A Person’s Vitamin D Levels Might Be the Key to Their COVID Outcome

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A new study from researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel has found that pre-infection vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased COVID severity and mortality.

Some highlights:

The researchers analyzed the health records of 1,176 COVID patients at the Galilee Medical Center in Israel, measuring the patients’ vitamin D levels two weeks to two years prior to infection.

According to the researchers, people with vitamin D deficiency (less than 20 ng/mL) were 14 times more likely to have a severe or critical case of COVID than those with 40 ng/Ml or more.

The mortality rate among the two groups was also “strikingly” different. According to the researchers, mortality among patients with sufficient vitamin D was 2.3%, compared to 25.6% among the vitamin D-deficient group.

The researchers say their findings add to the COVID-era body of evidence that supports vitamin D supplementation on a regular basis, calling a patient’s vitamin D deficiency a “predictive factor” associated with poorer COVID outcomes.

A couple notes:

According to the researchers, doctors began recommending vitamin D supplementation early on in the pandemic as it’s known to promote immune response and potentially protect from COVID.

The present study was the first to examine vitamin D levels prior to infection, providing “a more accurate assessment than during hospitalization,” though it’s still unclear why certain people suffer worse COVID outcomes than others.