Keeping your body's immune system running at full strength is imperative amid the global coronavirus pandemic, and vitamin D is an essential piece of that, according to Boston University researchers.
Among 235 admitted to the hospital with COVID-19, patients older than 40 were 51.5% less likely to die if they had at least 30 ng/mL of vitamin D in their system, according to their study.
"This study provides direct evidence that vitamin D sufficiency can reduce the complications, including the cytokine storm (release of too many proteins into the blood too quickly) and ultimately death from COVID-19," BU Dr. Michael F. Holick, the study's lead author, said, Forbes reported.
Holick also noted in another study, vitamin D not only provides better outcomes for those hospitalized with COVID-19, he also reported it can help patients avoid COVID-19 infection altogether – as the risk of catching the virus is reduced by 54% for those with adequate vitamin D levels – per the report.
"Because vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency is so widespread in children and adults in the United States and worldwide, especially in winter months, it is prudent for everyone to take a vitamin D supplement to reduce risk of being infected and having complications from COVID-19," Holick told Forbes.
This report highlights a notable change in advice from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
"If you are deficient in vitamin D, that does have an impact on your susceptibility to infection – so I would not mind recommending, and I do it myself, taking vitamin D supplements," Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sept. 10, per Forbes.
That came after the NIH issued a statement reading: "There are insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of vitamin D for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19."
Democrats have rebuked President Donald Trump for allegedly rejecting science, but even the scientists have been skeptical of the science as it relates to the global coronavirus pandemic.