Washington, Sep 9: Researchers at the University of Chicago (UChicago) Medicine have found an association between vitamin D deficiency and the likelihood of becoming infected with the coronavirus.
The researchers studied 489 COVID-19 patients whose vitamin D levels had been measured within a year before being contracting the disease. It was found that patients who had vitamin D deficiency, defined as less than 20 nanograms per milliliter of blood, that was not treated were almost twice as likely to test positive for COVID-19 compared to patients who had sufficient levels of the vitamin in their blood. Chief of Hospital Medicine at UChicago Medicine David Meltzer, who is also the lead author of the study highlighted the importance of Vit D for respiratory health “Vitamin D is important to the function of the immune system and vitamin D supplements have previously been shown to lower the risk of viral respiratory tract infections. Our statistical analysis suggests this may be true for the COVID-19 infection.”
Meltzer said that understanding the significance of Vit D in the context of COVID-19 can proove to be very important “Understanding whether treating vitamin D deficiency changes COVID-19 risk could be of great importance locally, nationally and globally, Vitamin D is inexpensive, generally very safe to take, and can be widely scaled.”
As per a report by Xinhua researchers are planning experimental studies to determine whether vitamin D supplementation can reduce the risk, and potentially severity, of COVID-19, as well as the need for studies of what strategies for vitamin D supplementation may be most appropriate in specific populations.
(AGENCIES)
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