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Episode 36: Vitamin D
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Preventing cancer. Curing depression. Single-handedly ending the COVID-19 pandemic. Oh, and something to do with your bones. Is there anything Vitamin D can’t do?
Maybe the answer is “quite a lot”. In this episode of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart look into the claims about the wondrous powers of Vitamin D supplements - and whether any of them have any decent evidence behind them. The whole story turns out to be a perfect parable for how to think about health research.
📚Buy Tom’s book, Everything is Predictable, at this link! And join us at the book launch in London on 16th May 2024! 📚
The Studies Show is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine: the stylish, well-argued, data-packed place to read essays about science, technology and human progress. Find their latest issue at this link.
Show notes
Rupa Huq MP’s article from during the COVID pandemic on how the government should be “shouting about Vitamin D”
Huq and David Davis MP convince the government to recommend Vitamin D
Stuart’s New Statesman article on why this was jumping the gun a little
How Vitamin D regulates calcium and phosphorus metabolism in the body
Might it slow tumour growth? Or prevent cardiovascular disease? Evidence from rats
Observational studies on how Vitamin D levels are related to: depression, cognitive impairment, cancer rates, cardiovascular disease, all-cause mortality
Review paper claiming widespread deficiency in Vitamin D
Scientific American article including discussion of the confusion over what it means to be “deficient” in, and/or have an “insufficiency” of Vitamin D
2019 paper reporting results from the VITAL trial on cancer and cardiovascular risk
D-health trial results on cancer risk and cardiovascular risk
From the D-health trial, papers reporting no effect of Vitamin D supplementation on: cognitive impairment, depression, microbiome diversity, telomere length, hypothyroidism, erectile dysfunction, falls, fractures
Classic xkcd cartoon on false-positive jelly beans
2022 Nature Reviews Endrocrinology review on the (lack of) evidence for the effects of Vitamin D beyond bone-related problems
Story of UK man who died of a Vitamin D overdose
Vitamin D and COVID: the promising observational study; the null trial
Credits
The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.
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