What do eggs, fish, the sun, and mushrooms all have in common? Vitamin D!

In a recent Op-Ed from MedPageToday the authors discussed the need to aggressively eliminate a huge mortality risk – Vitamin D deficiency.

With over 525,000+ people already dead from the COVID-19 the authors suggest there will be many more deaths before the vaccination effort takes hold.

They surveyed several clinical trials  and concluded the results showed that supplementation helped clear the virus faster at a whopping 63%!  The patients who received a fast acting Vitamin D3, only 2% needed to be admitted to ICU. 

They also noted that it takes the body some time to convert Vitamin D3 to an active form. 

In addition, since Vitamin D is fat-soluble, the body competes against fat tissue requiring higher doses in obesity (the average BMI in one study was 31.6). 

It is not common for practitioners to check for Vitamin D levels in COVID-19 in patients even though many prescribe at possible insufficient doses. 

There is a range of safety of taking different doses.  “Toxicity was not seen in people who reported taking doses as high as 20,000 IU per day, an amount roughly equivalent to what’s generated by an afternoon of summer sun on the skin.” 

The authors concluded that physicians should not wait for perfect evidence when making life-and-death decisions. “Given the safety profile of vitamin D, the 40% prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the U.S., and the fact that this season will likely be the deadliest phase of the pandemic to date, we need to act now. Identifying and eradicating vitamin D deficiency with early and aggressive supplementation in COVID-19 has the potential to save thousands of lives and should be one of our highest public health priorities.”

My personal recommendations are that you seek the advice of your health care practitioner about any changes in your health care. Given that I would suggest getting tested now to see what your Vitamin D levels are. Then take supplementation on a regular basis so that your body can adapt and convert the supplements. This study suggests anywhere from 4,000 IU to 10,000 IU per day with no observed adverse effects.

Don’t wait until you get COVID-19 symptoms to being your Vitamin D supplementation, do it now and do it right with a high quality grade product.