The relationship of vitamin D with the coronavirus 1:36
(CNN) -
More than 80% of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 had a vitamin D deficiency, according to a small study from a hospital in Spain, but researchers found no relationship between vitamin D concentrations and severity of covid-19.
Because it was an observational study, it cannot be proven that low vitamin D levels cause severe COVID-19 in patients, nor that giving vitamin D to healthy people would prevent it.
Researchers from the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital in Santander analyzed information from almost 200 patients with covid-19 hospitalized in March and compared it with the same number of people, matched by age and sex, without covid-19.
The effect of vitamin D on covid-19 may be exaggerated.
This is what we know
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They found that 82% of COVID-19 patients were vitamin D deficient, compared to just 47% of controls, they reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Vitamin D is necessary for normal cell function and bone health.
Studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency affects the immune system.
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The relationship of vitamin D with the coronavirus 1:36
It is not possible with any observational study to unravel cause and effect, and in this study even more so because many of the factors that make people prone to vitamin D deficiency, such as advanced age and health conditions such as high blood pressure arterial: they are the same ones that put people at risk of suffering severe covid-19.
That makes it difficult to determine the role of vitamin D in the prevention and treatment of covid-19.
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But the study's lead researcher said a supplement might be worth trying.
"Treatment with vitamin D should be recommended in patients with covid-19 with low levels of vitamin D circulating in the blood, since this approach could have beneficial effects on both the musculoskeletal and immune systems," said José Hernández, from the University of cantabria.
"One approach is to identify and treat vitamin D deficiency, especially in high-risk individuals, such as the elderly, patients with comorbidities and residents of nursing homes, who are the main target population for COVID-19."
The National Institutes of Health indicate on their website that the role of vitamin D supplements in the prevention or treatment of covid-19 is unknown, so they cannot “recommend neither for nor against the use of vitamin D for the prevention or treatment of covid-19 ”.
covid-19Vitamin D
