Black Sheep Glow, Vancouver, BC (2026)

02/20/2021

Sometimes in medicine you feel like you’re beating a dead horse, but not in the way you might think.

Many would like to abandon the idea that vitamin D improves COVID-19 outcomes because of a study that was just released on JAMA noting that a “single dose of 200 000 IU vitamin D3, compared with placebo, did not significantly reduce hospital length of stay, in-hospital mortality, admission to ICU, nor mechanical ventilation.” Ok, let’s forget about vitamin D then; we can stop beating a dead horse and forget about the other results we observed earlier.

But, wait, why in the world did they use a single bolus dose of 200 000 IU when research has shown that bolus dosing is not as effective as daily or weekly dosing? (I mentioned this in a previous post). Daily dosing may be better than weekly dosing, and weekly dosing may be better than monthly dosing. They used a bolus dose likely to increase ease of use and to use a simple one-time intervention, but at the detriment of us being able to properly assess the results.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think vitamin D is the magic bullet that some tout it to be, nothing really ever is, but we’re doing ourselves a disservice when we do new studies that don’t reflect our knowledge of what we already understand about vitamin D supplementation, which is that bolus dosing has not been shown to have the same effect as other forms of dosing.

They go on to explain that the vitamin D levels of those who supplemented did increase significantly compared to those in the placebo group but final outcomes were not changed. In actuality, we don’t know if it’s the corrected vitamin D levels that may improve outcomes or the possible anti-inflammatory and pleiotropic (outside system) effects of vitamin D supplementation irrespective of final vitamin D levels...

Full post in bio.

02/10/2021

Another vaccine that has been talked about over the last few weeks is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and its results.

🟣Study/results pros: only one shot, very large study (44,000 people), effective against emerging viral variants, across all regions was 85% effective at preventing severe/critical cases. We can acknowledge the vaccine’s complete effectiveness against death as there were 5 COVID-19 related deaths in the placebo arm and none in the vaccine arm. Side effects were minor and the patients will be followed up for 2 years for any other possible side effects. Only needs to be refrigerated.

🔶Study/results cons: 66% effective overall for preventing moderate to severe COVID-19, so not as effective as the earlier vaccines. They reported that the vaccine is effective against emerging strains but reported a 57% efficacy in South Africa which was significantly lower than the 72% in the US so while still effective, it seems less so than for the original variant.

Novavax is another vaccine that specifically showed some efficacy for the new strains, but similar to Johnson and Johnson the overall efficacy didn’t top Pfizer nor Moderna.

It seems that the AstraZeneca vaccine may not be effective against emerging strains according to the most recent evidence available. The vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna have been shown to have some activity against the new strains.

01/16/2021

⚡️Here are some helpful things to note. For Pfizer’s vaccine, the study included ~44,000 people, ages 16 to 55. Children under 16 years of age weren’t included. About half of people were given placebo and the other half were given the vaccine. 162 people in the placebo arm got COVID-19, compared to 8 people in the vaccine arm. 90 patients in the placebo arm got severe disease, compared to 0 people in the vaccine arm. This is a 95% relative benefit, with an absolute benefit of 0.66%.

🔴What does that mean? During the study period, the placebo group had a 0.75% risk of getting COVID, and the vaccine group had a 0.036% risk. You might be surprised by this, but it makes sense because the study period was only a couple months long. The absolute benefit, while it appears very small, will increase with time. One critic suggested the headlines to say ‘’COVID-19 vaccine reduces risk by 0.7%.’’This wouldn’t be accurate though, unless you also added ‘’in 2 months alongside social distancing and masks’’. If the relative risk reduction of 95% stands, the absolute number would continue to increase as time goes on. If after one year for example, your baseline risk of getting COVID is 10% (totally random), with the numbers we have now, your risk with the vaccine (should it stay effective) will now be 0.5% after this length of time.

🔸The risk of serious adverse events was similar in both groups: 0.6% in the vaccine arm, and 0.5% in the placebo arm. Common side effects were headache and fatigue (52% and 59% respectively, and a bit more common in younger patients). No one died due to COVID-19 during the study period.

🟢The study reports a greater than 83% probability of detecting at least one adverse event, if the incidence is 1 in 10,000. Meaning, if there is an adverse event that happens in 1/20,000 or 1/40,000 people, for example, this study was not powered adequately to have picked that up.

Full post on blacksheepglow.com

11/02/2020

🧅Quercetin is a flavonoid that is present in many fruits and veggies. Capers, elderberries, onions, cranberries, and cocoa powder are some foods with the highest levels of quercetin (but still, not even close to the 1000mg we’ll see in the study below).

☁️In the study, no significant differences were measured for all subjects combined with respect to total number of days with upper respiratory infection (URTI) symptoms, severity, or symptom scores during the 12 week study.

🏃🏻‍♀️For individuals 40 years old and older in the quercetin group who rated themselves in the top half of the entire group for fitness level, they had decreased total sick days (improved ~2 days faster) and reduced symptom severity when compared to placebo.

The group above was taking 1000mg quercetin + 1 gram vitamin C + niacin 40mg per day.

🌥Quercetin may be worthwhile if you’re 40 years old or older and consider yourself more athletic than the average person. Keeping in mind that this group also took quercetin in addition to vitamin C and niacin as noted above.

10/20/2020

Doing an actual laugh out loud instead of just typin it on a text and barely cracking a smile (guilty👻) can improve anxiety scores, depression scores, and sleep quality.

When you’re doing a belly laugh, or any kind of laugh really, you don’t have a whole lot of ability to think about much else, so laughter forces us into the present moment, even if only for a few seconds. People whose humour clicks with yours make the most mundane of tasks or activities just a little more joyful.

Humour isn’t something most of us consciously place a whole lot of value in on a day to day basis and it tends to fall to the wayside as we get older. Life can be pretty humourless at times, and we also become more conscious about not offending other people. Humour is one of those high risk-high reward areas where some people will understand your humour and others won’t, but that’s a small price to pay for adding a little more joy to life.

10/16/2020

As with many other health related topics, sometimes the findings change overnight😂This time it’s for remdesivir, which I literally made a post about yesterday and between then and now, findings from an ongoing study funded by the WHO have been released.

This study was a larger study (but it has yet to be peer-reviewed) and in it, it was shown that mortality, initiation of ventilation and hospitalization duration were not clearly reduced by remdesivir.

Lack of effectiveness for these endpoints were also shown with hydroxychloroquine, interferon, and lopinavir/ritonavir. *shakes fist at sky*

Other randomized controlled studies did show benefits from remdesivir, but this larger study unfortunately did not. Stay tuned for further info that may change overnight😂💚

10/15/2020

Remdesivir appears to shorten time to recovery by about 4 days in COVID-19 patients (15 days with placebo vs 11 days with remdesivir).

The benefit for mortality is still up in the air with one study showing mortality reductions on day 14 (7% vs 12%) which were not reported as statistically significant but still going in the right direction, and even larger of a mortality benefit for patients receiving oxygen at day 15 (2.4% vs 10.9%)

Adverse events were similar across both groups.

10/13/2020

New(ish) study from September. Looking at almost 500 people, the relative risk of testing positive for COVID-19 was 1.77 times greater for individuals who were likely deficient in Vitamin D.

Deficiency was defined as 25-hydroxyvitamin D less than 50 nmol/L. This cut-off is higher than the study from my previous post, which showed a benefit of supplementation in patients who had a 25-hydroxyvitamin D level less than 25 nmol/L.

My opinion on the last vitamin D post was: if you don’t know your vitamin D level, supplementation may be a good idea. For most patients this is a low cost, low risk decision that may have a benefit, considering that a substantial portion of the population may be deficient in — or have below adequate levels of — vitamin D. Why I mentioned not to do more than 1000 IU per day (unless you’ve had a test that shows deficiency or you fall into a unique scenario that warrants higher doses) is because more is not necessarily better, and you’d be wasting your time and money taking larger amounts without documented deficiency.

Now, correlation does not mean causation and there could be other factors at play as well. Individuals who are deficient in Vitamin D may, for example, have a different diet that can increase their risk of illness. They may also not spend as much time in the sun and be active to the same degree, which can affect their risk as well.

Thoughts and questions always welcome!!🧡

10/09/2020

New study: Timolol eye drops (typically used for glaucoma) as a treatment to abort migraines 🤕

Summary: 50 patients received either timolol 0.5% eye drops or placebo eyedrops and used 1 drop in each eye at onset of migraine.

At 20 minutes after using the eyedrops, 82% of timolol-treated migraine attacks were associated with a pain reduction of 4 points or to zero, compared to 14% of placebo-treated attacks.

Study strengths: the study was masked, randomized, and placebo-controlled.

Study weaknesses: small study, also would’ve been helpful to know how the 2 groups compared after 1 or 2 hours.

I’ll have to try this one out for myself and report back!💆🏻‍♀️

10/07/2020

Vitamin D for cold/flu prevention: worth it or nah? Vid in bio 🧡 Summary:

☀️ in a large meta analysis, it was observed that adults with circulating vitamin D levels less than 25 nmol/l had their respiratory infection rates reduced by 40% when they supplemented with Vitamin D
☁️ No statistically significant for adults who had vitamin D levels over 25nmol/l
🌱daily or weekly dosing was best. Bolus dosing (once a month) did not show the same effect

Bottom line for me specifically as an example: If I didn’t know my vitamin D levels, I would supplement with a daily Vit D3 supplement (1000iu per day...not more!)

If I did know my Vit D level and it was under 25 nmol/L, I would supplement with a higher dose short term at the recommendation of a pharmacist or doctor. If it was over 25 nmol/L, there would likely be no benefit for me to take a vitamin D supplement (specifically for cold and flu prevention).

Link to post: https://blacksheepglow.com/worth-it-or-nah-vitamin-d-for-cold-flu-prevention/

10/05/2020

As we begin to figure out how to deal with the second wave of this pandemic, it’s helpful to have that self compassion for ourselves (those of us who are taking the precautions that is) and realize there is at least one or more areas in the first 3 rows of the pyramid that most of us, if not all of us, are struggling with — with or without a pandemic.

This kinda limits our time and energy to have much left for ‘’self-esteem’’ and ‘’achievement’’, much less focusing on going even beyond all that and focusing on creativity, sense of purpose, or inner potential.

No human I know and no human you know is residing in that top part of the pyramid. Robots that want to sell you stuff or sell you an idealized version of themselves, yes, skin and flesh humans, no. Hell, most of us should be so lucky to dip our toes in the self-actualization pool every now and then during this lifetime. It’s an ebb and flow, and trying to force it makes the whole process less creative and less spontaneous.

For those of us in the red zone who want to stockpile toilet paper again...let’s tap into our creativity and sense of inner potential and realize that Kleenex could also serve the exact same purpose🤷🏻‍♀️

Link to post: https://blacksheepglow.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-pandemic-edition/

10/04/2020

Some tips for getting rid of an affliction that looks like cuts on the corners of lips and is known as angular cheilitis (full vid in bio)

🔷What I applied to corner of lips:
Clotrimazole 1% cream (or miconazole 2%)
Hydrocortisone 1% cream
Vaseline (or zinc oxide) at bedtime

If above not helping after 1-2 weeks: Polysporin ointment or a prescription antibiotic ointment (i.e. mupirocin).

Other tips:
💦 Drink lots of water to prevent/treat a dry mouth

👄Changing toothbrush at start of therapy

❌Not licking lips

🌱Natural lip moisturizer (coconut oil/argan oil for example)

🧡Sugar-free gum sweetened w/ xylitol

🟣Possibly a B-Complex

Black Sheep Glow