More than 80% of Hospitalised Covid patients are deficient in vitamin D and those with lower levels spend longer in Hospital and have higher inflammatory markers, according to a study from Spain.
216 patients in Hospital were cross-referenced with 197 people (controls) in the general Spanish population. In the Hospitalised patients, vitamin D levels ranged from 6.6 to 21.0 with a mean of 13.8 ng/ml (= 34.5 nmol/L).
In the non-Covid-19 infected control group, vitamin D levels ranged from 13.5 to 28.3 with a mean of 20.9 ng/ml (= 52.5 nmol/L) or just over 50% higher.
Overall,
- Vitamin D deficiency was found in 82.7% of Covid Hospitalised patients but only 47.2% of the general population control.
- The lower the vitamin D levels, the higher the inflammatory markers – serum ferritin, troponin and D-dimer levels.
- The lower the Vitamin D levels the more likely were patients to have hypertension and cardiovascular problems.
- Lower Vitamin D levels were linked with longer length of stay in Hospital although no causal relationship was shown with severity of illness.
The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism and the research took place at the Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla.
Chris Woollams, a former Oxford University Biochemist said, “These results are totally in line with the 20 or more previous studies we have covered. People with levels of vitamin D below 20ng/ml or 50 nmol/L, depending on which measurement scale you use, are found in 80% of cancer diagnosis too. We covered previous research from South East Asia showing that if you had Covid and were below 50 nmol/L you were more likely to die; above 75 nmol/L you were more likely to shrug off the disease.
Vitamin D actually arms the attacking T-cells; and studies in the Lancet have shown it essential to supporting anti-viral systems in the body.
Go to: Vitamin D deficiency linked to Covid severity
It doesn’t help that there are two systems of measurement. This seems to confuse people in Hospitals. While researchers and scientists use ng/ml, Hospitals in the UK measure levels in nmol/L, which is 2.5 times higher!!
We have been telling people that a really healthy safe level is 125 nmol/L. This is the mean point of the figures recommended by the Endocrine Society, and expert Professor Holick who has researched this subject for over 25 years at Boston Medical School. Only recently the Clinical Professor of Harvard was quoting much the same figure.
It also doesn’t help that the NHS have recently backtracked on their recommendations.”
Go to: Vitamin D? Say out loud 1-2-5
Reference
- JCEM, Endocrine Society, 27 Oct 2020; Jose Hernand https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advancearticle/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgaa733/5934827
