Thursday, March 28, 2024

GET OUR FREE E-NEWSLETTER

“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”

— William Wilberforce

Search

Three New Studies Support Vitamin D’s Role in Preventing and Treating COVID-19

plate of vitamin D

Three new studies have reported the positive role of vitamin D in preventing COVID-19 and reducing the severity of illness in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 infection.

Researchers at Boston University conducted a retrospective, observational analysis1 of over 190,000 U.S. patients from 50 states with SARS-CoV-2 results performed mid-March through mid-June, 2020 and who had 25(OH)D (vitamin D) results from the preceding 12 months. Residential zip code data was matched with U.S. Census data to perform analyses of race/ethnicity proportions and latitude.

Vitamin D Deficiency Associated With 54 Percent Higher Risk for COVID-19

Those who had a circulating level of 25(OH)D below 20 ng/mL had a 54 percent higher positivity rate compared to those who had a blood level of 30–34 ng/mL. The risk of SARS-CoV-2 positivity continued to decline until the serum levels reached 55 ng/mL. The inverse relationship between SARS-CoV-2 positivity and 25(OH)D levels was most striking in predominately black non-Hispanic zip codes, followed by predominately Hispanic zip codes.

Calling the results “remarkable,” researcher Michael Holick, MD, PhD, summarized, “If you’re vitamin D deficient, you have a 54 percent higher risk of acquiring this infection compared to people who were vitamin D sufficient,” he said. “This was for all ages, for all ethnicities and for all latitudes in the United States in all 50 states. So whether you’re in California, Florida, or Alaska this still remained the same.”2

Vitamin D Supplementation Can Maintain Healthy Levels of Vitamin D

Approximately 42 percent of the US population is vitamin D deficient3 but 82 percent of blacks and 61 percent of Hispanics are deficient,4 and 60 percent of nursing home residents are deficient.5 Dr. Holick says that vitamin D insufficiency is very common in sunny states like California and Florida because of sunscreen use and the fact that people avoid the midday sun when UVB rays trigger a reaction in skin cells that makes vitamin D. He states that supplementation is a safe and effective way to maintain healthy levels of vitamin D, and that infants need 400-1000 units a day, children 600-1000 units a day, and teens and adults need 1500-2000 units a day, but “if you’re obese you need two to three times more.”6

Vitamin D Status Can Affect Risk of Mortality from COVID-19

A second study,7 also co-authored by Dr. Holick, is a cross sectional analysis of 235 hospitalized patients infected with COVID-19 that found those with sufficient vitamin D status had significantly better outcomes. Of patients over 40 years of age, 9.7 percent of patients who were vitamin D sufficient died compared to 20 percent who were vitamin D insufficient or deficient. Only 6.3 percent of the patients over 40 years died with a blood level of 25(OH)D of 40 ng/mL or higher. The data analyses also revealed that the severe decrease in infection was less prevalent in patients who had sufficient levels of vitamin D. The authors suggest that anti-inflammatory role of vitamin D helps modulate the immune response by reducing the risk for cytokine storm in response to this viral infection.

A pilot study conducted in Cordoba, Spain, and published in the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology found that the administration of high dose calcifediol (a main metabolite of Vitamin D endocrine system) significantly reduced the need for ICU treatment of patients requiring hospitalization due to proven COVID-19.8

The study evaluated 76 consecutive patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection and randomly assigned two thirds of the patients to receive oral calcifediol in addition to standard care (per hospital protocol). One third of the patients received only standard care.

Of 50 patients treated with calcifediol, one required admission to the ICU (2 percent), while of 26 untreated patients, 13 required admission (50 percent). Of the patients treated with calcifediol, none died, and all were discharged without complications. The 13 patients not treated with calcifediol, who were not admitted to the ICU, were discharged. Of the 13 patients admitted to the ICU, two died and the remaining 11 were discharged.

The study authors suggested that activation of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) signaling pathway may generate beneficial effects in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) by decreasing the cytokine/chemokine storm; regulating the renin‑angiotensin system; modulating neutrophil activity and by maintaining the integrity of the pulmonary epithelial barrier; stimulating epithelial repair, and tapering down increased coagulability of the blood.


References:

5 Responses

  1. I don’t fully understand the published article. But the bottom line is you won’t get sick easily if your body has sufficient nutrients such as vitamin D.

  2. Oh sure. We listened to endless hours of that on Joe Rogan and Infowars like months and months ago. Never got sick. Everyone in our family has been on D, some sort of zinc, and variety multi vitamins most of this year. Everyone fine and healthy. Kick that up a notch with hard pressed spirulina, fresh fish and krill oils, little bit of iodine, liquid B vitamin, tasty C chewables, colloidal silver, and healthy fresh diet.

    My latest move is to litter masks everywhere. Masks are stupid and if tyrannical mandates force them on my face, I’m going to litter them everywhere I go as the official notice of objection. I’m not the only one either… If you object to masks, make sure to liter them everywhere and don’t even worry about how much they cost, money is not the issue here. I like to wear them improperly with the lower strap hanging in front of my face. Or for the medical grade ones I just wear it upside down, inside out, or more frequently lately I just hold it all crumpled up like a tissue in front of my face momentarily while I duck in for quick items. Then because I need to pay with my hands, the mask comes off at moment of sale. Then if they cry, I press it against my face again and so tediously pay one handed instead. And I like to pay cash if for nothing else than to see the fear in their eyes. I like my N-95’s to roll on the passenger floor for a while, and especially like to save the ones covered in garage grease and such. And I like to run my hands on counters and touch everything in site while at the stores. Then I immediately touch my mask. I’d rather die than live in fear and the message is clear, I will never adopt a new normal. Proud to have normalcy bias because that ‘normalcy’ is nothing more and nothing less than a love of liberty. New normal is synonymous with severely restricted liberties. You can give your liberties away if you want but I’m not relinquishing mine without a fight. Initiate recalls against every single politician whom forces masks, that is one solution. On political surveys I now call masks and vaccines as top issues, ‘we do not vote for mandatory masks’, ‘we do not vote for mandatory vaccines’.

  3. Be careful with Vitamin D supplementation.

    Most people don’t have a clear understanding of Vitamin D. They think they can just take a vitamin D pill and that’s it. It requires cofactors to work. If not, vitamin D can cause kidney problems, kidney stones and hypercalcemia, which can actually kill you.

    Cod liver oil is one of the safest forms of vitamin D because it’s accompanied by Vitamin A. Other vitamin D foods are butter from grassfed cows or goats, likewise good cheese and dairy, seafood, catfish, pork lard and sunlight. We need vitamin A to correctly metabolize vitamin D. We also need calcium and along with it magnesium and phosphorous. Synthetic vitamins are not the same as food based vitamins because they are complexes not simple individual compartments.

Leave a Reply to Tom Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search in Archive

Search in Site

To search in site, type your keyword and hit enter

Search