The Studies Show
Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie
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Episode 36: Vitamin D
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. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe
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