Call me ultra picky, but I don't think that "cure" the symptoms is a good choice of word. I think "treat" the symptoms is better, as, if I am interpretting your meaning correctly, Boredchemist, you are stating that the virus is still present, but you feel a certain amount of relief from the symptoms.

Also, with most of these over the counter cold remedies, any relief is probably largely a placebo effect. Have you ever noticed how the wording on the package always says "remedy", not "cure"? No breaking the law by making totally false advertising claims!
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Offline Bored chemist

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #57 on: 16/09/2009 19:19:39 »
I agree that remmedies (which offer symptomatic relief) are different from cures (which remove the root cause of the problem).
I'm not sure which category this falls into "Recently, it has been clearly demonstrated that exogenous 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, the hormonal form of vitamin D3, can completely prevent experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)".
It's asserted to be preventative but I doubt they mean "take Vitamin D once and never get troubled by EAE" in the way that a measles jab is preventative- take it once and forget about measles forever.
It's difficult to know, from that quote, what this effect really is. I'm pleased to see that some progress is being made in this field.
Anyway this thread's about Vit D killing viruses and that report isn't an answer to that question.
« Last Edit: 16/09/2009 19:23:38 by Bored chemist »
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Offline Kevan Gelling

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #58 on: 18/09/2009 12:35:51 »
Quote from: Bored chemist on 15/09/2009 19:41:24
From time to time I get a cold- It's a viral infection.
I get a headache and a runny nose so I take one of the over-the-counter remedies that are on the market. The symptoms are reduced.
Nobody claims that the aspirin and decongestant are killing the cold virus.

Vitamin D may well cure the symptoms of MS and (at least some cases of) MS may be caused by a virus. (And if that's generally true then it's certainly interesting, in spite of the toxicity of vitamin D.)
That doesn't mean that vitamin D kills the virus.

My intention hasn't been to suggest that vitamin D3 literally kills the virus rather that it is improves the killing mechanism.  In this respect, the thread title is a tad misleading.

Maybe the title should have been "Does a high level (>50ng/mL) of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] modulate the immune system such that it can better fight bacterial and viral infections?  Thus do the empirical correlations that exist between 25(OH)D levels and certain diseases - MS, certain cancers, diabetes, heart disease, schizophrenia, and others - allow us to infer that those diseases are caused by infection?" but it's not as catchy.

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Offline rhade

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Could vitamin D kill viruses?
« Reply #59 on: 22/09/2009 15:51:56 »
Of course, it is possible to overdose on vitamins.
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