We know that vitamin D plays an important role in the overall health and its deficiency leads to many diseases. Now researchers point out that vitamin D plays a significant role in protection from coronavirus too.
Researchers have found that patients from countries with high-mortality had lower levels of vitamin D compared to those in countries with less mortality rates.
Led by Northwestern University, the research team found this strong corelation between between severe vitamin D deficiency and mortality rates, based on the global data from hospitals and clinics across China, France, Germany, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States.
The researchers found that patients from countries with high coronavirus mortality rates, such as Italy, Spain and the UK, had lower levels of vitamin D compared to patients in countries that were not as severely affected.
“While I think it is important for people to know that vitamin D deficiency might play a role in mortality, we don’t need to push vitamin D on everybody,” said Northwestern’s Vadim Backman, who led the research. “This needs further study, and I hope our work will stimulate interest in this area. The data also may illuminate the mechanism of mortality, which, if proven, could lead to new therapeutic targets.”
The research team was inspired to examine vitamin D levels after noticing unexplained differences in COVID-19 mortality rates from country to country.
