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Coronavirus update: Global data suggests vitamin D deficiency in Covid patients, cause of severe complications including death.
Much of our understanding of coronavirus immunity comes from scientists and there is still little information about how the human immune system responds to coronavirus infection.
A team of researchers led by Northwestern University have discovered a compelling link between severe vitamin D deficiency and Covid deaths based on the novel coronavirus’s global data. The study published on medRxiv suggests vitamin D-deficient people are more likely to experience serious health complications including death, if infected.
The data obtained were from hospitals and clinics across 10 countries: China, France, Germany, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States.
While vitamin D is produced in the skin from UVB sunlight exposure, it is surprising that the study shows patients in sunny countries such as Spain and Northern Italy had high rates of vitamin D deficiency. These countries also experienced the highest infection and death rates in Europe. Data obtained from patients in countries with high COVID-19 mortality rates such as Spain, Italy and the UK showed levels of vitamin D lower than patients in countries that were not as severely affected.
‘Well, don’t start hoarding vitamin D supplements just yet’ was the message coming from Vadim Backman of Northwestern University 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.”
Backman has always taken a skeptical approach despite people putting age, healthcare quality, testing rates or other strains of the coronavirus as responsible for the mortality rate. His team took an interest in examining the vitamin D levels after differences in COVID-19 death rates from country to country remained unexplained. Backman says, “The healthcare system in northern Italy is one of the best in the world. Differences in mortality exist even if one looks across the same age group. And, while the restrictions on testing do indeed vary, the disparities in mortality still exist even when we looked at countries or populations for which similar testing rates apply.”
After analyzing patient data from around the globe, the research team found a strong correlation between vitamin D levels and cytokine storm — a hyper inflammatory condition caused by an overactive immune system — as well as a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and mortality.
