Vitamin D is recognized as an important co-factor in several physiological processes linked with bone and calcium metabolism, and also in diverse non-skeletal outcomes, including autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cognitive decline, and infections. In particular, the pronounced impact of vitamin D metabolites on the immune system response, and on the development of COVID-19 infection by the novel SARS CoV-2 virus, has been previously described in a few studies worldwide.
The collaborative group of scientists from the Leumit Health Services (LHS) and the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University aimed to determine associations of low plasma 25(OH)D with the risk of COVID-19 infection and hospitalization. Using the real-world data and Israeli cohort of 782 COVID-19 positive patients and 7,025 COVID-19 negative patients, the groups identified that low plasma vitamin D level appears to be an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection and hospitalization. The research was just published in The FEBS Journal.
The early pandemic outbreak in low sunlight countries (far away from the equator, Europe) lead to the speculation of vitamin D's role. However, now the equatorial countries (Brazil and India) are at the epicenter of the pandemic. Nevertheless, the world is not ready to discard the theory of vitamin D deficiency.
As the body is working overtime to fight infection, the decline of Vitamin D might be a consequence rather than the cause.
The Urban-rural difference in infectivity can also be easily attributed to vitamin D (time spent outdoor) deficiency than the population density.
The people of those countries have a darker skins. I would put down to the amount of time spent indoors now or wearing clothes. Nature has evolved with us as spending a large amount of time spent in the sun, outside, over many thousand s of years as hunter gatherers. We have rapidly become civilized, spending more time without exposure to the sun on the skin and the evolution of our bodies has not had time to compensate for this.
There have been loads of research projects into the role of Vit.D and Covid. Most are rather small and as far as I am aware from a recently read round-up of these, the jury is still out. However no harm taking Vit. D supplement so long as its not too high a dose.
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