I think this hypercalcemic effect of higher doses might explain no using calcitriol.
A quick Google search indicates both calcifediol and calcitriol can cause hypercalcemia, although I am not sure if it is to the same degree. Calcifediol converts to calcitriol in the body anyway, so whichever you give, you end up with calcitriol.
I believe calcifediol may actually act as an antagonist of the vitamin D receptor (VDR), whereas calcitriol is an agonist of the VDR. So there is a complex interplay between the two, and their opposing effects on the VDR.
Unfortunately the study does not explain why they chose calcifediol.
It's just a survey, by definition low quality study.
This survey is all we have at present. It was done by one of the long-haul COVID support groups that have sprung up.
Be aware that the long-haul COVID patients have a real fight on their hands, trying to get the medical profession to take their diseases seriously.
Traditionally the medical profession has ignored persisting viral symptoms like myalgic encephalomyelitis, preferring to label ME as an "all in the mind" psychosomatic condition, rather than accepting it as a real disease.
What's more, because of this "all in the mind" view of ME, lots of ME patients are medically abused, being sent to psychiatrists for abusive therapies, like forced exercise (which is damaging in viral illnesses), rather than doctors believing their disease is real.
ME is one of the most horrible diseases you can imagine, and then as if that were not bad enough, the medical profession tend to abuse ME patients.
"We recognize and want to emphasize that COVID-19 appears differently in each person," Interesting, somehow other illnesses do not appear that much differently in each person,. But hey, let's put all the sins on the witch or the goat.
That's not true, viral infections can produce dramatically different illnesses in different people.
EBV for example can cause mononucleosis (glandular fever), nasopharyngeal cancer, and has been implicated in various other cancers, as well as strongly implicated multiple sclerosis, and implicated many other diseases.
There is a vast range of viruses in common circulation which infect humans, and are known to cause, or are implicated in, many different diseases. Some of these viruses you will already have in your body, and they may be in the process of causing a cancer, or precipitating a chronic disease. You might like to spend a bit of time studying virology. You will find it eye opening how viruses can inflict so much disease.
I think some of the long haul COVID people may have illnesses which will clear up: like viral lung damage that may heal over many months. But for those long haul COVID patients who developed myalgic encephalomyelitis from the infection, that stays with you for life. Some of these ME people will thus be imprisoned in their beds for the rest of their lives, decade after decade of bed confinement, and ravaged with pain, fatigue and debilitating brain fog.
Remember that infectious pathogens are the oldest enemy of mankind. Humanity became a bit complacent due to the success of antibiotics (when they were introduced in the 1950s) in treating a wide range of bacteria infections that previously would have been fatal. So medics started to think that we had conquered infectious disease.
But they had not accounted for viruses, for which we have almost no antiviral drugs. We are wide open to being hit by viral pandemics, until such time as we develop a universal antiviral drug. Hopefully coronavirus will be a wake-up call, so that science starts to look into universal antivirals.
What's more, researchers such as Professor Paul Ewald point out that most chronic diseases, from cancer to multiple sclerosis to Parkinson's to heart disease are all linked to chronic viral infections in the body. Given that most people die from a chronic disease, and usually die only after many years of suffering, we would be very unwise not to take viruses more seriously in future.
Sure, within a year we will probably have the vaccines that will bring the coronavirus pandemic to a halt, and then we will be over the pandemic (except for people who developed myalgic encephalomyelitis from coronavirus, which is a life sentence of misery).
But the massive effect that viruses have on our lives, through the diseases they are implicated in, will not go away. Nor will pandemics, as there are plenty more novel viruses circulating in animals that are just waiting to jump into human populations.
Edited by Hip, 21 September 2020 - 05:05 AM.