Hacker News Reader

Good explain. Thanks. Also fascinating. In Oz, far more women than men get D3 and calcium looked at, because they're prepped for (peri)menopause drops in bone density. But, with dietary shift and the anti cancer sun issues, I think old people in general need to talk to their GP about it.

The SAD thing, and MS also come up. I think the SAD one is covered by your mood disorder and the need for context. I didn't see MS well covered?

View on HN

Thanks, George. I’m a new Australian (U.S. transplant) and still getting up to speed on the local medical culture. But, re: SAD/mood, bright-light therapy is first-line; I treat vitamin D as “correct deficiency, don’t expect it to replace standard care.”

On MS (the bit I didn’t cover well): Higher lifelong 25(OH)D is linked to lower MS risk (observational + genetic lines point the same way). In people already diagnosed, adding high-dose D3 to disease-modifying therapy hasn’t reliably cut relapses; MRI signals are mixed.

So, test and correct deficiency (good general health practice), but don’t expect vitamin D to function as a disease-modifying add-on.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com