A new study confirms a link between pre-infection vitamin D levels and severe COVID-19.
Scientists at Israel’s Bar Ilan University examined links between vitamin D levels and severity of COVID-19 for 253 patients admitted to Galilee Medical Center hospital – including records indicating vitamin D levels before they acquired a SARS-CoV-2 infection and entered hospital – and found those with insufficient pre-infection levels were 14 times more likely to develop severe COVID-19 than those with high vitamin D levels.
The study was published in PLOS ONE and lead author Dr Amiel Dror told medicalnewstoday.com some previous research investigating the connection between vitamin D insufficiency and COVID-19 has been inconclusive because ‘the majority of the studies have tackled vitamin D in the context of acute viral infection… in the presentation to the hospital during a patient’s COVID-19 illness.’
Commenting on potential vitamin D treatments for COVID-19 once in hospital, Dr Dror added: ‘Obviously it should be no surprise that such a late intervention would not alter the observed disease course that much.
‘When a study aims to determine the effect of vitamin D treatment, I would recommend a study design with earlier intervention/treatment rather than 5-10 days after the symptoms’ onset when the body has already undergone severe distress.’
But Dr Dror emphasised that, after accounting for a variety of other possible factors, ‘vitamin D effect was so strong, and identified in each multivariate regression model we tested as the most prominent independent factor on disease and mortality’.
He summed up: ‘I recommend people keep their baseline vitamin D at a normal level and certainly avoid the deficiency levels of 20 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml).
‘These recommendations already exist regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this period, I would especially stick to these recommendations.’
