Loading...
 
Toggle Health Problems and D

The role of vitamin D in reducing risk of COVID-19: a brief survey of the literature - June 9, 2020

Orthomolecular Nutrition by William B. Grant, PhD
(OMNS June 9, 2020) The evidence that higher vitamin D status is causally linked to lower risk of COVID-19 incidence, severity, and death continues to increase. This brief report outlines what has been learned through early June 2020 and provides links to some of the key references.

It should be noted that acceptance of the role of vitamin D supplementation will probably not be achieved before reports are published that demonstrate randomized controlled trials of vitamin D supplementation significantly reduced COVID-19 incidence or death. Several RCTs and observational studies regarding vitamin D supplementation and COVID-19 incidence and outcomes are either in the planning stage or in progress. The obvious groups to study are those at highest risk: dark-skinned people living at high latitudes, people in nursing homes or health care facilities; prisoners; factory workers such as in meat-packing facilities in the U.S.; health care workers. A major problem is that the powers that be see vitamin D as a threat to income and profit, so use the Disinformation Playbook to suppress positive information on vitamin D. [1]

In a review published in early April, it was proposed that vitamin D supplementation could reduce the risk of COVID-19. Two mechanisms were identified: 1, reduced survival and replication of viruses through vitamin D-stimulated release of cathelicidin and defensins, and 2, reduced risk of the cytokine storm by reducing production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. [2]

Reference was also made to the finding that vitamin D supplementation reduces risk of acute respiratory tract infections as demonstrated by randomized controlled trials. [3] It was recommended that vitamin D supplementation be aimed at increasing serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels to 40-60 ng/ml (100-150 nmol/l), which would require daily doses up to 4000 to 5000 IU/d vitamin D3. Magnesium should also be supplemented, perhaps 400 mg/d, since the conversion of vitamin D to different metabolites requires the presence of magnesium. This recommendation was based on findings in observational studies such as one conducted by Grassrootshealth.net on influenza-like illness. [4]

More recently, it was suggested that for those who have not been supplementing with vitamin D that they start supplementing with a large bolus dose of vitamin D of several hundred thousand IU within one-to-two weeks. The rationale is that without the bolus the body would otherwise take several months to achieve the optimum level. [5] It was also suggested that while vitamin D supplementation could stop COVID-19 from developing at the beginning of symptoms, it probably would not be very useful after lung and organ damage occurs in the acute stage. Most recently, evidence was outlined to show that vitamin D deficiency could explain much of the reason for higher case and mortality rates for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) residents in England. [6]

References

  • 1. Grant WB. (2018) Vitamin D acceptance delayed by Big Pharma following the Disinformation Playbook. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Oct. 1, 2018. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v14n22.shtml
  • 2. Grant WB, Lahore H, McDonnell SL, et al. (2020) Evidence that vitamin D supplementation could reduce risk of influenza and COVID-19 infections and deaths. Nutrients April 2, 2020, 12, 988. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/4/988
  • 3. Martineau AR, Jolliffe DA, Greenberg L, et al. (2017) Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data. BMJ. 356:i6583. https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6583
  • 4. Grant WB, Lahore H, McDonnell SL, et al., (2020) Vitamin D Supplementation Could Prevent and Treat Influenza, Coronavirus, and Pneumonia Infections" Nutrients preprint, March 14, 2020 https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202003.0235/v1
  • 5. Grant WB, Baggerly CA, Lahore H. (2020) Response to Comments Regarding "Evidence that Vitamin D Supplementation Could Reduce Risk of Influenza and COVID-19 Infections and Deaths". Nutrients June 1, 2020, 12(6), 1620. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/6/1620
  • 6. Grant WB, Boucher BJ. (2020) Vitamin D deficiency due to skin pigmentation and diet may explain much of the higher rates of COVID-19 among BAME in England. BMJ comments, June 6, 2020. https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1548/rr-22
  • "Of the 212 cases of COVID-19, majority had ordinary clinical outcome. Mean serum 25(OH)D level was 23.8 ng/ml. Serum 25(OH)D level was lowest in critical cases, but highest in mild cases. Serum 25(OH)D levels were statistically significant among clinical outcomes."
  • "A lot of COVID-19 infected patients develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which may lead to multiple organ damage. These symptoms are associated with a cytokine storm syndrome. The aim of this letter is to note the 5 crucial points that vitamin D could have protective and therapeutic effects against COVID-19. For that reason, COVID-19 infection-induced multiple organ damage might be prevented by vitamin D."
  • "Timely implementation of vitamin D supplementation programmes worldwide is critical; initial priority should be given to those who are at the highest risk, including the elderly, immobile, homebound, BAME and healthcare professionals. Population-wide vitamin D sufficiency could prevent seasonal respiratory epidemics, decrease our dependence on pharmaceutical solutions, reduce hospitalisations, and thus greatly lower healthcare costs while significantly increasing quality of life."
  • "We retrospectively investigated the 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations in plasma obtained from a cohort of patients from Switzerland. In this cohort, significantly lower 25(OH)D levels (p = 0.004) were found in PCR-positive for SARS-CoV-2 (median value 11.1 ng/mL) patients compared with negative patients (24.6 ng/mL)."
    • D'Avolio A, Avataneo V, Manca A, et al. (2020) 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations Are Lower in Patients with Positive PCR for SARS-CoV-2. Nutrients. 2020 May 9;12(5):E1359. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32397511
  • "COVID-19 patients showed lower median 25(OH)D (18.6 ng/mL, IQR 12.6-25.3, versus 21.5 ng/mL, IQR 13.9-30.8; P=0.0016) and higher vitamin D deficiency rates (58.6% versus 45.2%, P=0.0005). Surprisingly, this difference was restricted to male COVID-19 patients who had markedly higher deficiency rates than male controls (67.0% versus 49.2%, P=0.0006) that increased with advancing radiological stage and were not confounded vitamin D-impacted comorbidities."
  • "The RAS, which includes ACE and ACE2, is a complex network that has a major role in various biological functions 31. Chronic vitamin D deficiency may induce RAS activation lung fibrosis through activation of the RAS 35; therefore, increasing evidence indicates that 1,25(OH)2D3 may also be a negative endocrine regulator of the RAS. Inducing the expression of renin, ACE, Ang II and AT1R, and inhibiting ACE2 expression could result in acute lung injury. Vitamin D inhibits renin, ACE and Ang II expression, and induces ACE2 levels in ALI."
  • "We performed a retrospective study in two tertiary medical centers in South Asia. The medical records of COVID19 patients were reviewed and a total of 176 subjects included were the elderly whose age is at least 60 years, We reported that majority of the subjects had 25(OH)D level below 30 ng/ml, most of them were male, had diabetes, and were classified as severe. Most of the male and female subjects had 25(OH)D level below 30 ng/ml."
  • Several recent publications and preprints report multi-country studies based of COVID-19 case or death rates with respect to country mean 25(OH)D concentration. One concern regarding such studies is that the 25(OH)D concentrations used are probably not related to those most likely to develop COVID-19 at the time of incidence. However, a more serious problem is that life expectancy has a much stronger correlation (direct) than does 25(OH)D as discussed in this preprint. I have confirmed their findings using more recent COVID-19 case and death rate data.
  • This article presents retrospective results for 780 patients in Indonesia. Compared to 25(OH)D >30 ng/ml, 25(OH)D between 20 and 30 ng/ml had an odds ratio for death of 7.6 (P<0.001), while 25(OH)D <20 ng/ml had an odds ratio for death of 10.1 (P<0.001).
    • Raharusun, P, Priambada S, Budiart C, Agung E, Budi C. (2020) Patterns of COVID-19 Mortality and Vitamin D: An Indonesian Study (April 26, revised 6 May, 2020). SSRN. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3585561
  • The recommended dietary allowance of vitamin D is 600-800 IU/daily, but during this period,| a multivitamin or supplement containing 1000-2000 IU/daily of vitamin D would be reasonable. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/930152
      • JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH, (2020) Does Vitamin D Protect Against COVID-19? MEDSCAPE, May 11, 2020


Other resources on vitamin D and COVID-19
https://www.grassrootshealth.net/
https://vitad.org/

(Dr. William Grant is director of the Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center http://www.sunarc.org wbgrant at infionline.net)


Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org
Click here to see a web copy of this news release:
This article may be reprinted free of charge provided 1) that there is clear attribution to the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, and 2) that both the OMNS free subscription link http://orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html and also the OMNS archive linkhttp://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml are included.


25 most-recent changes to VIRUS pages (Coronavirus) in Vitamin D Life

Id Page Hits Last modification Creator Categories
12056 2X fewer COVID-19 deaths observed if infrequent vitamin D (2X more deaths if daily dose) – UK Oct 20, 2020 190
10 Nov, 2020 14:46
admin Virus
12057 How to identify and stop the potential superspreaders 49
10 Nov, 2020 14:13
admin Virus
12038 Superspreaders appears to have viscous lung fluids – Oct 2020 143
10 Nov, 2020 12:59
admin Breathing
Virus
11728 COVID-19 treated by Vitamin D - studies, reports, videos 15175
10 Nov, 2020 02:30
admin Virus
12050 Vitamin D fighting COVID-19 meets Bradford Hill Criteria - Nov 2020 118
09 Nov, 2020 18:46
admin Virus
11580 COVID-19 Coronavirus can most likely be fought by Vitamin D 263456
09 Nov, 2020 17:14
admin Virus
12055 Many problems with Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine – Nov 9, 2020 99
09 Nov, 2020 16:42
admin Virus
12031 Evidence Regarding Vitamin D and Risk of COVID-19 and its Severity - Oct 27, 2020 314
09 Nov, 2020 12:21
admin Virus
12052 Common sense COVID-19 risk reduction - masks, social distancing, vitamin D - Oct 2020 91
09 Nov, 2020 02:16
admin Vitamin D Receptor
Virus
12051 French National Academy recommended 100,000 IU of Vitamin D to elderly to fight COVID-19 - May 2020 92
09 Nov, 2020 01:16
admin Loading dose for Vitamin D
Vitamin D in Europe
Virus
12044 Residents of a Nursing Home who choose monthly Vitamin D had 9X fewer COVID-19 deaths – Nov 2, 2020 262
08 Nov, 2020 22:04
admin Virus
11797 Evidence Supports a Causal Model for Vitamin D in COVID-19 Outcomes – June 3, 2020 876
07 Nov, 2020 12:20
admin Virus
12048 COVID-19 probably fought by 40 ng of Vitamin D - quickly achieved with 200K-400K IU - Oct 28, 2020 162
05 Nov, 2020 17:44
admin Virus
12047 COVID-19 1.7X more likely to be severe if low Vitamin D - meta-analysis Oct 2020 97
05 Nov, 2020 11:38
admin Meta-analysis of Vitamin D
Virus
12037 COVID-19 increased risks with low vitamin D: Infection 1.5 X, Hospitalization 1.8 X – meta-analysis Oct 2020 302
05 Nov, 2020 11:26
admin Meta-analysis of Vitamin D
Virus
12046 Chinese COVID-19 study – 80 pct of severe cases had low Vitamin D, all asymptomatic cases had OK Vit D – Oct 13, 2020 200
05 Nov, 2020 09:26
admin Orient
Virus
12039 Vitamin D and COVID-19 - observational studies found it helps, never hurts - Campbell Oct 31, 2020 291
03 Nov, 2020 12:45
admin Books, videos on Vitamin D
Virus
12023 Zinc (which increases vitamin D in tissues) may both prevent and treat COVID-19 275
03 Nov, 2020 11:32
admin Virus
Zinc
12010 9X COVID-19 survival in nursing home if had 80,000 IU dose of vitamin D in previous month – Oct 2020 789
03 Nov, 2020 01:42
admin Virus
12043 COVID-19 survivors can have poor health for a long time 90
02 Nov, 2020 18:44
admin Virus
12035 COVID-19 lung death 4X more likely in Iran if less than 25 ng of vitamin D – Oct 30, 2020 336
02 Nov, 2020 17:28
admin Breathing
Virus
12036 European COVID-19 2nd wave start dates were associated with latitude (vitamin D), not temperature – Oct 31, 2020 216
31 Oct, 2020 02:05
admin Vitamin D in Europe
Virus
11740 COVID-19 mortality rate highest North of 35 degrees latitude (Vitamin D) – April 20, 2020 1650
30 Oct, 2020 20:29
admin Mortality and D
Virus
11753 More Vitamin K and formented food associated with fewer COVID-19 problems 1385
30 Oct, 2020 10:50
admin Vitamin D and Vitamin K
Virus
12032 Vitamin C may treat COVID-19 (several studies) 115
29 Oct, 2020 20:48
admin Virus



Created by admin. Last Modification: Thursday June 11, 2020 01:09:11 GMT-0000 by admin. (Version 1)
See any problem with this page? Report it (FINALLY WORKS)