Vitamin D and Covid19 severity

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(Edited)

As i was looking around, i found this website, and this infogram:

It is mostly consolidating data from some previous studies, but the idea is that adequate vitamin D levels are very important for bone health and healthy immune function. Even if i may point that there is not enough evidence to claim that vitamin D protects you against Covid19 infection. It may not protect you, but certainly it may help to get through the illness much better. One point is that right now we stay inside the house more than usual and it is winter, and the day are shorter. Even when you go out there are less square centimeters of skin exposed to sunlight. There are only observational studies, and they do not account for the time spent outside and other ways influencing the vitamin D produced by our own body. Still, the 14 days study of 77 elderly (average age 88) shown that the ones taking vitamin D regularly had a survival rate of 93%, as opposed to the one not taking it, with a survival rate of 81.7%. A risk of death 14.3 times higher.

Warning: vitamin D is an important modulator of the immune function, and having less than 20ng/ml vit D in serum means you are deficient, leading to rickets in youth and osteoporosis and osteomalacia in adults, due to the softening of the bones. But having too much is bad also, leading to hypercalcemia and kidney stones. And the toxicity data is contradictory, as Nutrition board estimates 2000 IU/day, and some studies suggests that we are safe up to 10.000 IU/day. But the only way to become toxic is via supplementation, as vitamin D produced by our body can never lead to toxicity, self regulating quite good. Feel free to take some vitamin D supplements, but be careful, you may still get infected and there is no way to prevent the severity of infection. You may be in the 98% that is mild, but you may also be in the 2% that is very severe.

Just to add to the mix, observational studies observed that minimal quantities on melatonin also help with prevention and can reduce the severity of the illness, but we have not enough data to support this.

Posted with STEMGeeks



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