A small study by doctors at Reina Sofia University Hospital in Cordoba, Spain, indicates that taking vitamin D supplements might keep a person from catching the COVID virus or minimize its effects on those who already have it.
The physicians divided 76 newly hospitalized COVID patients into two groups. One group of 26 was given the usual cocktail of drugs used to treat COVID cases. The other group of 50 got the same cocktail plus a drug that raised vitamin D levels in the bloodstream.
Of the 26, 13 (50 percent) wound up in intensive care; two died. Of the 50 patients whose vitamin D levels were boosted, only one went to the ICU and none died.
The experiment followed a Spanish study of 200 hospitalized COVID patients that found that more than 80 percent – more than 160 of the 200 – had vitamin D deficiencies when they were admitted to hospitals.
Vitamin D has long been known to boost the immune system.
Researchers theorize that vitamin D impairs viruses’ ability to replicate as well as tamping down inflammation while stimulating a positive immune response.
The Spanish research team has called for wide-scale tests of vitamin D’s effectiveness as a COVID preventive and treatment.
