The coronavirus pandemic is hardly showing any signs of slowing down and for quite some time now, experts have been able to find more symptoms of the disease. Now, a new study claims that low
vitamin D levels in the body could be associated with a higher mortality rate amongst people who have got the coronavirus. The researchers have gathered this data from across 20 European countries.
Now, you might be wondering what Vitamin D possibly has to do with the Covid-19 virus? Turns out, Vitamin D can modulate the levels of inflammatory cytokines in the body. These cytokines are often released by the white blood cells to help fight infections. The Covid-19 virus ends up causing an excess of pro-inflammatory cytokines which is known as a cytokine storm. And this can lead to an increased mortality rate because of the dysfunction of the white blood cells.
The study was able to find that this is also why countries like Spain and Italy suffered so much since the people there had lower Vitamin D levels as compared to most other Northern countries. This is also because most people there prefer to avoid stepping in the sun for too long to avoid pigmentation and tanning of their skin.
“We found a significant crude relationship between average vitamin D levels and the number Covid-19 cases, and particularly Covid-19 mortality rates, per head of population across the 20 European countries,” Dr Lee Smith of ARU said in the statement.
“Vitamin D has been shown to protect against acute respiratory infections, and older adults, the group most deficient in vitamin D, are also the ones most seriously affected by Covid-19. A previous study found that 75% of people in institutions, such as hospitals and care homes, were severely deficient in vitamin D. We suggest it would be advisable to perform dedicated studies looking at vitamin D levels in COVID-19 patients with different degrees of disease severity,” Dr Lee said.
Well, this certainly shows that one can try taking some Vitamin D supplements alongside their diet to help reduce the risk of catching the Covid-19 virus. If possible you should also step out for a bit to get some sunlight on yourself as that will also help increase Vitamin D levels in your body. Stay tuned for more updates.
