Vitamin D reduces risk of death from covid | Research among unvaccinated covid patients
People who have not been vaccinated against corona and become seriously ill are more likely to survive if their vitamin D levels are not way too low. Irish health scientists discovered this. Their findings are also interesting for people who have been vaccinated, but whose vaccines are already starting to lose their effect.
Study
Robert Barrett, a researcher from Technological University Dublin, studied 232 unvaccinated Covid patients who were admitted to his hospital with pneumonia and who needed oxygen for a year.
Barrett measured the patients' vitamin D levels and monitored whether they survived their admission. Barrett followed them for a year.
Results
Age was 'the' factor when it came to covid survival.
The over-seventies, whether they had a relatively 'high' (these quotes are there for a reason) or a relatively low vitamin D level, were more likely to die than the under-70s. But on the other hand, a relatively 'high' - again those quotes - mirror also protected the over-seventies.
Barrett corrected his figures for the now known factors of gender, diabetes and overweight. Even after the correction, vitamin D still protected.
Mechanism unknown
The researchers had expected that a higher vitamin D level would help keep inflammatory factors such as CRP low. Because serious covid is accompanied by a series of inflammations, which in themselves have serious consequences, an anti-inflammatory effect of vitamin D could lower the risk of death in covid patients. However, in patients with a relatively 'high' vitamin D level, CRP was not significantly lower than in patients with a relatively low vitamin D level.
Conclusion
"The current data suggest that unvaccinated subjects, who become hospitalized with covid pneumonia, have increased mortality with increasing age and with lower serum 25(OH)D levels", writes Barrett.
"Vitamin D supplementation may play a vital role in protecting both unvaccinated patients and patients in whom the effect of vaccination wanes."
The latter is of course interesting for the vaccinated. The group of vaccinated people who are not or only slightly protected against Covid is, if you are to believe the recent studies, surprisingly large.
Source:
Nutrients 2022, 14, 3252.
People who have not been vaccinated against corona and become seriously ill are more likely to survive if their vitamin D levels are not way too low. Irish health scientists discovered this. Their findings are also interesting for people who have been vaccinated, but whose vaccines are already starting to lose their effect.
Study
Robert Barrett, a researcher from Technological University Dublin, studied 232 unvaccinated Covid patients who were admitted to his hospital with pneumonia and who needed oxygen for a year.
Barrett measured the patients' vitamin D levels and monitored whether they survived their admission. Barrett followed them for a year.
Results
Age was 'the' factor when it came to covid survival.
The over-seventies, whether they had a relatively 'high' (these quotes are there for a reason) or a relatively low vitamin D level, were more likely to die than the under-70s. But on the other hand, a relatively 'high' - again those quotes - mirror also protected the over-seventies.
Barrett corrected his figures for the now known factors of gender, diabetes and overweight. Even after the correction, vitamin D still protected.
Mechanism unknown
The researchers had expected that a higher vitamin D level would help keep inflammatory factors such as CRP low. Because serious covid is accompanied by a series of inflammations, which in themselves have serious consequences, an anti-inflammatory effect of vitamin D could lower the risk of death in covid patients. However, in patients with a relatively 'high' vitamin D level, CRP was not significantly lower than in patients with a relatively low vitamin D level.
Conclusion
"The current data suggest that unvaccinated subjects, who become hospitalized with covid pneumonia, have increased mortality with increasing age and with lower serum 25(OH)D levels", writes Barrett.
"Vitamin D supplementation may play a vital role in protecting both unvaccinated patients and patients in whom the effect of vaccination wanes."
The latter is of course interesting for the vaccinated. The group of vaccinated people who are not or only slightly protected against Covid is, if you are to believe the recent studies, surprisingly large.
Source:
Nutrients 2022, 14, 3252.
