Vitamin D Random Controlled Trials are becoming impossible

The way it used to be:

Randomized Controlled Trials used to be the "gold standard" of medicine.
Randomized Controlled Trials with Vitamin D used to be easy.
Randomiy choose people to be in one of 2 (or more) groups
Give vitamin D to one group and a placebo to the other. (typically daily, weekly or monthly)
   People rarely became aware of which group they were in.
Run the trial for 2-24 months and note the differences

Along comes the web and smartphones:
  (Reason #1: Many people now find out about vitamin D benefits)

Now many people quickly become aware of which group they are in
There are a huge number of indications when a person is getting enough vitamin D (> 40 nanograms) to make a difference
A person getting enough vitamin D will quickly notice a decrease/elimination in

• colds, sniffles, flu
• aches & pains
     including chronic pain, headache, migraine, cluster headache, back pain
• asthma
• allergies
• gut problems
• shin splints
• depression
• sleep problems and restless leg syndrome
• etc, etc.

Reason #2: Unable to find participants who will have 50% chance of having NO vitamin D for a while

Reason #3: Ethics

• Is it ethical to NOT give vitamin D in osteoporosis trials– NEJM Sept 2010
  Some Doctors feel that not giving vitamin D to every person who needs it is unethical
  Vitamin D will be given to ALL 2,000 pregnant women at one hospital in 2016
• Unethical to restrict Vitamin D to half of the asthmatic children in RCT – June 2018

Reason #4 - If enough Vitamin D is given to make a difference, participants soon know which group they are in

People in RCT used to know that they were getting the trial drug because they had so many BAD side effects
People in RCT with Vitamin D know which group they are in because of so many GREAT side effects
Thus it is very difficult to blind the patients and doctors as to who is getting enough vitamin D

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See also VitaminDWiki

• Proof that Vitamin D Works 86 health problems proven to be prevented or treated by Vitamin D (as of May 2018)
  Note: As of Dec 2015 - the last 4 proofs added were NOT RCT, rather, every person got vitaminn D
• A doctor got all of his patients to a Vitamin D level of 80 nanograms
  He found that the average annual of patient visits dropped from 4 to 1 - they had become so healthy
• Note: RCT was in the title of 446 pages on VitaminDWiki as of May 2018
• Intervention - Vitamin D category listing has 824 items sorted by health problem along with related searches
• Is it ethical to NOT give vitamin D in osteoporosis trials– NEJM Sept 2010
• Growing pains reduced 57 percent by vitamin D therapy – May 2015 vitamin D given to all unethical otherwise
• Autism rate in siblings reduced 4X by vitamin D: 5,000 IU during pregnancy, 1,000 IU to infants – Feb 2016 vitamin D given to all unethical otherwise
• Search VitaminDWiki for UNETHICAL 145 hits as of July 2022
• Why many vitamin D trials fail to find benefits - Nov 2016