Adequate vitamin D levels may reduce complications and death in COVID-19 patient

COVID-19 patients hospitalized with adequate vitamin D and blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D of at least 30 ng / mL (a measure of vitamin D status) had a significantly lower risk of adverse clinical outcomes, including coma, hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the body), and death. In addition, they had lower levels of an inflammatory marker (C-reactive protein) and higher blood levels of lymphocytes (an immune cell that helps fight infection).

"This study provides direct evidence that vitamin D sufficiency can reduce complications, including cytokine storms (releasing too much protein into the bloodstream too quickly) and ultimately lead to COVID-19 death," explains correspondence author Michael F. Holick, PhD, Ph. Professor of Medicine, Physiology, Biophysics and Molecular Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine.

Blood samples for measurement of vitamin D status (measured serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D) were collected from 235 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Clinical outcomes of these patients were tracked, including clinical severity of infection, loss of consciousness, respiratory distress leading to hypoxia, and death. Blood was also analyzed for inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein) and lymphocyte counts. The researchers then compared all these parameters in vitamin D deficient and vitamin D sufficient patients.

They observed that in patients over 40 years of age, vitamin D-sufficient patients were 51.5% ml less likely to die from infections than patients who were vitamin D deficient or insufficient and had blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D below 30 ng /.