Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc

So I'm on like day four of the coof, which traditionally for me would be the crescendo for viral infections. Normally feeling my worst around day four if I get a cold or the flu. Surprisingly covid has been pretty mild in this regard. Feeling pretty alright at the moment. Silver linings!

It's also such weird timing. My "roommates" have abandoned the apartment for fear of getting infected by the dreaded coof. _{Yes, they are quadruple vaccinated.} Actually it's a bit weirder than that. My roommate's parents had a timeshare situation that was about to expire, so she was always planning to take a little vacation for free. Just so happens my illness has seemingly expedited this process, or at least make it a much convenient solution to the issue at hand.

Another reason why the timing is weird is because over a year ago a buddy of mine told me to buy Vitamin C, D, and Zinc to boost my immune system and whatnot. And then randomly a week ago I actually did it... and now a week later I have COVID. Coincidence!?! Hm, yes, that's exactly what it is. Not everything needs to be connected. That crowded breakfast café obviously didn't do me any favors.

In any case, I wonder if these supplements are actually helping. Seems like they might be. My girlfriend calls them "expensive pee", as there are many conflicting reports about taking supplements (especially multi-vitamins). There are many 'experts' that claim they have no effect, and plenty leftover to make the exact opposite remarks. At the end of the day most people simply want confirmation bias so they'll end up asking Google leading questions that confirm what they want to be true.

Research suggests that certain dietary supplement ingredients might improve immune response and reduce symptoms of some respiratory illnesses, like the common cold and flu. Popular supplement ingredients that are thought to support immune health include vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, elderberry, echinacea, and probiotics.

Let's be real though.

At the end of the day taking supplements is an extremely sub-par way of handling the health of a human body. People have been around for hundreds of thousands of years. How long have supplements been around? It's been confirmed time and time again that trying to get the same result through artificial means has noticeable diminishing returns. An extremely healthy and well-planned diet is going to trump supplements every single time.

Counterpoint

But what if my supplements work simply because I believe they work? Placebo Effect is a helluva drug. There's a reason why every single drug trial needs to have a control group where people are being told they are being given the drug even though they're just sugar-pill blanks. It is truly shocking how simply the belief that improvement will happen can completely change our actual experience.

Diet and Exercise.

I always love how every time we go to the doctor they make sure to remind us how utterly irrelevant they are in so so many regards. The solution to almost all aliments is diet and exercise. You really have to wonder how many times someone beat cancer without even realizing it simply because their body resolved the problem before it spiraled out of control.

So on the one hand we have 'experts' making claims that supplements don't do anything, and yet those same 'experts' know for a fact and diet and exercise are vitally important to both physical and mental health. But what is a supplement if not part of someone's diet? Make it make sense.

Trust is lacking.

The medical industrial complex is probably one of capitalism's biggest failures. Even worse than infinite war and for-profit prisons. We can see the incentives. If it makes money, someone is going to want to do it, and if it doesn't make money but is still extremely valuable to society, someone might try to make it happen but end up going broke (or buried by the competition) during the scaling up process. When we apply this logic to the medical industry it's downright frightening. Go into the doctor to have your ears cleaned and get slapped with a $2000 bill. Get a prescription filled only to realize that some dipshit pharma bro jacked up the price x100. Fun stuff.

Vitamin C

It is necessary for the proper functioning of the immune system, the production of collagen, and the absorption of iron. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant, which means it helps to protect cells from damage caused by free radicals. Some research suggests that vitamin C may help to reduce the severity and duration of common cold symptoms, and it may also help to protect against cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer.

Vitamin D

It is a fat-soluble vitamin that has long been known to help the body absorb and retain calcium and phosphorus; both are critical for building bone. Also, laboratory studies show that vitamin D can reduce cancer cell growth, help control infections and reduce inflammation.

Zinc

Zinc is a trace mineral, meaning that the body only needs small amounts, and yet it is necessary for almost 100 enzymes to carry out vital chemical reactions. It is a major player in the creation of DNA, growth of cells, building proteins, healing damaged tissue, and supporting a healthy immune system.

Which one of the above quotes was generated from AI?

The easiest way to get vitamin D is to simply go outside (touch grass as the kids say) and stand in the sun. It's weird that a vitamin can be catalyzed by light, but then again we know very little about light. But I can say for sure that it moves at the speed of itself.

But here's a weird fact for you: did you know that you can put mushrooms in the sun and they will absorb the vitamin D for you and you can consume it later? So weird. How does that even make sense? What is this simulation?

I mention vitamin D because I can be quite the hermit sometimes. I could not leave the house for two weeks straight and be just fine. Quite the vampire when I want to be. Therefore I assume that I've been vitamin D deficient many times in my life and not even realized it. Ideally, I would touch grass, but in practice perhaps a supplement can help a little.

I may have to do more of a deep dive on vitamin D and sun exposure, but that's pretty much the exact reason why white people even exist in the first place. It's estimated that lighter-skinned people can create x4-x6 more vitamin D than darker-skinned people. That's a pretty shocking number when you think about it, but also it makes sense because there are so many disadvantages to having low melanin levels, so there must be a good reason why evolution took that pathway. I think I read somewhere that it took about ten or twenty thousand years for those who migrated north into Europe to fully adapt to that environment.

I always get a kick out of watching ChatGPT try not to be 'racist'.

Oh yeah there is no difference but there is totally a difference though.

Conclusion

Eat fruits and vegetables. Sometimes the old advice is still the best advice there is. I think it's funny how people will go on a diet and say they aren't going to eat fruit because it has sugar in it. Really? When's the last time you met someone that wanted to lose weight but couldn't because they were eating too much fruit? The answer is never.

This is the problem when we look at things on paper. On paper, looking at a nutrition label, the sugar in fruit is exactly the same as cane sugar or, god forbid: corn syrup. I shouldn't have to explain why that kind of logic is extremely ignorant; there's no sugarcoating it (wow that's got to be my worst pun ever).

This is also the problem with supplements: we look at the label as if getting vitamins from a pill is exactly the same as absorbing them from a healthy diet. This is clearly false, but also it's just as ridiculous to fishtail to the other side of the argument and claim that supplements are completely useless.

Whatever the case may be: always remember that we tend to oversimplify complex issues in order to make sense of them. The understanding we gain from this abridged version of reality can be insightful, but we also must understand how much gets lost in translation along the way.

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