Does Vitamin D Reduce the Severity of Covid-19?

Some Studies Show Vitamin D May Reduce the Severity of COVID-19

Some studies have shown that Vitamin D may have a role in reducing the severity of Covid-19 and some have not shown this, but randomized controlled studies, which are the gold standard, have not been done. Rose Kenny, MD, professor of medical gerontology at Trinity College Dublin, recently coauthored an article detailing an inverse association between vitamin D levels and mortality from COVID-19 across countries in Europe. They found that Spain and Northern Italy have the lowest vitamin D levels and the highest rates of Covid-19. Conversely, Norway, Sweden and Finland had higher vitamin D levels despite less UVB sun and light exposure and this is most likely due to the fact of consumer supplementation and formal fortification of foods.

The protective effect may be attributed to vitamin D’s ability to suppress the adaptive immune system, reducing the risk of developing severe Covid-19. JoAnn Monason, MD chief of the preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston reports that “we know that vitamin D has an immune-modulating effect and can lower inflammation and this may be relevant to the respiratory response during Covid-19 and the cytokine storm that’s been demonstrated. It has been suggested that for frontline workers, daily doses of 1,000IU of vitamin D seems reasonable.

Source: Studies were reported in Clinical Endocrinology
News, Vol 15. No. 7, 07/2020