Covid-19 Update: Vit. D Finally Making Headlines
Hello again friends:
If you have been following my blog, you know how vitally important it is to keep your Vitamin D levels in the optimal zone. Now there is mounting evidence that can no longer be ignored and finally the medical world is speaking out a bit more loudly. In an Op-Ed piece on MedPage Today, doctors plead “ Don’t Let Covid-19 Patients Die with a Vitamin D Deficiency”! (1) In another letter signed by over 100 medical physicians, the following compelling data is presented (2)
“Research shows low vitamin D levels almost certainly promote COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. Given its safety, we call for immediate widespread increased vitamin D intakes .
Vitamin D modulates thousands of genes and many aspects of immune function, both innate and adaptive. The scientific evidence 1 shows that:
- Higher vitamin D blood levels are associated with lower rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
- Higher D levels are associated with lower risk of a severe case (hospitalization, ICU, or death).
- Intervention studies (including RCTs) indicate that vitamin D can be a very effective treatment.
- Many papers reveal several biological mechanisms by which vitamin D influences COVID-19.
- Causal inference modelling, Hill’s criteria, the intervention studies & the biological mechanisms indicate that vitamin D’s influence on COVID-19 is very likely causal , not just correlation.
Evidence to date suggests the possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic sustains itself in large part through infection of those with low vitamin D, and that deaths are concentrated largely in those with deficiency. The mere possibility that this is so should compel urgent gathering of more vitamin D data. Even without more data, the preponderance of evidence indicates that increased vitamin D would help reduce infections, hospitalizations, ICU admissions, & deaths .
Decades of safety data show that vitamin D has very low risk: Toxicity would be extremely rare with the recommendations here. The risk of insufficient levels far outweighs any risk from levels that seem to provide most of the protection against COVID-19, and this is notably different from drugs. Vitamin D is much safer than steroids, such as dexamethasone, the most widely accepted treatment to have also demonstrated a large COVID-19 benefit. Vitamin D’s safety is more like that of face masks. There is no need to wait for further clinical trials to increase use of something so safe, especially when remedying high rates of deficiency/insufficiency should already be a priority .
Therefore, we call on all governments, doctors, and healthcare workers worldwide to immediately recommend and implement efforts appropriate to their adult populations to increase vitamin D, at least until the end of the pandemic. Specifically, to:
- Recommend amounts from all sources sufficient to achieve 25(OH)D serum levels over 30ng/ml (75nmol/L) , a widely endorsed minimum with evidence of reduced COVID-19 risk.
- Recommend to adults vitamin D intake of 4000 IU (100mcg) daily (or at least 2000 IU) in the absence of testing. 4000 IU is widely regarded as safe. 5
- Recommend that adults at increased risk of deficiency due to excess weight, dark skin, or living in care homesmay need higher intakes (eg, 2x). Testing can help to avoid levels too low or high.
- Recommend that adults not already receiving the above amounts get 10,000 IU (250mcg) daily for 2-3 weeks (or until achieving 30ng/ml if testing), followed by the daily amount above.This practice is widely regarded as safe. The body can synthesize more than this from sunlight under the right conditions (e.g., a summer day at the beach). Also, the NAM (US) and EFSA (Europe) both label this a “No Observed Adverse Effect Level” even as a daily maintenance intake.
- Measure 25(OH)D levels of all hospitalized COVID-19 patients & treat w/ calcifediol or D3, to at least remedy insufficiency <30ng/ml (75nmol/L), possibly with a protocol along the lines of Castillo et al ‘20 or Rastogi et al ’20 , until evidence supports a better protocol.
Many factors are known to predispose individuals to higher risk from exposure to SARS-CoV-2, such as age, being male, comorbidities, etc., but inadequate vitamin D is by far the most easily and quickly modifiable risk factor with abundant evidence to support a large effect . Vitamin D is inexpensive and has negligible risk compared to the considerable risk of COVID-19.
Please Act Immediately”
Bottom Line: I think it is obvious, so please take your Vitamin D, and for optimal utilization add magnesium and Vitamin K2.
- https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/90530?xid=nl_secondopinion_2021-01-05&eun=g1207968d0r
- https://vitamindforall.org/letter.html?utm_campaign=Chris%20Kresser%20General%20HCTP&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105290016&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–fc4mC4Bb4j5k8sdOxfA3XWt9rQXNpCUU1sEEJqFrNYXYoQcnv_nrVf_18dQcNu62loztOW_tLPI7RxqRGFP-KBQxlvA&utm_content=105290016&utm_source=hs_email
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