Mounting evidence vitamin D protects from covid-19 and can even treat it

Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Messages
25
The next link provides a recent study and looks over previous studies:



A couple of papers (there are more in the link above):

(recent)

The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of vitamin D3 supplementation in COVID-19 treatment and reveal the potential mechanisms of vitamin D on COVID-19. Our results indicated that vitamin D treatment shortened the hospitalization period, decreased the mortality rate, and that the effect of vitamin D in COVID-19 might involve regulation of INOS1, IL1B, IFNg, cathelicidin-LL37, and ICAM1.

(older, vitamin D seems to reduce risk of respiratory tract infections in general)

This article reviews the roles of vitamin D in reducing the risk of respiratory tract infections, knowledge about the epidemiology of influenza and COVID-19, and how vitamin D supplementation might be a useful measure to reduce risk. Through several mechanisms, vitamin D can reduce risk of infections. Those mechanisms include inducing cathelicidins and defensins that can lower viral replication rates and reducing concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines that produce the inflammation that injures the lining of the lungs, leading to pneumonia, as well as increasing concentrations of anti-inflammatory cytokines.


It seems there is sufficient evidence showing vitamin D protects from covid-19 and can even treat it. I don't understand why this doesn't become widespread. How much additional evidence is needed?
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Messages
25
The next link shows a considerable amount of studies, completed and undertaken, trying to determine the role of vitamin D in covid-19:


I wonder why so many studies, and if each new one takes into account all the previous ones.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Messages
25

Dr. Michael Holick, a leading authority on vitamin D in the United States, said that being vitamin D sufficient will help reduce the risks of morbidity and mortality from ... COVID-19.

“There are several other studies that basically confirm these observations. So there is good evidence and there were association studies to suggest that improvement in vitamin D status can reduce risk for acquiring the infection,” said Holick

...

Holick, a director of Clinical Research at Boston Medical Center, said that he began to realize that vitamin D is an important immunomodulator at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. Being vitamin D deficient, he said, may increase the risk of acquiring the infection.

...

The director of the Bone Health Care Clinic and the Heliotherapy, Light and Skin Research Center at Boston University Medical Center emphasized that the major source of vitamin D for humans is sun exposure and there is essentially no vitamin D in our diet.

...

the fact that most Americans are low in vitamin D because they spend more time indoors, and that when they put on all sorts of lotions or creams that block the ultraviolet light when they go out.


My conclusion: vitamin D supplements are necessary, in general in occidental societies (at least).
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Messages
25
The next paper, dated a few months ago, deserves to be mentioned IMHO:

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/10/3596/htm

6. Conclusions

Although there are a vast number of publications supporting a correlation between the severity and death rate of SARS-CoV-2 infections and the blood level of vitamin D3, there is still an open debate about whether this relation is causal. This is because in most studies, the vitamin D level was determined several days after the onset of infection; therefore, a low vitamin D level may be the result and not the trigger of the course of infection.

In this publication, we used a meta-analysis of two independent sets of data. One analysis is based on the long-term average vitamin D3 levels documented for 19 countries. The second analysis is based on 1601 hospitalized patients, 784 who had their vitamin D levels measured within a day after admission, and 817 whose vitamin D levels were known preinfection. Both datasets show a strong correlation between the death rate caused by SARS-CoV-2 and the vitamin D blood level. At a threshold level of 30 ng/mL, mortality decreases considerably. In addition, our analysis shows that the correlation for the combined datasets intersects the axis at approximately 50 ng/mL, which suggests that this vitamin D3 blood level may prevent any excess mortality. These findings are supported not only by a large infection study, showing the same optimum but also by the natural levels observed in traditional people living in the region where humanity originated from that were able to fight down most (not all) infections in most (not all) individuals.

Vaccination is and will be an important keystone in our fight against SARS-CoV-2. However, current data clearly show that vaccination alone cannot prevent all SARS-CoV-2 infections and dissemination of the virus. This scenario possibly will become much worse in the case of new virus mutations that are not very susceptible to the current vaccines or even not sensitive to any vaccine.

Therefore, based on our data, the authors strongly recommend combining vaccination with routine strengthening of the immune system of the whole population by vitamin D3 supplementation to consistently guarantee blood levels above 50 ng/mL (125 nmol/L). From a medical point of view, this will not only save many lives but also increase the success of vaccination. From a social and political point of view, it will lower the need for further contact restrictions and lockdowns. From an economical point of view, it will save billions of dollars worldwide, as vitamin D3 is inexpensive and—together with vaccines—provides a good opportunity to get the spread of SARS-CoV-2 under control.

Although there exists very broad data-based support for the protective effect of vitamin D against severe SARS-CoV-2 infections, we strongly recommend initiating well-designed observational studies as mentioned and/or double-blind randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to convince the medical community and the health authorities that vitamin D testing and supplementation are needed to avoid fatal breakthrough infections and to be prepared for new dangerous mutations.
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Messages
25
Interesting article dated February 2021:

https://www.unz.com/jcook/why-politicians-and-doctors-keep-ignoring-the-medical-research-on-vitamin-d-and-covid/

It is probably not a good idea to write while in the grip of anger. But I am struggling to suppress my emotions about a wasted year, during which politicians and many doctors have ignored a growing body of evidence suggesting that Vitamin D can play a critically important role in the prevention and treatment of Covid-19.

...

There should have come a point – especially when a treatment like Vitamin D is very cheap and almost entirely safe – at which the precautionary principle kicked in. It was not only foolhardy but criminally negligent to be demanding 100 per cent proof before approving the use of Vitamin D on seriously ill patients. There was no risk in treating them with Vitamin D, unlike most other proposed drugs, and potentially much to gain.

...

The only sane response to the Vitamin D medical studies showing dramatic benefits for those hospitalised with Covid is to demand urgent government funding of further research to test those findings and to use Vitamin D in hospitals in the meantime on the precautionary principle, given that it is very cheap and has proven to be completely safe.

If you are trying to obscure that point, you should do so only if you are absolutely certain that these medical studies are wrong. Otherwise your behaviour is, on the best interpretation, shamefully irresponsible.
 
Last edited:

Sibi

Star
Joined
Aug 11, 2021
Messages
1,563
the fact that most Americans are low in vitamin D because they spend more time indoors, and that when they put on all sorts of lotions or creams that block the ultraviolet light when they go out.

My conclusion: vitamin D supplements are necessary, in general in occidental societies (at least).
I remember in biology class that we only have to go outside in the sun for 5 minutes to get our days worth of vitamin D. Also people with dark skin do not absorb as much Vitamin D from the sun.

This results in children growing up with rickets.




Vitamin D food


Apparently, we are really low on Vitamin B6 also!
 
Top