Adequacy of vitamin D can reduce complications of Covid-19, including the risk of cytokine storms.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW YORK – Patients with levels vitamin D which is sufficient to say that they experienced fewer complications and died from Covid-19. This was revealed from the results of research published in the journal PLOS ONE,
Patient Covid-19 adequate hospitalization of vitamin D has significant power to lower the risk of adverse clinical outcomes and death. With 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in the blood of at least 30 ng / mL, people are considered sufficient vitamin D.
In addition, they have lower levels of inflammatory markers in the blood (C-reactive protein) and higher levels of lymphocytes in the blood. Lymphocytes are a type of immune cell to help fight infection.
“This study provides direct evidence that vitamin D adequacy can reduce complications, including cytokine storms (the release of too much protein into the blood too quickly) and ultimately death from Covid-19,” said study author Michael F Holick of Boston University in the US. Times Now News, Sunday (27/9).
To arrive at these findings, researchers took blood samples from 235 patients who were hospitalized with Covid-19 to measure vitamin D status (measured serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D). These patients were monitored for clinical outcomes, including clinical severity of infection, unconsciousness, difficulty breathing resulting in hypoxia (low oxygen levels), and death.
Blood was also analyzed for inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein) and lymphocyte count. The researchers then compared all of these parameters in patients who were deficient in vitamin D with those who had adequate vitamin D levels.
In patients over 40 years of age, they observed that patients with adequate vitamin D were 51.5 per cent less likely to die from infection than patients who were deficient in vitamin D. Holick believes that adequate vitamin D helps fight the consequences of infection, not only with the coronavirus but also other viruses that cause upper respiratory tract disease, including influenza.
“There is great concern that the combination of influenza infection and coronavirus infection could substantially increase hospitalizations and deaths as a result of complications from this viral infection,” said Holick.
Earlier this month, another study was published in the journal JAMA Network Open, revealed that vitamin D deficiency can increase the risk of contracting the new coronavirus.
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