During the COVID pandemic, many experts theorized that boosting a person’s immune system through simple methods, like taking vitamins, could help fight the coronavirus. Even COVID White House advisor Anthony Fauci, MD, suggested taking certain supplements to boost your immune system in the midst of the pandemic. But a new study found that a highly regarded vitamin may not protect you from severe COVID as many expected. Read on to find out which vitamin has just been proven ineffective against a serious case of viruses, and for a way to stay protected from COVID, see why inhalation can reduce your serious COVID risk by 90 percent, the study concluded.
A new study outside Brazil published on February 17 in Journal of the American Medical Association debunked the idea that vitamin D will make a big difference for patients with COVID. The researchers reviewed the cases of 240 patients hospitalized with COVID who were not yet receiving ventilation or care in the ICU. They received a single dose of vitamin D or a placebo between June 2 and August 27. After observing how their cases progressed, the researchers found that the supplement had no significant effect in moderate to severe cases of coronavirus.
Both those who received vitamin D and those who did not report an average hospital stay of seven days, which means that the use of vitamin D as a treatment method for these patients does not appear to improve their disease. According to the study, there were no significant differences between groups in relation to death, ICU admission and need for a ventilator.
The results of the study “do not support the routine administration of vitamin D in hospitalized patients with moderate to severe COVID-19”, US doctors David Leaf, MD, and Adit Ginde, MD, wrote in a statement accompanying the study. And to find out more about what puts you at risk of having a serious case, if you’ve had this common illness, you’re more likely to die from COVID.
Although a single dose of vitamin D appears to have no positive effect on the progression of COVID cases in hospitalized patients, it also did not produce any negative side effects. According to the study, there were no adverse events reported after patients received a single high dose of vitamin D, only one case of vomiting.
However, in another study published in Open JAMA network on February 12, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic found that COVID patients who took high doses of vitamin C for 10 days reported gastrointestinal problems, such as nausea, diarrhea and stomach cramps. And for more information on treatments that appear to be working, check out This common drug can reduce the risk of death from COVID, the study says.
The Cleveland Clinic study involved 214 recovering COVID patients at home. The researchers assigned some of them to take high doses of zinc, vitamin C or both supplements at random for 10 days, while other patients were not instructed to take supplements and were told to rest, hydrate and take medications to reduce fever. However, the researchers saw “no significant difference” in reducing symptoms in those who took the supplements compared to those who did not. And to receive the most up-to-date COVID news directly in your inbox, subscribe to our daily newsletter.
Although vitamin D may not be an appropriate treatment for COVID, previous studies have concluded that being deficient in vitamin D can be harmful in the midst of the pandemic. A September study published in Journal of the American Medical Association found that those with vitamin D deficiencies were 77 percent more likely to test positive for COVID than those who had adequate levels of vitamin D. And an October study published in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that 82.2 percent of patients hospitalized with COVID were deficient in vitamin D and had lower levels of vitamin D than those who were not infected with the virus. And for another surprising factor that puts you at risk, make sure you did this recently, you are 70 percent more likely to get COVID.