Study investigates connection
Does vitamin D prevent severe corona progression?
2/7/2022 12:02 p.m
Researchers have long suspected a connection between vitamin D and Covid-19. A new study from Israel now fuels this hypothesis. But can vitamin D actually prevent severe courses? Experts are skeptical.
What role does vitamin D deficiency play in corona infection? Since the beginning of the pandemic, this question has been hotly debated in the scientific world. Early on, researchers found evidence of a connection. Since then, there have been increasing numbers of scientifically unfounded tips on the Internet as to how vitamin D supplements might prevent infections and severe courses. A new study from Israel now fuels the assumptions. However, the scientists are much more cautious when it comes to the question of causality.
For the study, a team of researchers from Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv and the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya analyzed the Covid histories of 1,176 patients who were hospitalized with Covid-19 between April 2020 and February 2021. The patients were classified by the researchers according to vitamin D status and the severity of the disease. For 253 of the nearly 1,200 patients, the researchers had older data in some cases.
The result: The team found lower vitamin D levels more often in patients who were seriously ill with Covid. The scientists write that the probability of a severe course is 14 times higher in people who have a vitamin D deficiency than in those who do not suffer from a deficiency symptom. It is also striking that the mortality rate in patients with sufficient vitamin D levels was just over 2 percent, while it was more than 25 percent in the group with vitamin D deficiency.
The study states that a patient’s vitamin D status can be an indicator of how severely he or she might develop a Covid infection. However, the researchers do not speak of causality, i.e. that in this case a vitamin D deficiency is the cause of a more severe course. They emphasize that there is only talk of a correlation, i.e. a connection. Nevertheless: “Our results suggest that it is advisable to maintain normal vitamin D levels. It benefits those who contract the virus,” says study author Amiel Dror.
Overdose can be harmful
However, the researcher’s statement is not a surprise, he writes “Spiegel”. “Since vitamin D has an important function for normal immune function, it is plausible that a vitamin D deficiency favors severe courses. However, this retrospective observational study cannot prove such a causality for methodological reasons,” said Martin Smollich from the Institute for Nutritional Medicine of the Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital in Lübeck.
Basically, a poor vitamin D level is considered an indicator of many different health problems. People with obesity or chronic metabolic diseases are more likely to have a deficiency. These health problems are already risk factors for a severe course of the corona virus. “The fact that these people get more seriously ill than others is probably not due to the vitamin D status, but to the underlying increased health risk,” explains Smollich.
Anyone who suffers from a vitamin D deficiency should always correct it. However, the expert advises once morest taking it prophylactically. “As genetic analyzes show, the additional gift beyond that has no health advantage,” Smollich told the “Spiegel”. Too much vitamin D via supplements, medication or specially fortified foods can even have negative effects and affect the metabolism of other important substances, such as calcium. For basically healthy, mobile people, the following applies: The best way to fill up the vitamin D store is through sunlight and a balanced diet.
