Can Vitamin D Help Reduce COVID-19 Risks? - Yahoo Lifestyle

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, there’s been an increased interest in finding safe ways to boost your immunity and look after your health (with the hopes that it’ll be able to reduce the risk of getting sick or reduce the complications should you get sick).

While mask-wearing, good hand-washing hygiene and practicing smart social distancing where possible are the go-to moves for keeping yourself and your family safe, a new study says that making sure your vitamin D levels are where they should be might be connected to better health outcomes in COVID-19 patients.

Looking at blood samples from 235 patients and the outcomes from their treatment, the researchers found that patients with blood level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D of at least 30 ng/mL were less likely to experience hypoxia (body starved for oxygen), becoming unconscious or dying from the illness.

The researchers noted that in patients older than 40, patients who had these levels of vitamin D were 51.5 percent less likely to die from virus complications.

“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,” author Michael F.

Holick said he hopes this information plays into strategies for a pandemic-era cold and flu season (which is anticipated to have concerning outcomes for individuals experiencing influenza and COVID-19): “There is great concern that the combination of an influenza infection and a coronal viral infection could substantially increase hospitalizations and death due to complications from these viral infections…Because vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency is so widespread in children and adults in the United States and worldwide, especially in the 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.”.

While vitamin D has many health benefits, it is a fat soluble vitamin, meaning that is stays in the body for much longer than other types of vitamins, so it is possible to take too much.”?

Without enough vitamin D, your body is unable to absorb calcium properly.

A new New England Journal of Medicine commentary theorizes that universal face mask use could possibly generate some immunity against the virus.

Vitamin K is an essential vitamin for blood clotting, bone health, and heart health.

While the world anxiously awaits the development of a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine, you're hopefully already following the CDC's recommendation to wear a face mask in order to prevent the spread of respiratory droplets to others?

Children at least 2 years of age should wear a face mask because they can contract and spread COVID-19 just like adults.