Can Vitamin D help in the fight against Covid-19?

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, many supplements have been said to be good against coronavirus disease. Almost all of these were commercial claims lacking a scientific basis. In this environment where many supplements are tried in treatments, some scientific studies have proven that only vitamin D can be useful at a certain level. Although vitamin D is not a definitive treatment for Covid-19 disease, it has become clear that it can be one of the tools that strengthen our hands to overcome this disease.

It was first stated by researchers in China that vitamin D can be used in the treatment of Covid-19. Many researchers have tried many vitamin and mineral supplements for this disease control. These included iron, omega fatty acids, zinc and vitamin varieties. Throughout history, it has been proven that some supplementary vitamins and minerals can be specifically useful in some diseases.

For example, we know that vitamin A prevents viruses that cause measles from multiplying themselves. Vitamin A also strengthens the immune system against diseases. Probably makes it easier for them to fight viruses by strengthening our healthy cells. Vitamin E can also provide similar protections.

But the most promising results came from vitamin D studies. Vitamin D is not really a vitamin like the others. It is more of a hormone than a nutrient. It does not exist spontaneously in our normal food consumption chain. Foods such as milk and cereal equipped with vitamin D actually contain a synthetic form of vitamin D. If it turns him into a hormone, which is good for us, it is our body. In doing so, we need sunlight.

People had enough vitamin D levels before we crammed our lives into huge buildings in cities and locked up in confined spaces. Today, vitamin D deficiency is an important problem because we live in too many enclosed environments, although daily exposure to a certain level of sunlight is enough. When we look at the groups of people most affected by coronavirus, the importance of vitamin D manifests itself: Those who have to live and work in the home (housewives, elderly people), those who have to live in hospitals and nursing homes, such as those in prisons… There are significant statistical results between low levels of vitamin D in the blood and Covid-19 deaths in studies conducted in this connection.

Vitamin D is a hormone that has made its reputation for its role in bone health. However, it is also known to strengthen our immune system. It has a significant effect on the maturation of white blood cells that collide with antigens (bacteria and viruses) in the front line. Low levels of vitamin D are a common condition in patients with respiratory failure.

Vitamin D not only strengthens our immune system, but also prevents it from overreacting. It blocks the emergence of a condition called "cytokine hurricane", which leads to organ failure as a result of overreactive immune system responses, one of the important causes of Covid-19 deaths.

Due to the supportive role of vitamin D in Covid-19 disease, daily intake up to a certain dose is recommended by experts. Everyone needs to take a certain amount of vitamin D daily and be exposed to sunlight. However, it is necessary to make sure that the dose is not exceeded. In addition, using vitamin D alone will not protect anyone from Covid-19 disease. Other measures should be applied with it.