After infection with the coronavirus, a high vitamin D level may prevent you from getting sick
After infection with the coronavirus, a high vitamin D level may prevent you from getting sick on the web, doctors and experts are openly speculating about the protective effect of vitamin D against the coronavirus. After all, vitamin D protects against colds and flu, so why not against Covid19? Filipino radiologist Mark Alipio went a step further than speculation. He analyzed data from 212 patients with a corona infection.
Vitamin D & Covid-19
The indications that vitamin D can protect against the coronavirus are stronger than we might suggest above. In biomedical science journals, doctors have repeatedly pointed out that in countries where the sun is less powerful, mortality rates during the corona crisis are also higher.
For example, the figure below comes from an editorial recently published by English and Irish researchers in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics. [Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2020;10.1111/apt.15777.]
After infection with the coronavirus, a high vitamin D level may prevent you from getting sick
In addition, news media have reported increased mortality rates in dark-skinned people, such as African-Americans in the US, [bbc.com, 11 April 2020], and Somali in Sweden [sverigesradio.se, 24 mars 2020] and Norway. [thelocal.no 8 April 2020] People with dark skin are less likely to get vitamin D from sunlight than people with fair skin.
Study
Mark Alipio used data collected from 3 South Asian hospitals. Alipio knew the patients' vitamin D status and the severity of their condition. Using statistical techniques, Alipio determined the relationship between the two.
Results
When the vitamin D level was above 30 nanograms per milliliter, the symptoms of corona contamination were almost always mild. Pneumonia, fever, breathing difficulties, and admission to intensive care were rare in this group.
The higher the vitamin D level, the less chance that a corona infection will result in symptoms of the disease. And the other way around, the lower the vitamin D level, the greater the chance of developing symptoms - and the more serious the symptoms.
After infection with the coronavirus, a high vitamin D level may prevent you from getting sick
Conclusion
"This study provides substantial information to clinicians and health policy-makers", Alipio concludes. "Vitamin D supplementation could possibly improve clinical outcomes of patients infected with Covid-2019 based on increasing odds ratio of having a mild outcome when serum (OH)D level increases."
"Further research may conduct randomized controlled trials and large population studies to evaluate this recommendation."
Acknowledgment
This post would never have been written without Ferdinand Oeinck's tenacity and indispensable help.
Source:
Alipio, Mark. Vitamin D Supplementation Could Possibly Improve Clinical Outcomes of Patients Infected with Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-2019) (April 8, 2020). Available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3571484.
All the best,
Mike Demeter
Try our new Vitamin D3/K2 supplement!
