A few years back, respiratory physician Adrian Martineau of Queen Mary University of London and colleagues analyzed data from about 11,000 participants in 25 trials that tested the effect of vitamin D supplementation on the risk of contracting an acute respiratory tract infection such as influenza. They determined that taking a daily or weekly dose of vitamin D was protective against infections and safe overall. People with the lowest starting vitamin D levels benefitted the most from supplementation.
When David Meltzer, an internist and economist at the University of Chicago, saw that analysis earlier this year, he decided to look into a possible connection between vitamin D and COVID-19. There was good reason to do so. Groups who are often low in vitamin D—such as African Americans, who tend to have darker skin in which higher melanin levels limit UV rays from fueling vitamin D production, and the elderly—were being hit especially hard by the disease. Meltzer and his colleagues went back through the medical records of people who had been tested for COVID-19 in Chicago between March 3 and April 10 and measured the relationship between vitamin D levels in the past year and positive tests. “The people who were vitamin D deficient were dramatically more likely to have COVID than the people who weren’t vitamin D deficient,” says Meltzer, who, along with his coauthors, published the results as a preprint on medRxiv in May.
Good link again 2greys so another "thank you" is in order. My son and I both take a vit D pill a day but I'm going to research how much we should take ........ too little and it's not effective and too much and our bodies just wee-wee it away! 🐿🌈.
Thanks 2gs, I have been taking Vit D3 and K2 since another of your (?) highlighted articles at the beginning of this all. Difficult to tell if it's helping but neither am I dead yet!! xx
I have been taking Vitamin D (5000 iu's) and K2 daily for for more than 10 years. I don't know if it's made a difference, but I haven't had flu at all in that time (I don't have the jab), and have had pneumonia once. Being asthmatic, I used to get numerous chest infections, pneumonia and pleurisy, and my asthma has certainly gotten better over this time span. I also made the move from Leicester down to Devon, so this may have had a beneficial effect, although I still live close to the A38. I know I get plenty of sun exposure in the summer as we have an allotment, but I take the vitamin D year round.
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but neither am I dead yet!! xx
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