More than 80% of COVID patients are vitamin D deficient

By Dr. Mercola

Justice Truth News

STORY AT-A-GLANCEVitamin D deficiency has emerged as a primary risk factor for severe COVID-19 infection and death. Higher vitamin D levels have even been shown to lower your risk of testing positive for the virus in the first placeAccording to a Spanish study, 82.2% of COVID-19 patients tested were found to be deficient in vitamin DOne study found your risk of developing a severe case of, and dying from, COVID-19 decreases once your vitamin D level gets above 30 ng/mL (75 nmol/L)Vitamin D can reduce your risk of respiratory infections including COVID-19 via several different mechanisms, including reducing the survival and replication of viruses, reducing inflammatory cytokine production and maintaining endothelial integrityDark skin color, increased age, preexisting chronic conditions and vitamin D deficiency are all features of severe COVID disease. Of these, vitamin D deficiency is the only factor that is modifiable. As such, it would be foolish to ignore, especially since vitamin D supplements are readily available and low cost

This article was previously published November 9, 2020, and has been updated with new information.

Aside from insulin resistance,1 vitamin D deficiency has emerged as a primary risk factor for severe COVID-19 infection and death. Higher vitamin D levels have even been shown to lower your risk of testing positive for the virus in the first place.

Getting the word out about this — especially to the Black community and the elderly in nursing homes — could have a significant impact on future hospitalization and death rates from this virus.

If you have a loved one in a nursing home, taking the time to talk to the medical management about vitamin D testing and supplementation could also make a big difference in the general health of all the residents, as vitamin D is something that can strengthen your immune system in a matter of a few weeks and has many health benefits beside lowering your risk of viral illness.

Vast Majority of COVID-19 Patients Have Vitamin D Deficiency

According to a Spanish study2,3,4 published online October 27, 2020, in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 82.2% of COVID-19 patients tested were found to be deficient in vitamin D, the medical term for which is 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25OHD).

The researchers compared the vitamin D levels of 216 COVID-19 patients and 197 population-based controls, finding that hospitalized COVID-19 patients had a higher prevalence of deficiency and had lower vitamin D levels overall. As reported by the authors:5

“In COVID-19 patients, mean± SD 25OHD levels were 13.8±7.2 ng/ml, compared to 20.9 ±7.4 ng/ml in controls. 25OHD values were lower in men than in women. Vitamin D deficiency was found in 82.2% of COVID-19 cases and 47.2% of population-based controls.

25OHD inversely correlate to serum ferritin and D-dimer levels. Vitamin D deficient COVID-19 patients had a greater prevalence of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, raised serum ferritin and troponin levels, as well as a longer length of hospital stay than those with serum 25 OHD levels ≥ 20 ng/ml.”

While this particular study failed to find a correlation between vitamin D levels and disease severity, other studies have shown patients with higher levels do tend to have milder disease. In fact, one such study6,7 found your risk of developing a severe case of, and dying from, COVID-19 virtually disappears once your vitamin D level gets above 30 ng/mL (75 nmol/L).

Vitamin D’s Impact on COVID-19

Back in June 2020, I launched an information campaign about vitamin D that included the release of a downloadable scientific report. This report, as well as a two-minute COVID risk quiz is available on StopCovidCold.com.

October 31, 2020, my review paper8 “Evidence Regarding Vitamin D and Risk of COVID-19 and Its Severity,” co-written with William Grant, Ph.D., and Dr. Carol Wagner, both of whom are part of the GrassrootsHealth expert vitamin D panel, was also published in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrients. You can read the paper for free on the journal’s website.

As noted in that paper, dark skin color, increased age, preexisting chronic conditions and vitamin D deficiency are all features of severe COVID disease and, of these, vitamin D deficiency is the only factor that is modifiable. As such, it would be foolish to ignore, especially since vitamin D supplements are readily available and low cost.

Vitamin D can reduce your risk of COVID-19 and other respiratory infections via several different mechanisms, including but not limited to the following, all of which are discussed in greater detail in our paper:9

Reducing the survival and replication of viruses10Reducing inflammatory cytokine productionMaintaining endothelial integrity (Endothelial dysfunction contributes to vascular inflammation and impaired blood clotting, two hallmarks of severe COVID-19)Increasing angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) concentrations.

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