Does Vitamin D Help Against COVID?

Vitamin D does benefit the immune system in quite a number of ways.

For example, it…

• regulates immune responses and inflammation
  • See: The Effects of Vitamin D on Immune System and Inflammatory Diseases – PubMed
• influences T-cell activity and related immune balance
  • See: Immune Modulatory Effects of Vitamin D on Viral Infections
• modulates cytokines and inflammatory signalling
  • See: Vitamin D regulates cytokine patterns secreted by dendritic cells to promote differentiation of IL-22-producing T cells – PubMed
• acts more broadly on immune cells in general
  • See: Vitamin D and the Immune System

All that said and done, sometimes taking vitamin D can actually create problems:

The Mistake That Weakens Your Immunity: How Taking Vitamin D Supplements Can Sabotage Your Vitamin D Levels

But, it can be done right, so let’s assume you do it right, and…

So how about vs COVID?

Researchers (Dr. JoAnn Manson et al.) looked into this, and specifically tested whether high-dose vitamin D3 could reduce COVID severity or prevent infections in a large randomized trial, charmingly called the VIVID study.

What they did: participants (1,747 adults with COVID, plus 277 household contacts) took vitamin D3 at 9,600 IU per day for 2 days followed by 3,200 IU per day for 4 weeks, while the control group received a placebo.

As for the results:

• Did it reduce infection? No, it didn’t lower the risk of being infected for the household members.
• Did it reduce the severity? No, it didn’t reduce the severity, nor the number of healthcare visits, hospitalizations, or deaths.
• Did it have any benefit vs COVID? Yes, somewhat, maybe, when it came to the further-down-the-line symptoms, such as fatigue, shortness of breath, brain fog, and other long COVID symptoms.
  • Specifically, 21% of vitamin D users reported persistent symptoms at 8 weeks versus 25% in the placebo group.
    • You might be wondering how significant that difference is. Given the same size, the difference was borderline statistically significant, meaning it could represent a real effect but the evidence isn’t strong enough yet to confirm it.

Dr. Manson herself concluded that the trial found no benefit for acute COVID, but the long COVID symptom reduction is “promising” and should be tested in larger studies.

You can find the paper itself, here: A Randomized Trial of Vitamin D Supplementation and COVID-19 Clinical Outcomes and Long COVID: The Vitamin D for COVID-19 Trial

Want to try supplemental vitamin D3?

We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon 😎

But watch out with the doses, if supplementing vitamin D in either form, because…

Vit D + Calcium: Too Much Of A Good Thing? ← this also talks about safe and effective doses, and what goes wrong if you take too much

Want to learn more?

Check out:

What Can Be Done About Long COVID? ← scientists have found a possible cure, a procedure known as epipharyngeal abrasive therapy, which as enjoyable as it sounds, and is not yet proven to cure it completely (although to give it its due, the science so far really is promising)

Take care!