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2023-11-18 07:00 by Karl Denninger
in Personal Health , 1068 references Ignore this thread
A Funny Thing Happened....
[Comments enabled]

.... as a result of my reading several hundred medical papers during the time of Covid.

I learned things that I've never heard from a single physician -- not even the ones I used to trust and generally were trustworthy like the old family doc I had when I was growing up.

But those things did change how I looked at some pretty basic stuff, and also changed (in very low-cost and minor ways) what I did personally.  More than a decade ago I got rid of a bunch of excess weight by getting the carbs out of my diet.  I can't talk about that on the "ad" side of the blog anymore because Google decided that this was "misinformation" to report on my personal experience and what I did to obtain it more than ten years later.  They had no quarrel with it at the time, but as soon as the covid crazy started, oh boy, he's talking about people getting rid of excess weight and by the way being obese was a known risk factor for getting a $500,000 medical bill from the hospital just before they killed you when you got a virus.

Funny, that.

Anyway, post getting Covid myself I changed a couple of things on a forward basis.

They're pretty basic and an effective zero on the risk scale.

The one that really "lit up the board" if you will, now with two+ years of experience under my belt with it, is very simple and inexpensive: 5,000 IUs of Vitamin D and Vitamin K2 daily.

Why the Vitamin D?  Because the data early on showed a crazy association between being deficient and severe or fatal outcomes if you got The Coof.  Now association isn't causation; lots of people were home or nursing-home bound and thus that might mean that its insignificant as their Vitamin D deficiency is due to being essentially locked inside 24x7 but the question had to be asked and of course although it could have been very, very easily tested prospectively at no risk it was not during the pandemic: If those people in said nursing homes had not been deficient would the virus have hammered them?  Nobody knows, but it is ridiculously cheap to use a supplement as a prophylaxis and we know factually that not being deficient has no downside adverse effects.  Just don't go overboard; excessive Vitamin D levels are dangerous.

Why add the K2?  Because it is protective against potentiating calcium drop-out into the circulation and directs said calcium into the bone structure which, of course, is where you want calcium to go since that's what bones are made of.

Were I younger (e.g. under 40) I probably would be intermittent with the Vitamin D given my level of outdoor activity but even though I'm outdoors a lot where I can get sun exposure Vitamin D synthesis decreases with age and I'm past the halfway point of my "use by" date.  Never mind that a study out of Central America during the pandemic, which of course has much higher UV and thus Vitamin D synthesis levels from the sun than the United States, found that most of the health care workers there were also deficient and the correlation between said health care workers who were deficient and getting hammered held in that instance tooeven though one has to assume that a health-care worker likely has better access to health care and is healthier themselves than the general population.  Still correlation and not proof of causation but that study raised my eyebrows.

One further addition -- any time I feel even a tiny bit "off" I gobble about 4g of liposomal Vitamin C.  One time, not "keep doing it until you crap your brains out", which is the usual "where is bowel tolerance?" game if you're really sick.  Nope -- one and done as soon as I notice it, whether in the evening or when I wake up.  Several of these, I'm sure, were nothing more than seasonal allergies but since I'm not sure and there is zero risk of a Vit-C overdose (and its cheap to keep around and use this way) that one's easy.

So having made this "study of one" change for the last two and a half years here's the punchline:

I haven't been noticeably ill at all -- that is, not even a low-grade fever -- since the summer of 2021.

Not even once.

Seasonal allergies and when I deliberately provoke something (like dethatching the yard which I did about a month ago, which is guaranteed to throw up a huge amount of grass pollen and such)?  Sure; nasal congestion and watery eyes are nothing new to me when it comes to said allergies.  Quercetin works for that and I use it intermittently.  Its as effective as Claritin for me (not 100% but definitely an improvement) but unlike Claritin has no side effects I can determine nor do I build a tolerance to it, and I do with all OTC antihistamines.  Gotta like that, which is why I use it.

But here's the thing -- while I've never been "sickly" in general in my adult life getting a couple of colds or a modest flu once a year or so and feeling like crap for a few days or a week is not uncommon.  It isn't uncommon for most people and it hasn't been for me.  Thus like most I have some aspirin in my medicine cabinet for such an occurrence (I refuse to use Tylenol.)

After 2-1/2 years I'd say there's some statistical significance to this considering I haven't reached for that bottle once.

I might be wrong -- perhaps despite all but licking doorknobs I simply haven't been exposed to anything.  Well, ok, that I know is bullshit because I've been around plenty of people who were hacking up lungs here and there over the last two winters and none of them got me with whatever they had.  So while again correlation is not proof of causation here's a trial of one where I've gone 2-1/2 years without so much as a common cold.

Have I had times that my Garmin tells me (through HRV) that I'm fighting something off?  Yep.  But all have been fought off successfully.  If I didn't have said Garmin I wouldn't have known at all, except perhaps being a bit more-tired than usual on any given day.

Here we go into Winter #3.  Who knows if I'll get through this one without getting anything interesting.  (And of course, having written this, perhaps I'll get hammered for my hubris!)

For under a dime a day I think I'll keep doing what I've been doing, just like I've kept up with being low-carb; neither has hurt me thus far.

Now think about what sort of change in outcomes we might have had if we had told people after the first few months, and we knew the correlation was there in the early summer of 2020, to take a Vitamin D and K2 supplement daily through the winter and next year.  No risk, almost-no cost, and we would have developed a huge database of people and outcomes over time because some people would have done it and others not -- from which we would gained a very large observational and "intent to treat" data set.

Would there have been any "pandemic" of note beyond the summer of 2020 at all?

Good question -- and one we can't answer since we can't wind the clock back and try it.

But I'm going to keep doing what I have been, since for me, a trial of one, it has worked and feeling sick, even if that's all it is, sucks.

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Boredfree 2k posts, incept 2021-09-15
2023-11-18 08:58:42

My wife and I began taking vitamin D during the covid crisis and I haven't had a cold since.

We both have had what we think was covid: weird taste/smell for three days, a bit tired, but not sickly. And there have been a few times when one of us was tired, felt a bit off, but after a good night sleep we were fine.

I've always suffered from at least one winter cold in the past, but not since the addition of the extra 'D'.

Where did I learn about the benefits of vitamin D? Not from a doctor, not from an educator, not from a government information campaign.

I learned how beneficial D is from Karl. A damn economic blogger who knows computers. And I also learned how an excess of D can be harmful here from a former regular poster, pikasteph(I'm sorry if I fucked up the name).

Karl is awesome for sharing all the information he has learned while improving his own health.

Who are you going to trust? The overweight doctor pimping poison, or the guy who shed pounds by not eating poison?


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The problem is most people want to point a finger rather than their thumb when dealing with challenges.
Attilahooper 4k posts, incept 2007-08-28
2023-11-18 08:59:02

I have a big jug of now foods ascorbic acid and whack it pretty often. Thanks for the reminder to get back on the D and K2.

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Sick Boy nCoV!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAqeA5Hc....
Greenacr 948 posts, incept 2016-03-15
2023-11-18 08:59:13

I generally take a daily regimen on Quercetin, Vit D, E, Super B complex, Zinc, a joint supplement from Costco (Move Freely), Tumeric, Qunol and a multivitamin. Similar to you I have only been sick once in the last three years and that was the coof. The coof came after the initial Moderna shots that my wife have since eschewed. While having no data other than myself and wife who follows the same regimen, this does seem to be effective.

Due to a house renovation, business travel and a lot of BS excuses I have fallen off the no/low carb diet and have put about 10 lbs on over the last 6 months. Plan to address that after the first of the year and all of the holiday goodies and once a year eats. As I crest the hill at age 64 I don't mind living a little and enjoying some of those things.

Tonythetiger 974 posts, incept 2019-01-27
2023-11-18 08:59:29


Similar experience for me TG. Got something in 2021 which I presume was covid flavor-of-the-month that put me in bed for 4 days. Felt crappy, extreme fatigue, but that's all. No fever, no crud in the lungs, no loss of taste or smell, just tired.

Since late 2020 I've been taking Vit C, quercetin, and turmeric on a regular basis. Vit D3 in Fall/Winter. Used horse paste and zinc lozenges in 2021 when I got sick, recovered just fine.

This past Spring I got a case of the sniffles which lasted a few days. Took horse paste at the first sign, some zinc, and then just powered through it. Stayed home from work only because of the draconian punishments for either 1) not testing, or 2) testing positive for coof. Better to simply take leave and act like you were never sick. I don't bring it up, and they don't ask, so it's like nothing happened.

That's it for me. Co-workers coughing and sneezing up a storm all around and it hasn't seemed to bother me at all. I like to think that the cloud of infective buggers they emit serve to keep my immune system in top shape.

I owe a lot of that to what I've learned here on the TF. So a big "Thanks!" for that.




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"War is when the Government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself." - Benjamin Franklin

You can vote your way into Communism, but you have to
Nashville 173 posts, incept 2018-02-27
2023-11-18 08:59:56

Agree. Been taking same Vit D and K2 on an almost every day basis for about 4 years. My last two annual blood checks were 85 and 72, so it works for me. Got the wife on Quercetin a few years ago because she has always had severe allergies. Now she hardly ever reaches for the little spray bottle anymore. I stand in awe of the huge impact our over-reaching nanny state US Gov has made in wasting huge money and impacting lives and DEATHs with their bureaucratic largess.
Barley 40 posts, incept 2015-12-09
2023-11-18 09:05:42

I learned about the Covid-Vitamin D deficiency theory from the wonderful Dr. Ryan Cole in early 2020. Like you, determining that Vitamin D supplementation carried virtually no risk as long as I did not take enormous amounts, I started a modest daily regimen of 2,000 IUs.

My company offers yearly biometric screenings, but Vitamin D levels are not part of the standard panel. In early 2021, when I went in for my blood draw, I requested a Vitamin D level test. I needed to get physician approval, which was eventually granted, but not before being pressed for why I thought I needed the test. My level was 53 ng/ml, just over the FLCCC minimum optimal level of 50.

I continued my regimen and then requested another Vitamin D level test for my 2022 screening. It was flatly refused because I got the test the previous year and my levels were "fine".

I still take my daily Vitamin D to this day but don't know what my current levels are. That being said, I have never contracted the Covid virus (verifiable with a negative antibody test---never took the clot shot).
Jacksparrow 268 posts, incept 2016-04-15
2023-11-18 09:18:28

Karl,
About 20 years ago my eye doctor insisted I take D3 4,000 units a day on an ongoing basis. He said it would dramatically improve my eye health. So a year later, he did a follow up scan of the back of my eyeballs and showed them to me side by side. I can't tell you want the difference was technically, but I could see a significance change. The doctor said it was for the better so I assume so. So having taken D3 (and recently K2 as well) I can tell you my experience is I only get mildly sick about twice in 10 years. The last flu shot (stupid me for ever taking them) I took was October 2018. I got a mild flu in Mar 2019. That's it nothing since then. Prior to that I remember having a cold or what not once in the 10 years that I have lived in Olympia.

I wish I had the link, but I read a study on D3 that reported that 78% of the time those who supplement with D3 avoid flu and colds. My naturopath also wanted to make sure I was taking D3. I had been using costco brand (now I use one with K2 in it), so he had my level tested. I'm at 68ng/ml the last time it was checked. As far as I've read a level above 50 provides considerable protection. Also back decades when I started taking it, I read the studies and it appeared to be an anti-cancer pill as well, so there is that aspect as well.

I'd argue that D3 is way more effective than Flu or covid vaccines. As to covid, we traveled from WA to TX all during covid, ate out, visted with people etc, and we never got covid although my wife got the regular flu twice and had a high fever which IVM + HCQ + Zinc cured within 6 hours of taking the stuff she wasn't at the time taking D3. Every time she gets sick, she sleeps next to me hacking away and I don't get sick. I rode in my truck with my son for 2 hours who had covid and I didn't catch it. So yeah D3 would end all kinds of illness.

Lastly, before I started taking D3 I'd get something illness whys every year for the most part. Until recently I didn't know it was the D3 that prevent all the normal crap. Had I known, I'd have shared. I never thought about it, but just hadn't been sick in years. Mar 2019 was a surprise as I wasn't expecting that.
Russell 30 posts, incept 2022-02-27
2023-11-18 09:29:44

I agree with all. I took one Clairton this year and I believe it is due to eating Spirulina. Any idea on the lack of deep sleep on the Garmin watch? It is not every night.

Can not believe every search.
Tickerguy 200k posts, incept 2007-06-26
2023-11-18 09:30:02

Mine is pretty reliable @Russell. If it says you didn't get it, you probably didn't get it.

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"Anyone wearing a mask will be presumed to be intending armed robbery and immediately shot in the face. Govern yourself accordingly."
Marathon345 33 posts, incept 2021-05-20
2023-11-18 09:39:15

My wife and I have been taking 5000 IU of vitamin D3 for over six years. Other than an occasional head cold, no other issues. I have never had a flu shot and we did not take the clot shots. Also neither one of us had the coof. I just added vitamin K2 after Karl mentioned it a couple of months ago.
Karl, please keep your fact based information coming. It is much appreciated.
Jacksparrow 268 posts, incept 2016-04-15
2023-11-18 09:39:18

Karl, what do you look for on the data your watch collects? I have an epix II, but don't know how to interpret what it collects.
Tickerguy 200k posts, incept 2007-06-26
2023-11-18 09:46:11

@Jacksparrow the game-changer is overnight HRV. It is ridiculously sensitive. I used to be able to, even with just the sleep and stress data, pick out (for example) those days on which you drank zero, one, two or more beers, assuming there was variation between them. I used to do it to people in my running group and bet 'em a beer I could -- rarely was I wrong.

HRV is a last-couple-of-years thing, and its WILDLY more-sensitive than just the sleep data. It takes a bit of time and effort to learn what is and isn't variation based on what you do (for example if I wrench on a car, laying on my back for a while on a given day that will mildly hit it -- even though its not strenuous work from my perspective while mowing the grass, which is measurably more exertion and shows up as such in my daily profile, does nothing) but once you DO figure that out the data it presents is invaluable.

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"Anyone wearing a mask will be presumed to be intending armed robbery and immediately shot in the face. Govern yourself accordingly."
Dan_e 183 posts, incept 2009-06-23
2023-11-18 09:56:34

I've seen posts on taking vitamin supplements from the view point of 'the science' that people were silly for believing the manufacturers and quack's lies and should definitely not be taking them as much as they do. That's when I knew I was doing something right smiley

Anecdotally: when I first met my wife years ago, I used to stay over at her place every weekend and if I forgot to take my antihistamine would wake up puffy eyed and runny nosed from the cat (hair/dust/whatever it is). Think I had an otc no-brand cetirizine based tiny tablet that would last me about 24 hours, so I took two over the course of each weekend. Then at some point I forgot one again and woke up feeling fine, so decided to try skipping them and got through the weekend ok. Next week, same deal. Apparently recurring exposure and a little help in controlling my body's reactions turned into a better response over time. We have since married and have 4 cats about the house and the only reactions I see is to scratches from one particular cat which tend to itch and swell a little. Definitely much better than it used to be. Also before I started adding vitamin D/K2 to my diet, so I can't attribute it to a side effect of that change.
I've never been particularly sensitive to pollen, so I can't say if it also worked there.
Nashville 173 posts, incept 2018-02-27
2023-11-18 10:24:01

>even though one has to assume that a health-care worker likely has better access to health care and is healthier themselves than the general population<

Amusing. Most workers I see on very infrequent trips to a hospital zone sport BMIs well above the 26 range.
Tickerguy 200k posts, incept 2007-06-26
2023-11-18 09:58:44

General systemic inflammation (e.g. eating the "standard American crap") DEFINITELY increases allergic reactions.

Its not a small difference either. When I got the seed oils and fast carbs out my "seasonal allergies" went to nearly zero. Prior to that I was a fucking mess my entire life from roughly June until the first freeze, and I build tolerance to OTC antihistamines quite rapidly, so there is no "fix" found in a pill bottle EXCEPT over short periods of time. If I try to use them for more than a week or so they become useless.

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"Anyone wearing a mask will be presumed to be intending armed robbery and immediately shot in the face. Govern yourself accordingly."
Manawa 9 posts, incept 2021-11-10
2023-11-18 10:24:31

Karl, what brands of Vitamin D and K2 do you use? Do you think that it's better to use a blended supplement of both from Costco like jacksparrow suggested?
Nashville 173 posts, incept 2018-02-27
2023-11-18 10:24:50

Just read the following and felt the tribe might enjoy strolling down the COVID conspiracy timeline.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/covi....

So, now I have a great idea for a 2024 continuing series of somewhat daily posts (available on a separate non-approved link). For example:

ON THIS DAY 4 years ago: Tony Fauci testifies to a Congressional committee that were all gonna die unless we do X. Actually TF was full of baloney because it was obvious by that point the numbers did not support anywhere near such dire predictions. $400,000 a year salary for this garbage?
Abelardlindsey 2k posts, incept 2021-03-26
2023-11-18 10:24:56

Quote:
I can't talk about that on the "ad" side of the blog anymore because Google decided that this was "misinformation" to report on my personal experience and what I did to obtain it more than ten years later.


I just posted on my facebook page that minimizing carbs in my diet resulted in effective and permanent weight loss. This is intended as a test of the facebook censorship system.

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Its all in the mitochondria.

Soylent Green is people!
Tickerguy 200k posts, incept 2007-06-26
2023-11-18 10:25:54

@Manawa I don't believe it makes a bit of difference. There are a LOT of people out there hawking ridiculously overpriced supplements and claiming there's a difference. My reply to them is the same as it is to physicians: Show me proof, not claims.

If you want to buy "organic" asparagus at the grocery store for $5/lb instead of the "regular" for $2.99 have at it. IMHO the only difference you're going to have between those two is a materially-lighter wallet. I know plenty about what "organic" means and believe me, organic does NOT mean "no chemical pesticides or fertilizers" and some of the nastiest chemicals are organic. (Which makes sense if you think about it..... although few do!)

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"Anyone wearing a mask will be presumed to be intending armed robbery and immediately shot in the face. Govern yourself accordingly."

Ajkalian 222 posts, incept 2015-09-16
2023-11-18 10:46:49

To be honest I didn't know much about Vitamin K2 but this Ticker got me curious so I did some on line research.

This particular article stood out among the many I read to explain what K1-K2 were and how they both work.

I will rely on Karl to verify the validity of the information posted.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article....

.
Burya_rubenstein 2k posts, incept 2007-08-08
2023-11-18 10:46:52

Add me to the list of VitaD-pill fans. I scored over a year's supply during the summer.

I know not what this "K2" is. But I do also take a pill whose active ingredient is represented by a single letter K.

Also C-pills, nominally half a gram, or a full gram a day if I'm feeling a bit off.

I still get the very beginnings of Colds, and residual coughs, phlegm, and snots. But rarely a plugged nose. And my last full-on Flu with shakes lasted all of twenty MINUTES.

I have never had anything that I could identify as the Coof.
Raven 16k posts, incept 2017-06-27
2023-11-18 10:47:12

Do not have the facility to search my archives at the present and will simply note for here that Vitamin D was tested as an intervention during severe COVID hospital admits with excellent results. Many of these were "saves" where a patient was in bad state.

I personally credit close to twenty years of Vit D3 and K2/MK4&7 as one of the greatest contributors to controlling my health issue only after keto and quinine.

Funny that.

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Mission Complete
Printlife 310 posts, incept 2018-05-22
2023-11-18 10:47:28

I also use HRV as a general health tracker. It catches when I eat too close to bedtime, particularly carbs. Recently I added B12 because my doc had pointed out that mine was low. I think it improved HRV, but it is difficult to decorrelate with everything else. Went from 26 ms to 55 ms. Also catches when I drink alcohol.

HRV shows that both the sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous system are in near agreement on heart rate and which is the initiator is bouncing back and forth. It puzzled me that the randomness was a good sign.

For the body hackers here there is a possibility that the benefits of a heavy resistance workout can be achieved with much lighter weights and reps by restricting the flow of blood. The benefits may be from the muscles responding to hypoxia and releasing a flood of lactic acid. The pain is the same as a heavy workout but recovery is much faster. And the joints are not damaged.

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Vaccination required? Not if we leave.
Now in Florida, heart rate dropping, nicer people
Boredfree 2k posts, incept 2021-09-15
2023-11-18 11:52:43

I noticed that after Karl's diet changed his blog began to change. Covid accelerated these changes and I now find myself in agreement with most people posting. Weird.

Karl dove deep down the covid rabbit hole and has uncovered the truth about the medical monsters whom are actively killing their patients with bad advice, poisonious prescriptions and indifference to anything except their bank accounts.

He has been telling us about the financial implications of our medical monopoly for many years before covid. But after fixing his health, the feel of this place has changed.

Humans are facing an ugly future, if there is to be a future with humans.

I can not thank Karl and this collective enough for creating a 'safe' place on the internet to share thoughts with.

Sometimes it feels like we're prisoners passing notes through the bars of a cage waiting for the moment to escape.

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The problem is most people want to point a finger rather than their thumb when dealing with challenges.
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