I was inspired to write this blog post on the question of whether Vitamin D has any association with the boosting of the immune system after listening to a great lesson taught by Dr.Roger Seheult on his YouTube channel on the subject. It was exciting to think that not only do we have vaccines that work to prevent serious illness and death, but we may be able to build our bodies’ immunities to a high enough level to prevent us from ever being Covid-19 cases at all.

Once we begin to believe that we can protect ourselves from the virus by a daily boosting regime of Vitamin D and Zinc, the panic and desperation around vaccines reduce dramatically.  Hope is regenerated in our minds by the prospect of “normal ” re-entering our lives.  So, you can see where the excitement behind all of this came from, I hope.  This protection lies in our own hands.  We are in control of taking Vitamin D or not. We are not dependent on anyone else finding new compounds, testing them, or getting them to us.  This is an opportunity that we can take or leave and live, or not, with our decision.

The Prevention of Covid-19 Hospitalizations and Death by avoiding Vitamin D Deficiency

There have been numerous studies carried out in various countries showing that the risk of hospitalization and death in Covid-19 patients is significantly lowered in older adults when Vitamin D levels are not deficient. This information gives rise to many questions and we can try to answer them in a non-statistical format here.

Firstly, studies like this have been done over the years as healthy Vitamin D levels showed an association with the lower incidence of some respiratory diseases in pre-Covid -19 times. It may cause us to ask a curious question about an association with Covid-19, but, in itself, is no reason for any kind of optimism till we see what has resulted from the new studies.

What we know about Vitamin D is that:

• unlike the other vitamins, it is a steroid hormone and it is fat-soluble, as opposed to water-soluble.
• UVB rays from the sun have exactly the right amount of energy to carry out the chemical reaction which changes Vitamin D to 25, Hydroxy Vitamin D3.
• This compound is the immune system booster and it is why Vitamin D is called the Sunshine Vitamin.
• Fish oil and certain types of mushrooms are sources of Vitamin D, but Vitamin D can also be taken as a vitamin supplement.
• One of the most compelling studies measured levels of 25, Hydroxy Vitamin D3 before the patients were ill with Sars CoV-2 against the numbers of those patients who became ill with the disease, within the same short time frame.
• An inverse relationship was established showing the lower the Vitamin D levels the higher the risk of the patient falling ill with Sars Cov-2(Covid-19)
• This particular study showed that people whose Vitamin D level was low (below 50ng mol-1) for reasons of geography, age, gender and race were all subject to the same risk pattern.
• The same association was also apparent in patients whose Vitamin D levels were low and they suffered from hypertension and/or diabetes.

You can see from some of this statistical analysis, which we have alluded to, but barely even touched on, when researchers carry out a study of studies, a meta-analysis. The studies come together to make a big picture and the data begins to fit together to make sense.

We know we are on the way to the full story when we can predict outcomes correctly, rather than memorizing results of previously carried out experiments and settling for what we can do with those.